Israel Matzav

In Britain, Israel can never be the victim, only the aggressor

Rocket attacks on Israelis are not news; Israeli military action to defend Israel against such attacks is. Suddenly, media indifference has been transformed into media hyperactivity. And in the eyes of the British media and foreign office Israel is at fault; astoundingly, it is apparently Israel which is responsible for inflaming the situation, not the Palestinians. Never mind the 120 rockets in four days or the 50 further rockets this evening, including 17 Grads fired at the city of Beersheva; or that since the beginning of 2011, 1,100 rocket have been fired on Israeli targets, 797since the beginning of this year; or that a staggering 5274 rockets have been fired from Gaza at southern Israel since 2006 (what’s that – you had absolutely no idea about the scale of these attacks? Of course not – the British media haven’t bothered to report them. Didn’t you know? Israeli victims don’t count – especially when not enough of them actually die to meet the British definition of ‘proportionality’).

Never mind the fact that this current round of violence started when an Israeli Defence Force jeep was attacked by an anti-tank missile, wounding four IDF soldiers. Never mind that Hamas have hidden rocket launchers under civilian homes in Gaza, thus once again turning the Palestinian population into human shields.

As The Commentator notes, the Foreign Office tweeted:

‘We continue to call on all sides to exercise restraint to prevent a dangerous escalation that would be in no one’s interests. #Gaza’

while

‘the Guardian glowingly quoted the BBC's Wyre Davies as calling the Israeli attack “a massive escalation of the situation around Gaza”’.

So let’s get this clear: in the mindset of the BBC and Foreign Office, 120-plus rockets in four days is not an escalation of violence or attempted mass murder; but a targeted strike to kill two individuals who have been organising such attacks, in order to prevent them from organising any more, is an escalation. What kind of hideously warped perspective is this?

Labels: Fajr-5 rockets, Gaza, Hamas, Operation Pillar of Defense, rockets, targeted killings

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 9:04 AM