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Monday, November 27, 2006

AP? Biased? Naaaaaah.

More absurd bias from AP:
(AP) Palestinian militants in Gaza fired two rockets at Israel on Monday, despite a day-old cease-fire that was intended to end five months of violence in the area, Palestinian witnesses said.

Israeli rescue services said there were no reports of injuries from the rockets.

Also Monday, Israeli troops shot and killed a Hamas-linked militant in a West Bank raid.

The cease-fire raised hopes that Israel and the Palestinians would be able to restart long-stalled peace efforts, and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was expected to elaborate on his peace plans Monday.

The surprise cease-fire deal appeared to be largely holding in Gaza early Monday, with no reports of Palestinian rocket fire into Israel.

But Israeli forces conducted an overnight raid in the West Bank town of Qabatiya, shooting dead two Palestinians, one of them a wanted militant affiliated with the Hamas-linked Popular Resistance Committees. The second was a woman who took the dead man's weapon and tried to run off, the army said.

The killings angered Palestinian militants and raised concerns of a violent response from Gaza.

"We warn the world that if the Zionist aggression in the West Bank doesn't stop, this truce will collapse," said Abu Mujahed, spokesman for the Popular Resistance Committees, which has been blamed for many of the rocket attacks on Israel.
Where to start?

When PalArabs break a cease-fire, they aren't breaking the cease-fire.

When Israel continues to conduct raids in the West Bank - an area not covered by the cease fire agreement - AP makes it sound like what they are doing is worse.

Then the AP implicitly praises the Palestinian Arabs for not firing any rockets during a 20-some hour period between a few hours after the "cease fire" was to start on Sunday and all the way through the early morning today!

And then back to the evil Israelis who are raiding the West Bank with impunity, with the juxtaposition of the information about the cease fire, purposefully making it appear that Israel is the one breaking the agreement. And the article goes on to describe how angry that makes the Palestinian Arabs, neatly setting up the next story of rocket fire as "retaliation" and completely ignoring the terms of the cease fire itself, a fact that AP is well aware of (notice the use of "in Gaza" in the story) and is choosing to bury - a few paragraphs later it mentions "Saeb Erekat... said he was working with the Israelis to expand the cease-fire to the West Bank and hoped to have an agreement within three days."

An unbiased article would have mentioned all the facts almost exactly the same way but in a different order:
  1. Gaza Palestinian Arabs shot rockets at Israel, breaking the cease fire.
  2. Background: The cease-fire that took effect Sunday morning was meant for Gaza and there was hope that it could be expanded to the West Bank.
  3. Meanwhile, Israel raided the West Bank "militants."
  4. PalArabs threatened to shoot more rockets into Israel again unless Israel stops their raids in the WB.
Same information, arranged in a much more accurate and unbiased way, without the clear implication that Israel was just as much at fault for the cease-fire violations as the terrorists.