The full headline – describing the counterterrorism raid against the murderers of Meir Chai – is “3 Fatah activists killed in Israeli raid.” It got picked up by WaPo with exactly that wording and by FOX News as “Israeli Troops Kill 3 Palestinian Activists.” FOX has since changed their headline – Google cache has the original – to highlight the three additional Palestinians killed trying to infiltrate from Gaza.
Original AP story:
Israeli soldiers on Saturday shot dead three Palestinians who the military says were involved in a roadside ambush that killed an Israeli settler earlier in the week. The operation in the West Bank city of Nablus targeted three activists of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah movement. Palestinian witnesses said troops, many of them masked, opened fire while storming the homes of the men.
“Many of them masked,” of course, is exactly the kind of detail that experienced anti-Israel agitators like Mohammed Daraghmeh – 5 years and running – know to include. Mere anti-Israel hobbyists take note. It’s not enough to write biased headlines and throw in caveats like “the military says.” You’ve also got to make Israeli Jews look dark and menacing.
One of the terrorists tried to use his wife as human shield during the raid. But for the skill of the IDF the headlines would have been about the poor wife and mother who got murdered by Israeli stormtroopers. Cf. the human shields who barricade themselves inside Hamas strongholds. Or in Reuters’s parlance, “protesters.”
References and related after the jump…
References:
* 3 Fatah activists killed in Israeli raid [AP]
* 3 Fatah activists killed in Israeli raid [WaPo]
* Six Palestinians Killed In Israeli Raids Year After War Ends [FOX News]
* Compare and Contrast II [MR]
* Israel kills 3 in West Bank raids [AP]
* Reuters Anti-Israel Absurdity Watch – “Being A Human Shield” Is A “Protest” [MR]
Related Mere Rhetoric Categories:
* Media Bias
* Anti-Israel Journalism
* Palestinians
