Probably not worth a full post but an elegant example of deeply entrenched anti-Israel media bias. Here’s the AFP report on those Hamas missiles that misfired on Friday and killed two Palestinian schoolgirls:
The spectre of a military invasion on Friday hung over Hamas-run Gaza Strip where two children were killed as Palestinian militants fired more rockets despite Israeli threats of harsh retaliation. Two girls, one aged five and the other 12, were killed when their house in northern Gaza was hit by a rocket which witnesses said was apparently fired by Palestinian militants targeting southern Israel. Four other family members were wounded.
No mention of who killed the girls in the lede – where 95% of people stop reading – and then a “skeptically” in the next paragraph just for emphasis. The story then shifts to a discussion of the impending Israeli invasion. Now here’s the AFP writeup on Israel’s retaliatory strikes:
Israeli warplanes hammered Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip on Saturday in retaliation for rocket fire, killing at least 228 people in one of the bloodiest days of the decades-long Middle East conflict. Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak said “Operation Cast Lead” against the Islamist movement, which has also left some 700 wounded, will continue “as long as necessary. “The battle will be long and difficult, but the time has come to act and to fight,” he said. Exiled Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal called in Damascus for a new Palestinian intifada, or uprising, against Israel and promised new suicide attacks. Following mid-morning bombings, in which some 60 warplanes struck more than 50 targets in just a few minutes, Hamas fired more than 70 rockets and mortars into Israel killing one person and injuring four, according to a new Israeli army toll.
Two points for mentioning that it was in retaliation to rocket fire. Several dozen points off, though, for having been circumspect to the point of obscurity about that rocket fire over the last few years.
References:
* Gaza braces for Israeli offensive [AFP]
* At least 228 die as Israel hammers Hamas-run Gaza [AFP]
Previously:
* Media Consensus Forming: Israeli West Bank Ops Violate Gaza Ceasefire (Plus: Palestinians Shot West Bank Israelis On Day 2)
* Hamas Fires Rockets At Israeli Schools And Hospitals, Breaks Only Part Of Truce That They Hadn’t Already Broken
* AFP: Hamas Is "Merciful", "The New Face Of Law And Order"
