Brith Sholom Media Watch Alert #691, 3/30/14

691To: Brith Sholom Media Watch Subscribers
From: Jerry Verlin, Editor (jverlin1234@verizon.net)
Subj: Brith Sholom Media Watch Alert #691, 3/30/14

This Week In The Inq: “3 Palestinians” Killed in Raid: Inq-Speak for 1 Terrorist Each from Hamas, Al Aqsa and Islamic Jihad
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This week, our hometown Philly Inquirer (“Inq”) headlined as “3 Palestinians are Killed in Raid” a Joel Greenberg of McClatchy article that led “Israeli security forces killed three Palestinians in the West Bank early Saturday …” (Inq, Sun, 3/23/14, A21,McClatchy, Inq-headlined: “3 Palestinians are Killed in Raid”)

#1 – “3 Palestinians” Suggests 3 Bystander Arab Civilians

Both the Inq’s headline and McClatchy article’s lede identified the three people killed in the IDF’s action simply as “three Palestinians.” The article’s paragraph 1 lede said they were killed “during a raid on a hideout of a wanted Hamas militant,” but it didn’t say who these three killed Palestinians were. For all McClatchy and Inq readers were told in that headline and lede, they might have been three utterly uninvolved passersby innocently walking down the street past where those wanton Israeli raiders began conducting their raid in reckless disregard of the safety of civilians in the area.

Paragraph 2 (of 9) didn’t shed light. It just said “the killings drew swift condemnation from Palestinian officials and cast a pall” over U.S. peace efforts.

Paragraph 3 didn’t help. It just said “Israeli forces have killed several Palestinians [again unidentified], most of them unarmed, in a spate of incidents in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in recent weeks, heightening tensions ….”

Paragraph 4 didn’t identify the “three Palestinians” killed in this week’s headline-and-lede Israeli raid either. It just quoted Abbas’s spokesperson having “urged Washington ‘to act quickly to prevent the collapse’ of peace efforts.”

Paragraph 5 got around to beginning to describe this latest of seemingly exclusively Israeli contributions to the heightening of tensions and casting of palls over the peace process, calling it “an early morning raid in the Jenin refugee camp to arrest Hamza Abu al Hija, a militant from the Islamist group Hamas.”

Paragraph 6 quoted the IDF calling this wanted Hamas operative a “’ticking time bomb’ who was wanted for bombings and shooting s and ‘involved in advanced stages of preparation of more attacks’ against the IDF and Israeli civilians….”

Paragraph 7 (of 9) finally reported what happened, quoting the IDF that “when the special forces arrived at Abu al Hija’s safe house in the early morning hours, he opened fire, drawing return fire,” and after wounding two Israeli officers was eventually killed.

Paragraph 8 quoted the owner of the house [in the “refugee camp”] that the gunfire had lasted “about half an hour.”

Final paragraph 9 quoted the IDF that “the raid triggered clashes between soldiers and residents, who pelted troops with rocks and firebombs,” and that “the crowd was led by militants who opened fire and hurled explosive devices.”

The other two of those “3 Palestinians are Killed in Raid,” those “three Palestinians” killed by Israeli security forces are not identified in the article. The reader is left by McClatchy and the Inq with their being just hapless “Palestinians” killed in an Israeli “raid.”

But here’s a JTA article bylined Jerusalem published that same day, Sunday, March 23: “… the Israeli troops responded [to “rocks, firebombs and explosives” hurled at them] with live fire, killing at least two other Arabs, identified as belonging to Islamic Jihad and the Al-Aksa Martyrs’ Brigades, the military wing of the ruling Fatah party.”

Times of Israel, Sunday, March 23: “The other two Palestinians killed in the shootout were identified as Islamic Jihad operative Mahmud Abu Zeina, 25, and Yazan Jabarin, 22, a member of Fatah’s al-Aqsa Brigades.” Times of Israel, Saturday, March 22: “The IDF maintained that both men had attacked the soldiers.”

Were the identities of these other two of these “3 Palestinians are Killed in Raid” relevant to McClatchy and Inq readers’ understanding of what went on here? Times of Israel, Saturday, March 22: “In a rare joint statement, the three main Palestinian militant groups – Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Fatah’s military wing, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades – warned of retribution against Israel and the Palestinian Authority leadership for allegedly cooperating with Israel.”

This is nothing new, this Inq headlining of the IDF killing terrorists as the IDF killing “Palestinians.” On 4/29/08, the Inq ran an AP article that reported that “the Israeli army shot four Palestinian militants” [more on that term anon] who were trying to plant explosives near the Gaza Strip border fence, and quoted Hamas calling them its members “on a jihad mission.” Our beloved Inq headlined: “Israeli Army Shoots Four Palestinians.”

#2 – Inq Et Ilk Should Print Direct Quotes of Israelis Calling Terrorists “Militants”

Beyond the mainstream media’s partisanship in calling Israeli civilian-targeting terrorists “militants” on its own account is the arrogance of its attribution of this euphemism to others. For instance, President Bush’s famous “Roadmap” called on the Palestinian Authority to dismantle “terrorist” infrastructure. All told, the document used forms of “terror” nine times and forms of “militant” not at all. But over and over, the MSM quoted the roadmap, in indirect quotes, as calling on the PA “to rein in militants.” Smoking gun.

We don’t always have a smoking gun, the actual words an Israeli or other official or spokesperson actually used where the media quoted him indirectly as saying “militants.” So we say that when the media has the chance gleefully to quote an Israeli actually saying the media’s favored term “militants,” the media should direct quote, not indirectly, quote him saying so.

Maybe we have a smoking gun this week. Three times in its 9-paragraph article “3 Palestinians are Killed in Raid,” McClatchy cites Israeli Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, whom it identified as “an army spokesman,” the only army spokesman it cites in the article. In paragraph 1, the article cites the raid as “on a hideout of a wanted Hamas militant, the army and Palestinians said.” Paragraph 9: “Lerner said the crowd was led by militants who opened fire and hurled explosive devices.”

Is it likely that Lerner actually used the media’s term “militants”? Times of Israel, March 23: “According to IDF Spokesman Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, Abu al-Hija opened fire on the troops before he was killed. The IDF said he was ‘wanted for numerous shooting and bombing attacks as well as planning future acts of terrorism.’ Lerner called him a ‘ticking time bomb’ planning to kill Israelis.” ’Compare McClatchy’s partly direct, partly indirect, quote of Lerner: “[Lerner] called Abu al Hija a ‘ticking bomb’ who was wanted for bombings and shootings and ‘involved in advanced stages of preparations for more attacks’ against Israeli soldiers and civilians in the West Bank….”

That Times of Israel article likewise directly quoted Netanyahu – “Over the weekend, our forces struck at a terrorist who arranged attacks on Israelis and planned attacks on innocent citizens” – and Defense Minister Ya’alon – “an important preventative which foiled a planned terrorist attack.”

So this Inq McClatchy article that twice quoted IDF Spokesperson Lt. Col. Lerner, indirectly, as calling Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Al Aqsa operatives “militants” should have used direct quotes of him saying so – if that’s what he said.

Regards,
Jerry