Hamas rockets ‘land’ but Israel ‘attacks’
If it happens in Israel, it’s reported on the Guardian’s front page. Yesterday seven Israelis were hurt when a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip hit a house in Mishmeret, 12 miles north of Tel Aviv, at 5:20am. Around 10 days earlier, two rockets were fired towards Tel Aviv. Nobody was hurt. The Guardian’s front-page headline declares: “Airstrikes: Israel attacks Gaza amid heightened tensions.” The emphasis is on Israel taking the initiative. Missiles that hit Tel Aviv are not an attack , they are “heighten tension” enablers.
The BBC updates:
On Tuesday morning the IDF said it had launched 15 attacks in the northern Gaza Strip in retaliation for rockets being fired into Israeli territory. It said earlier that about 30 rockets had been fired into Israel since 22:00 local time (20:00 GMT) on Monday…
The official Palestinian news agency meanwhile reported that Israeli jets fired missiles at two locations in central Gaza City and in the eastern Shujaiya district. A spokesman for the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry, Ashraf al-Qudra, said on
Nasty stuff. Potentially lethal. Can we take sides? Let’s see. The Guardian produces the suggestive headline: “Israeli military bombs Gaza after rocket strike.” Who fired the rocket? No mention of Hamas in the headline. Why not “Hamas military attacks Israel”? The Jerusalem Post opts for: “TENSE QUIET IN SOUTHERN ISRAEL AFTER NIGHT OF ROCKETS AND AIRSTRIKES.” Words matter.
The Mail tell readers: “
Gaza is controlled by Hamas, a militant Palestinian group that seeks Israel’s destruction and possesses a large arsenal of rockets and missiles capable of striking deep inside Israel. The territory is home to other Palestinian militant groups, including Islamic Jihad, an Iranian-backed armed organization that also has a rocket arsenal.
The Guardian tells its readers:
In an apparent attempt to de-escalate the situation, a Hamas official, speaking to the Agence France-Presse news agency on condition of anonymity, denied the group was behind the rocket launch, and even suggested the projectile was automatically fired by mistake following “bad weather”.
Is what newspapers love out as important as what they put in? No mention of rocket arsenals and Iran’s role in things in the Guardian’s report. No mention of bad weather and defusing tensions in the Mail’s. The Sun says the family’s whose home was destroyed by the rocket “cheated death”. And get a load of this headline from CNN:
Did the rockets that “obliterated” a family home just land, as a plane lands?
Posted: 26th, March 2019 | In: News Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
