To his credit, Ethan Bronner pits the casualty count of the Gaza-based Palestinian Center for Human Rights against the Institute for Counter-Terrorism in Israel for the January Gaza Offensive. The count of the Institute appears to be more accurate.
The topic of the article is a collection of testimonies by soldiers from the recent war, in which they admit misconduct and to tie it to the ethos of the Israeli army. Ethan Bronner quotes Professor Moshe Habertal an author of the IDF's code of military ethics and a company commander, who offer a countervailing perspective to the testimonies.
Bronner's report ends strangely with a quote that, at once, sustains the testimonies about civilian deaths while undermining the generality the testifiers attempt to convey about IDF conduct.
"The army believes that a weak spot of Israeli deterrence is its strong commitment not to kill civilians, and there has grown the sense that it might have to temporarily overcome that weakness in order to restore deterrence," says Professor Yaron Ezrahi.
Thus, the matter of "wanton killing," about which EB promises to report in his introductory paragraph, retains its media life but remains unverified. The effect: Israel receives the bad press that allows its international isolation to continue, but NYT stops short of reporting untruths.
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