Deconstructing Anti-Israel Bias: The Jerusalem Yeshiva Massacre

An excerpt from the excellent Deconstructing Anti-Israel Bias: The Jerusalem Yeshiva Massacre:

The bias of the mainstream media against Israel never ceases to amaze me. It must rank as one of the most curious sociopolitical phenomena of our era. The further the Palestinian Arabs move toward a barbaric Islamic theocracy, the deeper the support for them among the cadre of "progressive" journalists.

An example of the entrenched bias is last Thursday's (March 6) article from the Associated Press, "7 die in shooting at Jerusalem seminary."

Let us first examine the headline: "7 die." Seven what-people? Jews? Martians? And they are not killed, they simply "die," in the passive sense, as if from a stroke. The main reason why this is so insidious is that such language is never used when the
enemies of Israel are the ones who die. One of the calling cards of Leftist journalism is that when Arabs die, you know how they died, who killed them, and whether they had any special characteristics worthy of pity. If the sides were reversed, the headline would read, "Israeli extremist massacres 7 youths learning Koran at Gaza holy place."

Let us now move to the body of the article:

A gunman infiltrated a Jewish seminary in Jerusalem and opened fire in a library Thursday night, killing at least seven people and wounding dozens, police and rescue workers said.

A gunman? Don't use the T-word, Mr. AP reporter, it hurts too much. Sure, a gunman, a man who happened to have a gun. It was probably just a liquor-store holdup that went bad.

"Killing at least seven people." Okay, we now know that the gunman killed someone. The victims remain just vague people, however. Not students, rabbis, youths, boys, teenagers, whatever.

In Gaza, the Islamic militant Hamas praised the attack but stopped short of claiming responsibility. Thousands poured into the streets to celebrate in Hamas-ruled Gaza, firing rifles in the air. "We bless the (Jerusalem) operation. It will not be the last," Hamas said in a text message sent to reporters.

The militant Hamas? Nothing like a little air freshener to sanitize one of the world's premiere Islamofascist terror groups. Militant, that sounds like hippies holding a sit-in demonstration. We should be grateful they weren't called activists.

Hezbollah's Al-Manar television in Lebanon said a previously unknown group called the Martyrs of Imad Mughniyeh and Gaza claimed responsibility for the attack. Mughniyeh, a top Hezbollah commander, was killed Feb. 12 by a car bomb in Syria. Hezbollah blamed his assassination on Israel, which denied any role.

Here we begin the obligatory recitation of Israel's recent bad behavior, to give us the context for the terror attack. First we learn that the old martyr's club pulled off the caper because Israel killed their hero, Mughniyeh. Israel of course "denied any role," which is to be expected from those tricky devils.

But wait, there's more Israeli mischief behind all this:

The attack in Jerusalem came a day after Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice persuaded moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to return to peace talks with Israel and on the same day Egyptian officials were trying to mediate a truce between Gaza militants and Israel. Abbas suspended the talks after Israel launched a military offensive against Gaza militants barraging southern Israel with rockets. Palestinian officials say more than 120 were killed in Gaza during the
weeklong operation. Four Israelis were also killed.

Well why didn't you say so? It was only after Israel decided to kill 120 people that the great moderate leader, His Excellency the President Mr. Abbas, was obliged to suspend the talks. Bad, bad Israel. At least the rocket attacks against Israel were
mentioned, but note the odd sentence structure, with the sequence of events reversed. Ah, those cute little militants, "barraging southern Israel with rockets." Not bombing, not raining death, but barraging.

By the way, what does all this have to do with the event the article purports to be covering?

"He came out of the library spraying automatic fire. ... The terrorist came to the entrance and I shot him twice in the head," claimed [Yitzhak Dadon].

The T-word is finally used, but put in the mouth of an Israeli. We have been told that the gunman is a militant, so the use of the word terrorist seems misplaced and extreme. Another classic calling card of Leftist journalism.