Rockets

Israel steps up its defense as rockets rain on Ashkelon—a major Israeli city near Gaza—and the MSM screams about Palestinian casualties. The blog site Crusader Rabbit provides a summary of typical headlines:

SMH - Israel kills 60 Palestinians
The Age - Israel kills 60 Palestinians
Reuters - U.S. calls for end to Israeli-Palestinian violence
CNN - Israeli strikes in Gaza kill 20
LA Times - Israeli attacks kill 54 in Gaza
News.com.au - 60 killed in fierce Gaza battles
BBC - Dozens die in Israel-Gaza clashes
IHT - Israel attacks northern Gaza, killing scores
Yahoo! News - Israeli strikes kill 54 in Gaza
FOXNews - Gaza Erupts in Violence

Reading these blatantly biased headlines, you’d think that Israel wantonly attacked the poor Gazans who were simply living their peaceful lives. No mention of the Hamas’ rocket attacks that precipitated the Israeli’s defensive response. No mention that Hamas launches its rockets from within civilian areas, purposely putting its own population at risk. No matter that over the past two and a half years, Hamas has launched 3652 rockets at Israeli civilian areas (and only 1477 against military targets) [source: PT Watch. Sure, some mention of the rockets is often made toward the end of these stories. But the headlines—the things that everyone reads—speak for themselves.

Interestingly, some of the “civilian casualties” attributed to the Israelis are instead, due to Qassam rockets that fall short and land in Gaza. Buried deep in a New York Times report (17th paragraph) we find the following:

Hamas said that one girl, Malak Karfaneh, 6, died Friday night from an Israeli strike on Beit Hanun in northern Gaza, but residents said that a Palestinian rocket had fallen short and landed near the house, killing her and wounding three siblings.

Israeli officials say that up to half of Palestinian rockets — mostly crude, inaccurate Qassams — fall inside Gaza. But when Hamas broke open the border with Egypt, Israeli officials say, the militants were able to bring in more of the manufactured Katyusha-style rockets as well as antitank missiles and concrete, for building fortifications.

For a moment, just imagine the US response if Mexico had launched 3,000 plus rockets across the border, hitting U.S. schools, hospitals, houses, and small cities in the United States. Imagine if the entire population of El Paso or Brownsville, Texas had to duck and cover 3 or 4 times a day. I suspect the rocket sites in Mexico would be obliterated, and any civilians in the vicinity would suffer the consequences of proximity.

Purposely targeting civilians is what Hamas does. Where's the international outrage for this clear violation of international law? Where are the headlines? There won’t be any, because Left-leaning reporters and their editors have a story to tell, and that’s not part of the prescribed narrative.