Mere Rhetoric: Beit Hanoun Meme Watch - (7) "Palestinian Unity (Government / Suicide Bombings / Whatever) Is Israel's Fault"

MR's SERIES ON MEDIA COVERAGE OF BEIT HANOUN
(Intro) Beit Hanoun Meme Watch
(1) "Rage and Tears" - Apparently Theats Of Genocide Are OK If You're Really Upset
(2) "The Palestinians Are Really Pissed Off" - And The NYT Will Publish Death Porn To Prove It
(3) Stupid Headline Tricks - Hey Listen, Calling It A "Massacre" Is Still Bias, Even If You Think You're Being Clever By Quoting Someone
(4) "The al-Athamnah Family" - If You Make The Tragedy Seem Really Personal, Then People Will Really Get Outraged
(Interlude) Convergence of Bias - With This Simple Formula, You Too Can Produce Solid Anti-Israel Journalism
(5) "World Indifference" - We Learned About That Indifference From Every Major Newspaper On The Planet
(6) "Israelis Demoralized and Blaming Themselves" - Actually, No They're Not
(7) "Palestinian Unity (Government / Suicide Bombings / Whatever) Is Israel's Fault" - LIARS
(8) "Israeli Terrorism" - Want To Guess Who Reuters Is Willing To Label A Terrorist?
(9) "It's All About Olmert's Domestic Political Situation" - Predictable Bias Is Real Bias

ORIGINAL POST

Unapologetic, shameless liars. They really just making it up as they go along.

Financial Times headline and meme:

Palestinians show renewed consensus after Gaza killings. Rival Palestinian factions on Thursday resumed talks on a national unity government, showing renewed consensus as tens of thousands joined a mass funeral for the 18 civilians killed by Israeli shelling in the Gaza Strip a day earlier.

AP headline and lede:

Fatah, Hamas Leaders Resume Talks. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas' exiled leader Khaled Mashaal spoke to each other for the first time in months Thursday in what officials said was a sign that the rivals are close to forming a coalition government.

Not even a single shred of shame. Check out the dates:

To quote Ms. Coulter, talking to liberals is much more fun now that we have Lexis-Nexis. Ditto for Google News.

But don't let that distract you. Because, you see, the story is kind of true in a very meta-sense. The Palestinians have found a renewed sense of unity and purpose. They're now all back to agreeing that mass murder is totally awesome:

Hamas hardliners are now calling on their fighters to join Islamic Jihad in stepping up attacks on Israeli targets. This raises the spectre of resumed suicide bombings. Divisions over a response to Beit Hanoun have also undercut efforts by Fatah and Hamas moderates to create a national unity government with which Israel might deal.

So everywhere, the news is that the accident has ushered in a new age of Palestinian unity. The problem is that the only place where it's true is about Palestinian unity regarding suicide bombings - and there's really only so many times (two or three weeks, max) where you can remind people that the Palestinians solve their problems with suicide bombings. So how do you emphasize that Israel's mis-targeting caused Palestinian unity without mentioning that it's "unity" over genocide? Easy: find something else that Beit Hanoun caused unity about.

These stories choose to transmit the new-found sense of Israeli-caused unity in the context of government negotiations. Now you might think that this would be a problem for them, since that's "actually true" or "how history worked" or "something that makes sense". In the real world, the tragedy caused Hamas to suspend unity talks, not resume tem. Implying the otherwise is "a lie".

But if you look very carefully, you'll notice that the writers don't ACTUALLY write that the attack led to the unity talks. They just make a headline that says "Palestinians show renewed consensus after Gaza killings" - two definitely true things. They didn't force you to think that one thing was the cause of the other. It's just that you let the universal structure of grammar and language trick you into assuming cause and effect between two events that are described as being one right after the other. It's not the headline writer's fault you were sloppy, so don't go talking about bias or anything. If you've got complaints, address them with whatever deity, teleological force, or evolutionary dynamic you think created language and grammar.

Previously:
Why Everyone Knows That "Contacts Aimed at Moderating Hamas" Are a Joke and How Russia Doesn't Care,
The Less Than Compelling "Hamas Wasn't Elected Because of the Whole Palestinians Hate Jews Thing" Argument, Tell Us, President Abbas, How Can We Help You Today?