Friday, February 3, 2012

The exception that proves the rule

In a "man bites dog" story, Reuters correspondents Jihan Abdalla and Allyn Fisher-Ilan tell the tale of an Israeli soldier, inadvertently separated from his battalion in Judea and Samaria (the "West Bank") where they had been confronting Palestinians throwing rocks.  The soldier was apparently escorted out of the territory by a local villager:
In the stormy weather, a soldier charged with guarding a street ended up isolated from his peers and was unaware when they withdrew from the area, reports and witnesses said.
A Palestinian man identified as Mohammed said he went to tell a soldier he noticed standing alone on a village road that the others had withdrawn.
The soldier "seemed confused and his face turned red," Mohammed said, adding he then escorted the soldier toward his own home where other soldiers later picked him up.
Israeli media said the soldier, armed with a personal weapon, had been isolated from his unit for half an hour. A military spokeswoman called it "a matter of minutes" before he was reunited with other troops.
Ayyed Morrar, a local activist in Boudros, told an Israeli television station of the assistance given the soldier:
"We oppose the occupation and are willing to pay the price for freedom, but not in a way that leads to killing."
Abdalla and Fisher-Ilan don't disclose why such a mundane occurrence is worthy of a column by the largest multimedia news company in the world.

So we will.

It's because this story belies all of the "dog bites man" stories Reuters correspondents have witnessed over the years and deliberately hidden from public view:

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