To: Brith Sholom Media Watch Subscribers
From: Jerry Verlin, Editor (jverlin1234@verizon.net)
Subj: Brith Sholom Media Watch Alert #709, 8/3/14
This Week Almost Not in The Inq: The Light at the End of The Tunnels
What makes you want to scream when you open your hometown daily paper these mornings is its utterly exclusive photo focus on the suffering of civilians in Gaza to the exclusion of that of civilians in Israel. The Philly Inquirer (“Inq”) ran 17 Israel-Gaza-related photos this week, 8 of them depicting damage and casualties in Gaza, and 2 anti-Israel protests in “the West Bank.” Two of the three photos of Israelis were of IDF tanks. There were plenty of places – how do they put it? – for Inq “photo opportunities” in Israel this week, as you’ll see below, but NOT ONE photo of the impact on Israel or Israeli civilians of the incessant rocketing from Gaza of Israeli civilians made it into the newspaper’s pages this week in the Inq.
Add to that photo choice skewing the Inq printing a graphic on Friday claiming 85% of the Gaza casualties were “Palestinian civilians.” Israel Hayom this morning: “Israel: Nearly half of people killed in Gaza were combatants.”
There was one small article (8 paragraphs) Friday (Inq, Fri, 8/1/14, A6, LA Times, “Tunnels Unnerve Israelis”), but it didn’t mention the horrific tunnel mass-terrorism attack Israel claims it has learned Hamas had planned for the Jewish high holidays. Nor did that 8-paragraph article make clear that no nation can live with the real-life nightmare of ruthless sworn-enemies emerging literally out of the ground, dressed in your own army’s uniforms, to kidnap and murder its people.
Beyond putting an end to the relentless rocketing, which – Iron Dome and all, see captions of photos taken in Israel this week below – exacts a constant intolerable physical and emotional disruption of daily life for civilians in Israel, it was an inescapable just pursuit of the light at the end of the tunnels that drove Israel into Gaza for as long as that takes. That our hometown daily newspaper this week failed to present the Israeli side of the conflict to readers, but restricted itself to depicting damage in Gaza, was egregiously imbalanced.
Yesterday, Alan Molod sent out an email, “The other side of the war,” with “some images taken in Israel during the last week.”
*** The first shows Jewish kids and a dog sitting in what looks like a large pipe, captioned “Shelter in a small village in south Israel.”
*** The next shows people standing amidst rubble of “House in Beer Sheba destroyed by a Grad rocket launched from Gaza.”
*** The next shows a big group of little kids curled up on the floor of what looks like a kindergarten or child care center. “Children in Tel Aviv during a heavy rocket attack launched from Gaza.”
*** The next shows a woman hugging a little girl and cradling a baby beside their car on the side of the road, captioned “Family surprised by a rocket attack launched from Gaza Strip.”
*** The next shows a big city at night with lights in its sky: “Interception of M-75 rockets launched from Gaza by Iron Dome over Tel Aviv – Sunday.”
*** The next, captioned “During an air attack launched from Gaza – a bus station in central Tel Aviv, yesterday,” shows many people crouched behind a small plexiglass stand designed to protect a few people from rainfall.
*** The next three, showing residential downtown city scenes, are captioned: “M-75 rockets launched toward Israel from near a mosque in Gaza”; “Grad rocket launched toward Israel from Gaza residential quarters”; “M-302 heavy rocket launch toward Haifa from a school yard in Gaza.”
*** The next shows civilians crouched in the aisle of a commuter train car: “Monday in Tel Aviv-Beer Sheba train during a rocket attack launched from Gaza.”
*** The next three show firemen and damage caused by rocketing in Eilat.
*** The next, showing people in a multi-story commercial building stairwell: “Stairs of a big Tel Aviv mall during a rocket attack launched from Gaza – Monday.”
*** The next four show flames, smoke and damage in Ashkelon and Ashdod.
*** The next shows debris from an intercepted rocket on a roadway.
*** The next two show rockets being launched in volleys from Gaza, one captioned: “M-75 rockets launched from residential quarters of Gaza toward Israel.”
*** The next, which got to me, is captioned “Tel Aviv – an elderly lady during a rocket attack launched from Gaza.” She’s lying prone by the side of the road. Her protection is a row of roadside wild flowers.
*** The final one shows a multi-lane highway, cars pulled to the shoulder, occupants crouched beside them for cover. “Tel Aviv – drivers on Ayalon highway during a rocket attack – Sunday.”
This trauma to Israelis’ psyche is not new. Years ago, the Inq’s Trudy Rubin told us about the game the little kids play in endlessly rocketed Sderot’s schoolyard: “They shout ‘Color red! Color red!’ and then they go hide.”
The public needed see these photos in Alan’s email this week, not just those that it did see this week in the Inq, categorized by me by subject:
*** Sunday, 7/27 (A18): Kerry conferring with Turkey and Qatar [Kerry]
*** Monday, 7/28 (A4): “… smoke rises from an Israeli strike in Gaza City. Rockets also fell in Israel on Sunday.” [Gaza damage]
*** Tuesday, 7/29 (A1): [Bibi telling Israelis] “We will continue to act aggressively and responsibly” against Hamas [Bibi]
*** (A10): “Used artillery shells litter the ground….” [alongside Israeli tank] [IDF]
*** (A10): “An Israeli soldier on a tank ….” [IDF]
*** (A10): Kerry [Kerry]
*** Wednesday, 7/30 (A1): 8” x 5”, in color, above big bold headline “GAZA EXPLODES” [Inq’s caps]. “Smoke and fire rise from an Israeli air strike over Gaza City. Many of the strikes appeared aimed at weakening the militant Hamas.” [Gaza damage]
*** (A1): “Two boys survey rubble from a damaged apartment building in Gaza City….” [Gaza damage]
*** (A4): “Below a blown-out window in a damaged apartment building in Gaza City, the Hamas-affiliated Al-Aqsa television station lies in ruins. Government buildings and mosques were also destroyed.” [Gaza damage]
*** (A4): Gaza map: “Escalating violence. To protect itself from Hamas rockets and tunnels, Israel has created a buffer zone shrinking the Gaza Strip by more than 40 percent.” [Gaza damage]
*** (A4): “A girl holds an image of an injured Palestinian child at a protest in the West Bank city of Ramallah.” [“West Bank” protest]
*** Thursday, 7/31 (A12): “Gazans inspect damage to houses from a fallen minaret of the Al-Sousi mosque at Shati refugee camp” [Gaza damage]
*** Friday, 8/1 (A6): “Smoke rises after an Israeli strike on Gaza City…. Hamas continued to fire rockets from Gaza into Israel.” [Gaza damage]
*** (A6): “An Israeli officer leads journalists on a tour of a tunnel ALLEGEDLY [emphasis added] used by militants for cross-border attacks. At least 11 Israeli soldiers have been killed recently by infiltrators using tunnels.” [tunnels]
*** (A6) Death toll graphic, 3 Israeli civilians, 56 Israeli soldiers, 213 “Palestinian militants,” 1219 “Palestinian civilians” [i.e., less than 15% “militants”, over 85% civilians]. [Gaza damage]
*** Saturday, 8/2 (A1): c. 5×8, color: “Palestinians run for cover [one of them seemingly carrying a cannonball-sized rock] after a protest Friday against the Gaza war near the West Bank city of Ramallah.” [“West Bank” protests]
*** (A1): “Women sit on the rubble of their home in Beit Hanoun, Gaza Strip….” [Gaza damage]
*** (A6): “Second Lt. Hara Goldin” of IDF, first thought captured, then declared killed [IDF]
Three of these 17 photos and graphic were of Kerry and Bibi. Leaving those 3 out, 9 of the remaining 15 were of damage in Gaza, 2 were of protests in “the West Bank,” and 2 of the 3 photos of Israelis were of IDF tanks. That’s 13 of 15. The 2 “Israeli-side” photos were 1 of the tunnels and 1 of a soldier who’d been killed.
That the Inq this week showed 9 photos of damage in Gaza, and was able to avert its eyes from Gaza long enough to show 2 photos of protests in “the West Bank,” but NOT ONE of the impact of incessant rocketing aimed at civilians in Israel upon Israel and Israeli civilians is outrageously imbalanced.
A Quick Comment and Question on Ms. Rubin’s Economics
Ms. Trudy Rubin
House World Affairs Columnist
Philadelphia Inquirer
trubin@phillynews.com
Dear Ms. Rubin:
A quick comment and question on your Worldview column last Sunday (7/27) mentioning that “digging tunnels is one of the few new sources of [Gaza] jobs.” You liberals may have something there. These were Shovel-Ready government infrastructure jobs (including apparently for little kids), if ever there were. But all these tunnels and tunnels dug deep into Israel. Aren’t they undermining the foundations of the al-Aqsa mosque?
Regards,
Jerry