The Economist Lumps Terror Victims and Terrorists Together

The Economist‘s latest analysis of events in Israel contains the following paragraph:

Of late the conflict has been concentrated in cities, particularly Jerusalem. Since the summer, young Palestinians have often clashed at night with Israeli police. The mood turned uglier in the autumn over a campaign by Jewish radicals to establish a right to pray on the grounds of the al-Aqsa mosque. This is Islam’s third-holiest shrine, which stands on the ruins of the former Jewish temple. Palestinians have attacked Israelis with knives or used their cars as weapons. In total ten Palestinians, nine Jews and two Druze have been killed since October 22nd.

While The Economist is prepared to state that the al-Aqsa mosque is Islam’s third-holiest shrine, the mention of “the former Jewish temple” fails to acknowledge that the Temple Mount is Judaism’s holiest site. And what exactly constitutes the “grounds of the al-Aqsa mosque?”

More galling, however, is the published death toll. The Economist states that Palestinians have carried out attacks against Israelis. So why then are those Palestinians who perpetrated such acts (and died in the course of doing so) treated as victims of the very violence that they themselves carried out?

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