Friday, July 09, 2004

Myre Mires and Muddles

Greg Myre, a New York Times correspondent in Israel, reported in the July 9 issue on Israel's military activity in the Gaza Strip. He noted that "the Palestinians have fired more than 300 of their crude, homemade rockets in recent years, to little effect." In addition, he records the death of an Arab woman, a mother of 7, shot in the street.
It can be found here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/09/international/middleeast/09mide.html

As regards the number of rockets, Israeli sources claim over 4100 rockets, mortars and missiles of various types have landed among Jewish civilian targets, both in the Gaza area and within Israel, since the Arabs initiated hostilities in September 2000. The disparity in numbers seems to be too great and raises doubts as to the reliability of the paper's news.

And I will ignore that remark about "little effect". Who cares? What counts is the intention of the terrorists to kill and damage as much as possible.

Moreover, Myre studiously avoids noting who killed the woman. Was it an Israeli soldier, a Palestinian militant or could not Myre have written that the source of the gunfire was in doubt? It has happened before that Pals. have killed their own people, even by accident. The context unfairly incriminates, without factual basis, Israeli forces as if they purposefully shot down a mother of seven.
 
see Myre's reply on July 17

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