Vilifying Israel by counter-example

From AP:

The caption states:

Palestinian construction workers build a new housing development in an east Jerusalem neighborhood, Wednesday, Dec. 5, 2007.

In a move that could hamper the U.S. peace push, Israel on Tuesday announced plans to build more than 300 new homes in a disputed east Jerusalem neighborhood. Palestinians warned that the move will undermine the newly revived peace talks. The new housing would expand Har Homa, a Jewish neighborhood of about 4,000 residents in an area Palestinians claim as capital of a future state. Palestinian officials appealed to the U.S. to block the project.

So the only way that AP could illustrate the horror of Jews wanting to live in their holy city is by showing that they allow Arabs to build large housing complexes - in the Jewish holy city.

Similarly, from Reuters:

Malek, a two-and-a-half year old Palestinian girl from the West Bank village of Bidiya, undergoes heart surgery at an Israeli hospital in Holon, near Tel Aviv, October 21, 2007. Palestinians suffering serious illnesses have long traveled from Gaza to nearby Israeli hospitals for treatments unavailable at facilities in the territory, which is home to 1.5 million people and was occupied by Israel for 38 years until 2005. However Israel has tightened border restrictions since Hamas Islamists seized control of the coastal enclave in June.

This time the wire service cannot say with certainly that Israel doesn't allow people from Gaza to be treated in Israel - but it can imply it, playing the Hamas playbook.

The wire services try so hard to illustrate Israeli cruelty to the point that they will caption Israeli benevolence - that one would never see on the Arab side - as if it is cruelty.