A1, Wednesday 12/31/08
By Ethan Bronner and Taghreed El-Khodary
In this relatively fair article, Bronner and El-Khodary continue to review the military activity in Gaza. The reporters place much focus on a French ceasefire proposal and the Israeli response to it. They make little mention though of how Hamas views such a proposal, which is essential in determining whether the ceasefire could actually take effect. Israel is not the sole arbiter of whether there can be a cessation in hostilities while Hamas continues to fire rockets into Israel.
Reporting on the military activity, Bronner and El-Khodary are quite specific in detailing the Israeli attacks in Gaza and the overall number of Palestinian casualties, including civilians, and providing numerous paragraphs to describing their suffering. When it comes to Hamas rockets attacks on Israel though, there is only a cursory paragraph that provides no hard details and quotes no Israeli civilians, who are also greatly burdened in this conflict.
On a positive note, the piece quotes a 13-year-old Gazan youth that blames Hamas for the latest spiral of violence:
I blame Hamas. It doesn’t want to recognize Israel. If they did so there could be peace. Egypt made a peace treaty with Israel, and nothing is happening to them.”Overall, an adequate article, despite falling short in various ways.
Posts
You're right. That the cease-fire needs Hamas is a point overlooked by the media, which should be at least paying lip service to what Hamas is saying.
ReplyDelete