The top story on BBC News right now and a special report on Ha'aretz' internet website is about what the Israeli police are calling a "Jewish terrorist" attack (not my words) in which an Israeli settler and AWOL soldier shot and killed at least 4 Israeli Arabs in a town near the Sea of Galilee. Apparently, a mob of angry Arab Israelis quickly surrounded and beat the gunman to death. Arab Palestinians, mostly Muslim with a few Christians, comprise about 1/5 of Israel's citizens. They are usually seen as "second-class citizens." Read the news stories above for more background on the community of Israeli Arabs.
So far no US media website has a headline about this tragic event. Now, this is the top story on CNN.com, and headlines also appear on all of the sites we monitor except for ABCNews.com. Here's the list of headlines:
NYTimes.com: Israeli Army Deserter Opens Fire on Bus, Killing 4 Arabs
MSNBC.com: Jewish extremist opens fire on bus, killing 4 Arabs
FOXNews.com: Israeli Extremist Kills 3 Arabs
CNN.com: Israeli soldier kills Arab bus passengers, police say
CBSNews.com: Jewish Extremist Kills 4 On Bus
All four of these headlines directly attribute the violent, tragic deaths directly to the Israeli soldier/extremist/army deserter, and so they count in our tallies of headlines mentioning violent deaths. This raises to 8 the number of headlines we've seen that attribute Palestinian deaths to Israelis, and we've only seen two headlines that directly attribute Isareli deaths to Palestinians.
Here are the photos and captions accompanying the stories:
CNN:
A police officer inspects the bus where a gunman killed four people in Israel.
(Israeli with gun)
(no caption - Palestinians grieving/suffering)
CBS:
Carries the first CNN photo as well, with this caption: "An Israeli security officer inspects a bus where a man opened fire killing three people, in the northern Israeli town of Shfaram. (AP)"
A crowd surrounds a bus where a man opened fire killing three people. (Photo: AP) (Palestinians grieving/suffering)
Backdropped by the rising sun, Israeli anti-disengagement demonstrators stand after spending the night on a main road about 20 miles from Gaza, Aug. 4, 2005. (Photo: AP) (doesn't count in our tallies)
The NYTimes carries two photo slideshows with audio that we cannot include in the project. They also carry the first CBS image, above, with the following caption: "A crowd surrounds a bus where a man opened fire killing three people, in the northern Israeli town of Shfaram."
FOX carries a map of the region, and MSNBC's story has no photo.
This adds to our tallies of images, and you can see all the updated tallies at the project's main site, here.
Finally, I'll note once again that violent Israeli settlers are a prime motivator of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. We need to stop them if we are ever to acheive peace. The pullout scheduled to start in a few days must go ahead as planned despite this tragic and misguided attempt to set those plans back.
NYTimes.com: Israeli Army Deserter Opens Fire on Bus, Killing 4 Arabs
MSNBC.com: Jewish extremist opens fire on bus, killing 4 Arabs
FOXNews.com: Israeli Extremist Kills 3 Arabs
CNN.com: Israeli soldier kills Arab bus passengers, police say
CBSNews.com: Jewish Extremist Kills 4 On Bus
All four of these headlines directly attribute the violent, tragic deaths directly to the Israeli soldier/extremist/army deserter, and so they count in our tallies of headlines mentioning violent deaths. This raises to 8 the number of headlines we've seen that attribute Palestinian deaths to Israelis, and we've only seen two headlines that directly attribute Isareli deaths to Palestinians.
Here are the photos and captions accompanying the stories:
CNN:
A police officer inspects the bus where a gunman killed four people in Israel.
(Israeli with gun)
(no caption - Palestinians grieving/suffering)
CBS:
Carries the first CNN photo as well, with this caption: "An Israeli security officer inspects a bus where a man opened fire killing three people, in the northern Israeli town of Shfaram. (AP)"
A crowd surrounds a bus where a man opened fire killing three people. (Photo: AP) (Palestinians grieving/suffering)
Backdropped by the rising sun, Israeli anti-disengagement demonstrators stand after spending the night on a main road about 20 miles from Gaza, Aug. 4, 2005. (Photo: AP) (doesn't count in our tallies)
The NYTimes carries two photo slideshows with audio that we cannot include in the project. They also carry the first CBS image, above, with the following caption: "A crowd surrounds a bus where a man opened fire killing three people, in the northern Israeli town of Shfaram."
FOX carries a map of the region, and MSNBC's story has no photo.
This adds to our tallies of images, and you can see all the updated tallies at the project's main site, here.
Finally, I'll note once again that violent Israeli settlers are a prime motivator of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. We need to stop them if we are ever to acheive peace. The pullout scheduled to start in a few days must go ahead as planned despite this tragic and misguided attempt to set those plans back.
"Today's terrorists are motiviated not by [Zionism], but by good old-fashioned nationalism and resistance to percieved or real foreign interference."
--E. Love
Please don't put words in my mouth.
Although I agree that yesterday's attack was motivated by a sense of nationalism, I deplore both the methods and the ideology behind this settler's actions -- just like I deplore the methods and the ideology behind Palestinian suicide bombings.
Can you say the same?
Oh, and I'm still working on a reply to your latest treatise, so get ready. It'll be on the blog shortly.
That was your quote, with your own words; I just cut/paste "Islam" for "Zionism" just to see how it would sound.
I find it slightly uncomfortable that you think terrorists are merely nationals.
You might find this as a surprise, but I actually agree with this maniac's lynching. He obviously suffered some sort of psychological trauma to be compelled to kill harmless Israeli Arabs in Galilee (you erroneously wrote, Erik, that Israeli Arabs are "Palestinian". They are certainly not).
Galilee is as far removed from Judah and Samaria as you can virtually get in a country aprx. the size of Rhode Island. Why he would target fellow citizens...and fellow citizens in neutral Galilee for that matter is truly amazing.
But when you ask people to negotiate with murderers and recognize terrorist organizations as potential governments, that will compound the stress that people in that region harbor on a daily basis, and a mental breakdown is bound to happen eventually.
I anticipate your newly uploaded reply with particular relish.
Sincerely,
Islam and Zionism are not at all equivilent, so you were putting words in my mouth when you misquoted me above. Please don't do that. If you have a point to make, make it, there's no reason to attribute words to me that aren't mine.
I don't think that all terrorists are merely nationalists, but certainly Palestinian terrorism is motivated by nationalism.
I think it's disturbing that you think the lynching of anyone -- even a murderer -- is agreeable. I would have prefered to have that man face justice in a courtroom and eventually a prison cell.
Israeli Arabs often identify as Palestinians. Why shouldn't they be allowed to call themselves whatever they want?
And, this is a common misnomer with non-Arab terrorists. Arab terrorists are nearly always considered calculating killers, parts of organized terrorist organizations. Non-Arab terrorists are often excused as "crazies" or mentally distrubed.
The killer from last week's Galilee attack was a member of the Israeli settler movement -- a highly organized and very successful organization that has a militant element. I think it is a plausible theory that this guy acted on orders or as part of a cold, calculating terrorist cell. We'll have to wait and see what the investigation turns up.
We have evidence of a coordinated terrorist campaign today. The Israeli Army is frantically searching for nine more AWOL soldiers who still have their firearms. Seperately, the Israeli Defense Minister, Mofaz, ordered the detention of three other soldiers under suspicion of involvement with violence against Palestinians. Ha'aretz:
"Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said Monday that the Israel Defense Forces are doing their best to locate nine soldiers who went AWOL and are still in possession of their weapons. Mofaz said during a Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that hundreds of soldiers have deserted the IDF but only the nine still have their weapons.
...
On Sunday, Mofaz signed two-month administrative detention orders against three Kach activists. The three - Ephraim Hershkowitz, 22, from Jerusalem; Gilad Shochat, 19, from the Havat Maon outpost south of Hebron; and Sa'adia Hershkof, an 18-year-old U.S. citizen living in Kfar Chabad - are suspected of involvement in violence against Palestinians."
Look, clearly the Israeli soldier who killed his fellow citizens was a member of the settler movement and the Kach party. Whether he was also crazy, I have no idea. But it is certainly plausible that he was part of a calculating terrorist operation -- motivated by a sense of strong, expansionist, Israeli nationalism -- that needs to be opposed.