Israel's "Saber-Rattling"

"Israel Issues an Appeal to Palestinians in Gaza"
A15, Friday 12/26/08
By Reuters

It's important that this Reuters piece highlights the fact that a military operation has been put off by Israel for some time. This gives the piece important perspective, yet it's not enough. Amazingly, readers aren't informed about the number of rockets Israel has tolerated since leaving Gaza three years ago.

Hamas, and to a lesser extent smaller militant groups, have "launched more than 6,300 rockets and mortars into Israel from Gaza. The attacks have killed 10 civilians, wounded more than 780 and traumatized thousands of others." This information could've easily been inserted.

Olmert declares that "Hamas must be stopped," and "we don't want more blood [in Gaza]." Readers are then told that "adding to the saber-rattling, Israel's army chief, Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi, said Israel would have to act with 'all our force to hurt the terrorist infrastructure and change the security reality'."

Regarding language, three questions should be asked here: 1) Should any threat of force, including in defense, be considered saber-rattling? 2) Would including the above details of the rocket attacks have rendered the term inappropriate? 3) Finally, what exactly did this article report: an Israeli "appeal to Palestinians" or Israeli "saber-rattling"?