Josef Federman of the Associated Press, in a story on the peace process, offers this aside:
The fate of the roughly 4,000 prisoners held by Israel is one of the most emotional issues for Palestinians. They are generally seen as heroes — even when their crimes have involved killing Israeli civilians.
Menachem Begin and Yitzhak Shamir killed civilians in 1948 and later became prime ministers. Ehud Olmert was prime minister when he authorized the killing of civilians in Gaza. Ehud Barak was a former prime minister when he did the same. Tzipi Livni was a government minister when she justified the killing of civilians. Some of these people are heroes in Israel. But in our media, the sword only cuts one way.
Excellent point Phil. But can you imagine the hue and cry if the AP actually did provide context, and mentioned the civilian blood on Israeli heroes’ hands? We Americans are kept in the dark through the vigilance and energy of Israel’s defenders over here.
They celebrate death. We celebrate life
You are some piece of work- somehow you’ve managed to compare civilian casualties during war conflict to the deliberate targeting of civilian population, regardless of absence of any military activity happening. Good one- on the eve of the Remembrance Day in Israel.
And I’m sure NYT among others never makes mention of the terrorist background of so many Sinn Fein ministers when they visit. One man’s terrorist, etc.
Ehud Barak was a former prime minister when he did the same.
He served as Prime Minister from 1999 to 2001. The UN Human Rights Commission fact finding mission and special rapporteur reports in 2000 noted widespread systematic and gross violations of human rights, in particular mass killings and collective punishments, that constituted war crimes and crimes against humanity. — See E/CN.4/RES/S-5/1 19 October 2000 http://unispal.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/0/5E0A5C4A07784BC885256A0200645731