Dear HonestReporting Subscriber,
On Tuesday, Palestinian
suicide bombers
in Ariel and Rosh HaAyin murdered two Israelis ― 18-year old Erez
Hershkovitz and 43-year old Yechezkel Yekutiel ― and wounded more than
ten. Hamas perpetrated the Ariel attack, and Fatah's Al-Aksa Brigades
carried out the Rosh HaAyin killing.
The most egregiously biased report on Tuesday's terror attacks came
from the
Christian Science Monitor, whose
homepage headline read: "Suicide
attacks jolt Mideast peace hopes; Bombings may hurt Palestinian effort
to stop Israel's barrier":
The text of the article first indicates that the bombings "threaten to
undermine the Palestinian Authority's campaign to stop Israel's
barrier," and only afterward notes that the terror attack "left two
Israelis dead and 11 wounded." The bulk of the article then continues
to address not the bloody terror attack itself, but the damage it
caused to the Palestinian anti-fence campaign.
Apparently, the warped moral compass of CSM determined that the most
serious injury the twin suicide bombings inflicted was not to actual
human victims, but to the "hurt" Palestinian political goals.
Beyond this grave insensitivity, CSM twists this story 180 degrees:
The attacks illustrate the clear need for the security fence ― whose
very purpose is to prevent suicide bombings. Instead, CSM tries to use
the attacks to arouse sympathy for those opposed to the fence.
How ironic that CSM prides itself on following the
mandate: "To injure
no man, but to bless all mankind...to reach many homes with healing,
purifying thought."
We doubt the families of Erez Hershkovitz and Yechezkel Yekutiel are
gaining much "healing" or "purifying thought" from CSM's insensitivity
toward their victimhood.
Comments to:
CSM's feedback page
--- BROADER COVERAGE OF TWIN ATTACKS ---
In covering Tuesday's attacks, many news reports promoted two
falsities:
1) that the twin attacks were an abrupt break from a Palestinian
cease-fire; and
2) that Hamas' bomb was a "revenge attack" for an IDF anti-terror
raid four days earlier.
1) What "Cease-fire"?
Fiction:
USA Today stated, "Two Palestinian suicide bombers broke
militant groups' 6-week-old cease-fire Tuesday."
Fact: Since the beginning of the hudna on June 28, 35 Israelis have
been killed or wounded in
180 attacks by Palestinian terrorists. An
additional four Israelis have been victims of suspected Palestinian
kidnappings. In addition, Israeli security services have foiled 36
planned "major attacks" since June 28.
Palestinian attacks since the "cease-fire" include:
- an Israeli woman killed by a Palestinian suicide bomber at Moshav
Kfar Ya'vetz (July 7)
- an Israeli man stabbed to death by a Palestinian on Tel Aviv's
beachfront promenade (July 15)
- an Israeli man stabbed in Jerusalem's Yemin Moshe neighborhood (July
20)
- an Israeli man stabbed while riding his bicycle in Jerusalem by four
Arab assailants (July 23)
- an 11-year-old girl wounded by Palestinian gunfire (July 28)
- four Israelis wounded in an ambush shooting near Jerusalem (August
3)
- six Israelis injured by a rocket attack, fired from a Gaza area
under PA control (August 9)
[For more details, go to the homepage of
IsraelInsider ― look for the
section called "Specials," and the link to "Security Incidents Map and
Timeline"]
Clearly, Tuesday's twin suicide bombings did not "break" any
cease-fire. The only unusual aspect of these attacks is that they were
more dramatic than the stabbings and kidnappings that characterized the past six weeks.
Comments to USA Today: editor@usatoday.com
2) Palestinian "retaliation"?
Fiction: Associated Press described Tuesday's suicide bombing as a
"revenge attack" for an IDF anti-terror raid four days earlier against
Hamas.
Fact: Last week, the Israeli
Shin Bet
security service
announced they were following twelve active warnings of planned attacks,
including five warnings of suicide bombings originating from the West
Bank. The IDF
anti-terror raid on Askar
― the pretext for Hamas' "retaliation" ― took place on Friday.
Tuesday's attacks, therefore, had almost certainly been in the works
long before the Askar events.
The media have continually rationalized Palestinian terror attacks as
retaliation for IDF actions. For example, the June 11 bus bombing in
Jerusalem that killed 17 Israelis was spun by
most media outlets as
retaliation for the IDF attempt on Hamas leader Rantisi's life, one
day earlier. However, a
Hamas accomplice to the bombing has now
confirmed to Israeli police that the Jerusalem attack was planned by
Hamas an entire month beforehand.
Comments to Associated Press: feedback@ap.org
HonestReporting encourages subscribers to monitor their local media
for false claims of "calm" during the Palestinian "cease-fire," and for
ongoing rationalizations of Palestinian terror that blame Israeli
victims for the bloodshed they suffer.
Thank you for your ongoing involvement in the battle against media
bias.
HonestReporting.com
