[R-G] The Blame Game in Gaza

[Anthony Fenton]

http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=3667
Media Advisory

The Blame Game in Gaza
Erasing Israeli actions to fault only Hamas

1/6/09

The Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip that began in late December have  
reportedly killed over 500 Palestinians, many of them civilians and  
children. As is often the case, U.S. corporate media's presentation of  
the events leading up to this dramatic escalation in violence have  
laid the blame for the violence mostly with Hamas, whose rocket  
attacks on Israel are often cited as the cause for the current Israeli  
attacks.

In many media discussions about the events that led to the fighting,  
emphasis is placed on Hamas' decision in late December to allow a  
cease-fire agreement with Israel to expire, or the group's failure to  
adequately suppress rocket attacks into Israel during the cease-fire.

A USA Today timeline (1/5/09) explained, "In November, the truce frays  
as Hamas rockets continue to land in Israel, which closes several  
border crossings and kills militants building tunnels Hamas was using  
to smuggle weapons and other goods into Gaza." On NBC Nightly News  
(12/27/08), Martin Fletcher explained that "a six-month truce ended  
this week and Palestinians fired rockets into Israel, as many as 60 a  
day. Israeli leaders said enough is enough." [1]

A Washington Post editorial (12/28/08) announced that Hamas "invited  
the conflict by ending a six-month-old ceasefire," while Post  
columnist Richard Cohen (1/6/09) was much blunter: "It took no genius  
to see the imminence of war. It takes real stupidity to blame it on  
Israel." [2, 3]

The Dallas Morning News (12/30/08) agreed emphatically in an editorial  
titled, "Blood on Hamas' Hands": "The pictures of the civilian victims  
of Israeli airstrikes-- especially children-- are heart-rending. But  
let's keep straight whose fault this tragedy is: Hamas, the fanatical  
Islamists who rule Gaza and who have used the land as a launching pad  
for firing rockets into Israel." [4]

The New York Times' December 28 lead declared, "The Israeli Air Force  
on Saturday launched a massive attack on Hamas targets throughout Gaza  
in retaliation for the recent heavy rocket fire from the area." The  
next day,Times reporter Stephen Farrell asked (12/29/08), "Why did  
Hamas end its six-month cease-fire on December 19?" He argued that the  
"rejectionist credo" of Hamas made this step all but inevitable. [5]

These accounts fail on several grounds. For starters, the cease-fire  
agreement from June through mid-December was credited by many for  
ratcheting down the violence-- rocket fire into Israel dropped  
significantly and claimed no Israeli lives during the truce. (Prior to  
that, rocket and mortar attacks since the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza  
in late 2005 had killed 10 Israelis-- theisraelproject.org.) After the  
cease-fire expired, rocket attacks increased, though no Israelis were  
killed until after the Israeli attacks were launched; four have been  
killed since then (Agence France-Presse, 1/6/09).

Interestingly, as the truce expired, the New York Times published an  
article (12/19/08) that began with a typical corporate media  
formulation-- Palestinians are attacking, Israel is retaliating--  
before noting that Hamas was "largely successful" in curtailing rocket  
fire into Israel: "Hamas imposed its will and even imprisoned some of  
those who were firing rockets. Israeli and United Nations figures show  
that while more than 300 rockets were fired into Israel in May, 10 to  
20 were fired in July, depending on who was counting and whether  
mortar rounds were included. In August, 10 to 30 were fired, and in  
September, 5 to 10." [6]

The Times article, by Ethan Bronner, noted that what Hamas expected in  
return from the Israelis never arrived:

But the goods shipments, while up some 25 to 30 percent and including  
a mix of more items, never began to approach what Hamas thought it was  
going to get: a return to the 500 to 600 truckloads delivered daily  
before the closing, including appliances, construction materials and  
other goods essential for life beyond mere survival. Instead, the  
number of trucks increased to around 90 from around 70.
Bronner also added that "Israeli forces continued to attack Hamas and  
other militants in the West Bank, prompting Palestinian militants in  
Gaza to fire rockets," which produced Hamas response attacks. The  
Times continued:

While this back-and-forth did not topple the agreement, Israel's  
decision in early November to destroy a tunnel Hamas had been digging  
near the border drove the cycle of violence to a much higher level.  
Israel says the tunnel could have been dug only for the purpose of  
trying to seize a soldier, like Cpl. Gilad Shalit, the Israeli held by  
Hamas for the past two and a half years. Israel's attack on the tunnel  
killed six Hamas militants, and each side has stepped up attacks since.
This straightforward recitation of events is rarely heard in much of  
the rest of the media coverage of the violence in Gaza-- including in  
the Times, since Israel began its full-scale assault. But for many  
consumers of U.S. media, history is made irrelevant; a Time magazine  
piece (1/12/09) began:

Two sounds dominate the lives of Israelis living near Gaza: the wail  
of a siren and, 25 seconds later, the whistling screech of an incoming  
rocket fired by the Palestinian militant group Hamas. That gives  
Israeli families just enough time to dive for cover-even as they pray  
the rocket will miss.

At 11:30 a.m. on December 27, a new sound filled the azure  
Mediterranean sky: the rolling boom of Israeli bombs and missiles  
slamming into Gaza. [7]

Israeli airstrikes in Gaza are anything but "new," but presenting them  
as such--and pairing that presentation with an Israeli family  
sheltered against an incoming Hamas rocket--gives a wildly misleading  
impression of a conflict where the deaths and suffering are  
overwhelmingly on the
Palestinian side.
References

[1] http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2009-01-04-gaza-sunday_N.htm

[2] http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/27/AR2008122700976.html

[3] http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/05/AR2009010502343.html)

[4] http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/opinion/editorials/stories/DN-israel_30edi.State.Edition1.279cf92.html

[5] http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/30/world/middleeast/30hamas.html

[6] http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/19/world/middleeast/19gaza.html

[7] http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1869152,00.html


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