The All-Powerful Last Word

"Israel: Militants Attack Military Base"
A8 (World Brief), November 11/29/08
By the Associated Press

This brief discusses a Palestinian mortar attack targeting Israel's Western Negev. Three of the eleven shells reported fired landed in an Israeli military base, wounding six soldiers. As common to recent NYT's coverage on the past few weeks of Gaza violence, the relevant context is obscured.

In the article, the given context is that earlier in the day "Palestinian gunmen clashed with Israeli troops," leading to the death of one of the Palestinian operatives. This "clash" is then used as the rationale for the Palestinian attack. Nevertheless, this wasn't some random 'encounter.' In reality, "an IDF force on a routine patrol identified suspicious figures apparently laying an IED near the [border] fence," a clear breach of the truce agreement. The hostile Palestinian activity led to the firefight in which one of their operatives was killed.

So overall, the brief paints a picture of ambiguous accountability in which both sides are culpable in this unyielding cycle of violence. Nevertheless, the report allows the Hamas spokesperson to provide the intrinsically more influential last word, claiming that "the mortar fire had been in response to that clash." This frames the entire event as an act of Israeli aggression, accepting the Hamas propaganda without pause. The Times cannot behave in such an unacceptable manner in relation to authoritarian entities (such as Hamas) that have no commitment to promoting the truth.