Washington Post: “Bee Stings on the Israeli Bear’s Behind”
November 25, 2012 13:37 by Simon Plosker
Let’s be clear: Palestinian rockets from Gaza are intended to kill and have the ability to kill.
Writing primarily on how and why the Washington Post decided to include a photograph of a grieving Palestinian father holding a dead baby on its front page, ombudsman Patrick Pexton includes the following:
I think we can all agree that the Gaza rocket fire is reprehensible and is aimed at terrorizing Israeli civilians. It’s disruptive and traumatic. But let’s be clear: The overwhelming majority of rockets fired from Gaza are like bee stings on the Israeli bear’s behind.
These rockets are unguided and erratic, and they carry very small explosive payloads; they generally fall in open areas, causing little damage and fewer injuries.
Pexton just doesn’t get it. Considering that he appears to be concerned with loss of human life, why then does Pexton downplay the intended effect of Palestinian rockets almost the point of ridicule? After all, were it not for the extensive defensive measures Israel has taken to defend its population, there would be a far greater number of dead Israelis.
Send your considered comments to the Washington Post - letters@washpost.com.
Image: CC BY-SA HonestReporting.com, flickr/vfsdigitaldesign.
Lill the Swiss
2:30 pm
Nov 25, 2012
This article is shameful. Who are you to decide what damage this rockets terror has been inflicting in more than 1.5 million civilians? Would you accept it in Washington DC or in any other US city? Why does Hamas, a terror organization use all the money, sent from tax payers in Europe, and which is intended for civilian projects, on weaponry?
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Rick Geiger
2:33 pm
Nov 25, 2012
The WAPO is supportive of the people trying to de-legitimize a Jewish Israel. Look at their stories, when they state where the story is from and it is from Jerusalem, they just state Jerusalem, but in all other stories where they cite the location in the header of the story they state the name of the city and the country. The WAPO is racist against the Jews and has been for many years
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Leonard Kahn
6:52 pm
Nov 25, 2012
After the cease fire , Hamas struck Israel with more rockets, now a ship from Iran is on it’s way with more rockets for Hamas. According to the cease fire agreement , I srael can not strike back but can complain to the great Egypian peace maker Marci. Good luck ??It seems once again Israel has won the war and as usual, maraculously managed, to loss yet another negotiation.
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Michael Gutman
7:31 pm
Nov 25, 2012
Mr. Pexton would you be so non chalant about rockets if your enemy had launched them and they just landed in your backyard rather than through your roof?
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Morsi Power Grab Sparks Egyptian Unrest | Blogs about Israel aggregation
8:29 pm
Nov 25, 2012
[...] • Patrick Pexton, the Washington Post’s reader’s editor, weighed in on the front page photo of Jehad Mashhrawi holding his dead baby. I don’t disagree with his point that a photo only tells part of the story. But then he went off on a tangent about Gaza rockets that Simon Plosker blogged. See Bee Stings in the Israeli Bear’s Behind. [...]
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Melka Goleczynski
11:00 pm
Nov 25, 2012
An important point that P. Pexton conveniently avoids mentioning is that those racket are targeting civilian Israeli population, their aim is to kill Israelis, women, men and children.
When the news reached Gaza that they hit an apartment building and killed several Israelis, people in Gaza celebrated!
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E Rubinstein
12:44 am
Nov 26, 2012
The rockets from gaza are not toys they are meant to kill Israelis without a doubt,
.
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Alfred Neuman
7:37 am
Nov 26, 2012
“Let’s be clear” indeed Mr. Paxton. Your comments are so absurd and distorted as to be ridiculous. I would ask the author one question: Name one country in the world which would consider the firing of 1000 rockets/yr. for several yrs., regardless of how efficient they are or aren’t at achieving their desired goal of murdering civilians, which would tolerate these attacks on their country.
This guy Paxton’s attempts at trivializing these rocket attacks are so distorted and stupid, so totally divorced from truth, that one can only assume he’s totally consumed by antiIslrael and antiSemitic racism.
In other words, a total asshole.
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ger
1:38 pm
Nov 27, 2012
Are we all holding our breath until Paxton writes an asinine, insincere apology? “I didn’t mean to imply that they’re harmless” or “I know 3 people were killed by one of those ‘bee stings’, but they were only Jews”, or perhaps, “Gee, what’s the big deal? Some of my best friends are Jews”.
Coming soon in the next few days.
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Washington Post: “Bee Stings on the Israeli Bear’s Behind” | Blogs about Israel aggregation
4:28 pm
Nov 27, 2012
[...] article can be viewed at Washington Post: “Bee Stings on the Israeli Bear’s Behind” on [...]
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David
5:03 pm
Nov 27, 2012
If he or one of his children were killed by one of the “bee stings” I think his point of view might be different. Or perhaps if he merely had to run incessantly to a bomb shelter on a daily basis. Big talkers are usually big cowards.
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Judy
5:24 pm
Nov 27, 2012
The best possible response to the Washington Post editorial should be written by one of the thousands of school children who have 15 seconds to take cover, 8 times a day, 7 days a week. Maybe a personal letter from one of those affected by the ceaseless rocket fire would move his stoney heart.
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Asher
5:50 pm
Nov 27, 2012
Let’s do the North American test: If you had a child in a town near Gaza, how much would you pay in Insurance to guarantee their safety?
If you had a seven year old child would you allow them to walk home unattended (in US/Canada) for more than a few blocks? Statistically the odds are similar.
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Shira
7:07 pm
Nov 27, 2012
We can be sure that Pexton and his staff won’t be emotionally moved by pictures of the girl stabbed in the face by a Gaza terrorist early Monday morning when he broke into their Israeli home. Nor by photos of the mother of two stabbed in the face as she fought the same Gazan man who later broke into her house while she was sleeping. If she wasn’t trained in Krav Maga and saved by the grace of God, she and her two children may have been murdered by the Gazan terrorist. Gazans are crossing the security fence OPENLY and woefully attempting to murder children, mothers, and old people. Yes, there is a cease fire, but the Gaza terrorist butchers on the prowl.
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Robert Shore
7:15 pm
Nov 27, 2012
Some people are alergic to bee stings and die from them. If I have a bees nest near my home I get rid of it. How dangerous was the Talaban they to have limited wepons compared to the U.S.
yet they were tarketed why? becouse they attacked the U.S. What would happen to Cuba if it launched small rockets at Flordia, I think Cuba would be a desert Island in short order, goverment, army civillians babbies and yes media personel would all be lost.
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Sylvie Schapira
7:23 pm
Nov 27, 2012
The sheer arrogance and blatant dismissal of Jews comes through Pexton’s article. Insulting to the traumatized people of southern Israel does not sum it up. There is a hierarchy of suffering in the world, with the Palestinians always at the top. The Syrians? Africans fleeing their homes and having their organs cut out, when they are trying to get to Israel? Forget it. They don’t get a look in. And as for Jews….well, according to Pexton Jews don’t count. Simplistic antisemitism is probably the best way to describe it. I think that the punishment for this inhumane man is to send him to Sderot for a month and see how he feels then when he hears the screams of traumatized children.
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Jake in Jerusalem
7:37 pm
Nov 27, 2012
If only the final consequences are important, then shooting in public would be OK if no one actually gets killed and writing nasty, threatening things about the POTUS would be OK and the Secret Service wouldn’t bother investigating. Of course, shooting in public or threatening the POTUS WILL result in serious charges and long prison terms. Pexton and the WaPo are just hypocrites when it comes to Israel, that’s all.
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Stephen
8:07 pm
Nov 27, 2012
What next from the WaPo? Concentration camps were good in that they provided Jews with room and board in exchange for a little work?
The “home made” rockets, actually made in factories, have 10 kg (22 lbs) of explosive. Not so much a bee’s sting. The larger rockets have exponentially larger payloads. True, they don’t have precision targeting systems, but when you fire off thousands at a village, town, city, or country, someone will be killed. If it weren’t for Iron Dome, would Pexton be so blasé about the deaths? Does he understand that it is not a matter of numbers dead but numbers of rockets and mortars fired?
Talking about fired, he should be, or at least he should resign.
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Wobbletwig
8:32 pm
Nov 27, 2012
Perhaps Mr. Paxton needs one of these inaccurate rockets with a small pay load in his nomular cavity. Then he could really judge how ineffective the are.
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Anatoly Tsaliovich
8:35 pm
Nov 27, 2012
Reading Mr. Pexton’s revelations, it is difficult not to think about the intellectual level of this “thinker”: looks like the “Israeli Bear’s Behind” contains more brains than Mr. Pexton together with his bosses at the Washington Post.
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