The residents of Sderot continue to play “Qassam roulette” as dozens of missiles rain down on the beleagured Israeli town. That there have not been more casualties and deaths has been more down to luck than lack of muderous intent on the part of Palestinian terrorists. Tragically, luck ran out for 32 year-old Shirel Feldman, who was killed, and another man moderately injured Monday evening as a Qassam rocket hit a car at a commercial center.
It is clear that Sderot’s inhabitants are living in constant fear. What is less clear is the fine line between superficial damage and the potential for a mass casualty event caused by what the media have been only too willing to term “homemade rockets”. Click on the image above to see how mere seconds and inches prevented a catastrophe at a Sderot gas station struck by a Qassam.
SLANTED COVERAGE
Meanwhile, British commentator Stephen Pollard comments on the BBC’s coverage:
“How the BBC’s journalists must have missed not being able to distort the situation in Gaza over the past few months. How they must be relieved to have the opportunity once more.
Here’s how its website reported the IDF strike on Gaza:
Israel resumed airstrikes on Gaza on Tuesday after a six-month lull. It followed several rocket attacks on Israel.
Several? Several?”
The Wall Street Journal’s OpinionJournal also comments on an AFP wire service piece picked up by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation:
‘Israel Continues Air Raids Despite New Gaza Truce’
That’s the headline on the Australian Broadcast Corp.’s Web site, leading the reader to believe that Israel is violating a truce. But it turns out Israel isn’t a party to the truce at all:
Rival Palestinian factions have clinched a new cease-fire deal to end a week of violence that has left more than 50 dead but Israel is continuing to pound targets across Gaza.
The Hamas and Fatah movements agreed to implement a cease-fire from 1200 GMT, the fifth such deal since violence erupted on Sunday.
In other words, two different groups of anti-Israel terrorists have agreed to stop attacking each other. Neither one has agreed to stop attacking Israel. If anything, this “truce” would necessitate more Israeli attacks, since it makes it less likely that Jerusalem can count on its enemies to kill each other.
Please be on the lookout for further slanted coverage of Israel’s attempts to defend the citizens of Sderot from further Qassam missile attacks.
COMPARE AND CONTRAST – BLOODSHED IN LEBANON
The current bloodshed in Lebanon has made international headlines as the Lebanese Army battles Islamic terrorists in a Palestinian refugee camp. The world’s press has been generally sympathetic towards the Lebanese actions. The Associated Press has even gone as far as to use the words “terror” and “terrorists” in one of its reports. This, despite the increasing number of civilian deaths caused by both sides, including seemingly indiscriminate shelling by the Lebanese Army.
We cannot help but contrast the coverage with another situation where an army was battling an Islamic terrorist organization in a Palestinian refugee camp. This army, at great cost to itself, sent its soldiers into the camp to avoid civilian casualties and only targeted a small and specific area from where the terrorists were operating. This army was pilloried by the international press and falsely accused of perpetrating a “massacre”.
While we certainly sympathize with the need to tackle terrorists, we do wonder if there is the faint whiff of double standards at play here?
