Reuters: Israel Started It By Firing Back First

According to the popular media, Israel is always the aggressor – even when she isn’t. Image courtesy of Math Knight and Zachi Evenor.





Joel Kontinen

Reporting on what is happening in the Near East almost always follows the same pattern. Honest Reporting, a website attempting to offer a more balanced view of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, calls this the It All Started When Israel Fired Back syndrome.

The popular media often ignore the initial strike, for instance, rockets fired from Gaza at Israeli civilian targets. These attacks don’t make headlines.

But when Israel does something to protect her citizens and sovereignty, then there is no shortage of headlines that purport to show who is to blame.

Recently, Reuters produced an article entitled Israel launches air strikes on Gaza; first since truce.

Only later in the article the reporter reveals that Hamas actually first fired rockets at Israel.

Source:

Benson, Pesach. 2013. Yet Another Edition of “It All Started When Israel Fired Back” . Honest Reporting (3 April).