Reuters repeats lie that Gaza is facing humanitarian crisis

Repetition is a classic propaganda technique designed to lead the reader to an hypnotically-induced acceptance of the propagandist's message.  Repetition combined with mendacity has potentially catastrophic consequences as millions of people can be led to believe, and react to, malicious disinformation and calumnies.  Joseph Goebbels understood this -- as does Reuters.

In a story on US Vice-President Joe Biden commenting on the Gaza flotilla incident, Reuters correspondent Ross Colvin repeats the Big Lie:

The United Nations says the blockade has led to a humanitarian crisis among the territory's 1.5 million people.

No.  The United Nations has said just the opposite.  Viewed objectively as well, there is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

UPDATE 2:15 PM: Reuters Bureau Chief Alastair Macdonald and Editor-in-charge Jeffrey Heller repeat the lie in another story here.

Does Reuters read the news?

The lead paragraph in bold and oversized type in a story by Reuters' Nidal al-Mughrabi shouts out:

GAZA (Reuters) - Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip not only restricts imports to the enclave but has also crushed traditional exports like fruit, flowers, furniture and ceramics.

Apparently, al-Mughrabi is so busy demonizing Israel, he doesn't have time to read the news:

As of Sunday, more than 1.3 million carnation and more than 41 tons of strawberries left Gaza to European markets.

Carry on Nidal.

Propagandists at Reuters launch appeal to pity laden with errors of omission and of commission

An appeal to pity is a logical fallacy and propaganda technique designed to persuade by exploiting the natural tendency to sympathize with human beings who are ill, impoverished or downtrodden.  Rather than provide facts or evidence which would enable a reader to form a dispassionate and informed view on the authenticity, extent, and cause of the adversity, highly emotive stories and photos are deliberately deployed to manipulate the reader into docilely embracing the propagandist's advocacy agenda.  When it comes to the Palestinian Arabs, Reuters has elevated the appeal to pity to a rare art form.

In a story on a report by the Association for International Development Agencies (AIDA), a forum of international NGOs operating in the disputed territories of Gaza and the West Bank (also, Judea and Samaria), Reuters correspondents Nidal al-Mughrabi and Douglas Hamilton quote Max Gaylard, United Nations "resident Humanitarian Coordinator for the Palestinian territories", complaining that Israel is not providing Gazan Arabs with advanced medical care on a timely basis:

"It is causing on-going deterioration in the social, economic and environmental determinants of health," he said. "It is hampering the provision of medical supplies and the training of health staff and it is preventing patients with serious medical conditions getting timely specialized treatment."

Presumably, the "it" being referred to by Gaylard is the state of war between the Gaza-ruled terrorist group Hamas and Israel.  And yes, one might expect that given the firing of over 8,000 Hamas rockets and mortars into Israeli civilian communities and a religious mission to exterminate every last Jew, Israel might be somewhat guarded about allowing supplies into Gaza which could be converted into war materiel or throwing open its borders to Gazans seeking free medical care in Israel.

More flagrant however, is Reuters' uncritical parroting of this bald-faced lie:

"The humanitarian community is gravely concerned about the future of this generation whose health needs are not being met. The decline in infant mortality, which has occurred steadily over recent decades, has stalled in the last few years."

In fact, infant mortality in Gaza has declined 25 percent in recent years, from over 24 per thousand live births in 2003 to just over 18 per thousand in 2009:

Not only that, but life expectancy has been steadily increasing:

And the death rate has been falling:

Hmmm.  Quite odd for a territory AIDA suggests is suffering from "on-going deterioration in the social, economic and environmental determinants of health".

If Hamas used its ambulances to transport the sick rather than terrorists, the numbers might be even better.

Reuters misleads (again) on the cause of suspended peace talks

In a previous post, we noted Reuters erroneous assertion that peace talks between the Palestinian Authority and Israel under former PM Ehud Olmert had broken down as a result of the Gaza War last January.  We linked to two previous Reuters articles and a Wall Street Journal story demonstrating that in fact, the PA led by its President, Mahmoud Abbas, had effectively terminated negotiations with Israel as early as the Fall of 2008 following Abbas' refusal to accept Olmert's offer of a Palestinian state on 97 percent of the West Bank (also, Judea and Samaria) and the PA's inability to persuade the Quartet to specify that a Palestinian state be established on all territory beyond the 1949 armistice lines with the eastern part of Jerusalem as its capital.

In a story appearing on its website today, Reuters' Allyn Fisher-Ilan repeats the canard:

Abbas suspended talks with Netanyahu's predecessor over the Gaza war. 

As demonstrated above, this is a false reading of the historical record; the Gaza War was not the precipitating factor leading to a collapse in talks between the parties.  Negotiations had failed well before the war and it is likely that Abbas even supported and cooperated with Israeli efforts to end Hamas rule in Gaza.

More photos Reuters won't show you

Reuters photographers frequently snap and publish pics of Palestinians violently protesting against a wide variety of perceived Israeli offenses, from Jews ascending the Temple Mount in Jerusalem to work being performed on the security barrier in places like Bil'in.

Much less so (if ever) do we see Reuters photos of Palestinians violently protesting against their Arab brethren.  So, thanks to Palestine Today, here they are in action on the border with Egypt:

Hezbollah says: "Polly wanna cracker"; Reuters says: "Polly wanna cracker"

In its reporting on the Middle East conflict, Reuters frequently parrots Arab rhetoric, providing no criticism, no analysis, and no balance.  This is not only lousy journalism, it's also a violation of Reuters' own code spelled out in its Handbook:

We must be on alert for language that could imply support for one side of a conflict, sympathy for a point of view, or an ethnocentric vantage point. We should, for example, provide the dual names of disputed territories [uh-huh, how often does Reuters refer to the disputed territories of Judea and Samaria as such?]. We must not parrot any loaded expressions used by our sources, except in quotes and official titles.

In a story today about Hezbollah calling on Egypt to cease construction of the subterranean wall it is building along the Gaza border, Reuters correspondent Mariam Karouny parrots Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.  Here's the Nasrallah quote first:

We call on the government in Egypt and the leadership to stop the wall and flooding the tunnels and to end the siege otherwise it should be condemned by all Arabs and the Muslims [italics, ours].

And here's Karouny:

Tensions between Egypt, a predominantly Sunni country, and Hezbollah, a Shi'ite group backed by Iran, have been running high since last year when Nasrallah accused Cairo of complicity with Israel in its siege of the Gaza strip [italics, ours].

Note the reiteration (sans quotation marks) of the very loaded expression, "siege".  Our desktop dictionary defines "siege" as "the act or process of surrounding and attacking a fortified place in such a way as to isolate it from help and supplies".  Now, here's the latest report on the help and supplies -- food, fuel, desalination systems, and medical care -- provided by Israel to the Palestinians in Gaza:

Since the end of the IDF operation in Gaza (18 Jan 2009), 668,393 tons of aid and 100,645,680 liters of fuel have been delivered to the Gaza Strip.

On Dec. 21, 2009, six advanced water desalination systems were transferred to the Gaza Strip... The systems are planned to supply good quality drinking water to 40,000 citizens, and were installed as part of a sewage water treatment project in the northern Gaza Strip, which is coordinated by the Gaza CLA in collaboration with the international bodies working in the Gaza Strip and the relevant Palestinian authorities.

In 2009, ten thousand patients and their escorts were able to leave the Gaza Strip in order to receive medical treatment within Israel and the Judea and Samaria region.

 Ahem, quite a "siege".

The other news

In last week's installment of "The other news", we cited an article in Palestine Today reporting on Palestinian snipers firing at Egyptian security forces associated with the subterranean wall Egypt is building along its border with Gaza.  ANSAmed reports that on December 21:

in Rafah (south of Gaza) some 700 people joined a demonstration staged in this portion of Palestinian territory controlled by Hamas Islamic radicals to protest against the underground steel barrier planned by Egypt along the only section of the Gaza Strip border that is foreign to Israel. The protesters gathered in front of the so-called Saladins Door, near the Egyptian border, but not in front of the main Rafah pass. The crowd included local residents, local Hamas activists and even one of the movements spokespersons who arrived from Gaza City, Sami Abu Zahri, who requested a halt to work in progress and the dismantling of the section of the barrier that has already been built. During the gathering people chanted slogans inviting Egypt not to choke the people of Gaza and to help the Palestinian people, while others carried signs saying Stop the siege or Enough walls and invoked Arab solidarity

Apparently, Erika Solomon of Reuters was too busy doing her Christmas shopping in Bethlehem to attend the party at Saladin's Door or to notice the very unfestive wall on the Egypt-Gaza border.

                                                      Photos courtesy of Elder of Ziyon

More broken boilerplate

The most recent anti-Israel propaganda to be boilerplated and perpetually recycled by Reuters is this:

The United Nations and Western powers hope a swap will open the way to a relaxation of Israel's blockade of Gaza, where 1.5 million Palestinians are dependent on food aid and smuggled goods.

A ludicrous suggestion here, that 1.5 million Palestinian Arabs living in Gaza are dependent on food aid and smuggled goods.  Not only is this notion patently false, we thought it would be interesting to have a look at the actual economic statistics for "blockaded" Gaza.  Although the strip is impoverished by Western standards, we wonder how many people (or Reuters correspondents) know that per capita GDP in Gaza is actually higher than India, Pakistan, Vietnam, the US Marshall Islands, and double that of resource-rich Ghana.

An interesting tidbit the automatons at Reuters are apparently unable or unwilling to disclose.

Perfect timing

In a story on the threat by a German mediator that he will quit if Israel and Hamas do not reach a deal soon on a prisoner exchange, Reuters correspondents Alexander Dziadosz and Ori Lewis suggest:

The United Nations and Western powers hope a succesful swap will open the way to a relaxation of Israel's blockade of Gaza, where 1.5 million Palestinians are dependent on food aid and smuggled goods for daily survival.

Reuters' timing is impeccable as we just ran a story (below) from Palestine Today about Palestinian snipers taking pot shots at Egyptian security forces due to their apparent displeasure with a 7-mile-long subterranean steel wall Egypt is constructing under the Gaza border to prevent smuggling.  In their story, Dziadosz and Lewis cite only "Israel's blockade" -- no mention of Egypt.

Note also, how Dziadosz and Lewis imply that all 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza are dependent on food aid (and smuggled goods).  Apparently, they haven't seen the pics from the market.

The other news

With Reuters correspondents perennially focused on the Israel-Palestinian conflict and violent incidents on the border between Gaza and Israel, it is sometimes easy to forget that Gaza also shares a border (and wall) with Egypt and that that border can be just as dangerous.  Translated from the original Arabic, the Palestine Today news agency reports:

Egyptian security sources said Egyptian security forces came under fire by Palestinian militants for the second time in three days, without the reported casualties among the soldiers.  According to security sources the shots were aimed at Egyptian soldiers fired from a sniper rifle from a high place on the Palestinian side neighborhood Brahmins border area with Egypt.

This is the second incident, which have been targeted by snipers from the Palestinian side of the border forces of Egypt, particularly after the target equipment for installation of the steel wall for three days and suffered five gunshot drilling machine caused the holes, while continuing to drilling equipment and installation of corrugated iron on the Egyptian side of its work under the state of security alert large Security Egyptian-Palestinian border and strengthen the border with more troops and armored vehicles.

The "steel wall" referred to is a 7-mile-long subterranean wall Egypt is building along the border with Gaza to prevent Palestinian smuggling.

Reuters assumes its readers are blind or stupid

Writers and editors for Reuters frequently bend themselves out of shape to heap blame on Israel even when it is pitifully obvious that the Palestinians or Arab states are due the criticism.

In a story today drawn from an article appearing in the newspaper Ha'aretz, Reuters reports that Egypt is building an underground wall to block Palestinian smuggling tunnels.  Reuters writes:

Israeli daily Haaretz reported Egypt was installing an underground metal wall about 20 to 30 metres (70-100 feet) deep along the short border strip where Palestinians have dug a warren of tunnels to break the Israeli blockade of Gaza.

As in nearly all of its other stories on Palestinian smuggling tunnels, Reuters refers only to the "Israeli blockade" of Gaza.  While the last paragraph of the story indicates that Egypt "controls" the southern border of the strip, there is no explicit mention of the obvious: Egypt is blockading Gaza.  To admit this would be to admit that, 1) there is an alternative route (other than from Israel) for goods to pass into Gaza, and 2) Egypt frequently prohibits the entry of those goods.  Either of these admissions would distract from the Reuters anti-Israel narrative, i.e, Israel is responsible for what hardship exists in Gaza.

Can't have that.

Douglas Hamilton cites Israel-hating radical leftist in "FACTBOX"

In our previous post, we noted Reuters' use of its "FACTBOX" format to further its Palestinian advocacy agenda under the guise of providing its audience with the facts on Jewish settlements.

Douglas Hamilton surpasses himself in another "FACTBOX" appearing today entitled, "Where does the Middle East peace process stand?"  Quoting an anonymous "Israeli left-wing commentator" on the raison d'etre of the settlement freeze announced by Israel, Hamilton writes:

[the commentator] says the freeze is a masquerade to appease U.S. President Barak Obama and put the onus for the stalled peace process on Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

The commentator cited by Hamilton is none other than Gideon Levy, writer for the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz.  How do we know this?  Well, another Reuters correspondent, Allyn Fisher-Ilan, parroted the same suggestion by Levy in a story on Sunday.

For those unfamiliar with Levy, Spiegel Magazine describes him as Israel's "most radical [leftist] commentator" and reports that:

With the beginning of the second Palestinian intifada in 2000 and the accompanying suicide attacks in Israeli cities... Subscribers [to Ha'aretz] began to abandon the paper in droves. The most common reason given by readers who canceled their subscriptions was one journalist, Gideon Levy

For a newspaper with a nearly exclusive leftist readership, Levy's output was clearly too odious for even the most extreme elements in Israeli society.  And from a Levy story appearing in Ha'aretz in 2004, here's an illustration of why:

At the same time, their state [Israel] continues to strengthen the settlements, which are the major obstacle to the attainment of peace with the Palestinians, which alone can put an end to the firing of rockets at Sderot.

Note that Levy is attempting to justify the thousands of rockets fired by Palestinian terrorists in Gaza into Israeli border communities -- a situation which continues to this day despite the removal of every single settlement from Gaza in 2005.   Not only is Levy's stance morally reprehensible, it has been proven dead wrong.

Yet for Douglas Hamilton and Reuters, amongst all the genuine experts whose views on the Middle East conflict could have been cited, it is the "wisdom" of Gideon Levy which merits inclusion in a "FACTBOX".

Remind us again of Reuters self-proclaimed "freedom from bias".

Photos Reuters will never show you

In previous posts, we have noted how Reuters cynically deploys photos which support the media company's Palestinian advocacy agenda; specifically, photos intended to elicit pity, photos which omit essential content or context, and photos that are incongruous with their capitions.

One of the recurring themes in Reuters reporting on the Middle East conflict is the hardship faced by Gazans purportedly due to the war with Israel in January and the ongoing embargo on certain products due to Israeli concerns that Palestinian terror groups will co-opt these for war materiel.  Readers are often treated to photos and stories of food shortages, closed businesses, and general deprivation.

Thanks to the Palestine Today website, we thought you might enjoy a few current scenes of "deprived" Gaza which Reuters (with their 100+ reporters and photographers in the area) have apparently missed .

In addition to the obvious abundance of food, clothes, and shoppers, note the use of items like digital scales, microwave ovens, and commercial refrigerators.

The other news

Continuing with our series of news of the Middle East conflict which Reuters does not report (despite its 100+ correspondents, editors, and photographers in the region), Egyptian police seized a pick-up truck yesterday laden with a ton of explosives and destined for the Gaza smuggling tunnels.  According to the linked AP article, police also found and destroyed four tunnels in Rafah.

Reuters, which almost never misses an opportunity to broadcast Israeli efforts to curtail the transportation of weapons into Gaza, was apparently too preoccupied with Iraqi depression over a ban on the national soccer team to notice events in Egypt.

Priorities, priorities.

Sporadic skewed reporting

Reuters correspondents love to play down Palestinian terror attacks (when reported at all) and their favorite Orwellian adjective to minimize describe rocket attacks from Gaza -- over 250 of which have been launched since the war ended in January -- is "sporadic".  On Saturday, Israel responded to one of these attacks and true to form, Reuters seeks to downplay Palestinian efforts to murder Israeli civilians:

The [Israeli] attacks occurred one day after Hamas said it had reached an agreement with smaller armed groups in the territory to halt sporadic rocket fire toward Israel, which often responds with air strikes.

And, a few paragraphs down, again:

The Israeli military usually responds to sporadic rocket attacks by launching air strikes against tunnels under the Egyptian border used to smuggle goods and weapons into Gaza.

Since Reuters rarely reports on the effects of these "sporadic" rocket attacks, we think a reminder is in order:

An economy of words; an abundance of lies

In a news brief appearing this morning, Reuters reports on an incident occurring near a Gaza border crossing which led to the shooting death of a Palestinian by the Israel Defense Forces. In a story of only 255 words, the media company manages to embed a misleading assertion, a mischaracterization, one very odd almost certain factual error, and a single sentence containing a gross understatement, a red herring, and a one-sided false account.  First, the misleading assertion and mischaracterization:

The fatality was the first since August along the tense border of the coastal territory ruled by Hamas Islamists that has remained largely quiet since an Israeli offensive that ended in January.

We're not sure how Reuters would define "largely quiet"; however, as of October 14th 2009, Hamas and other Palestinian terror groups had launched more than 250 rockets and mortars into Israel following the end of the Gaza war in January.  Reuters correspondents obviously have a very high tolerance for rockets -- particularly when they're landing on Israelis.

Reuters consistently mischaracterizes the war in Gaza as an "Israeli offensive", omitting any mention of the more than 3,000 rockets and mortars launched by Palestinian terror groups toward Israeli civilian communities in 2008 alone.

Next comes a very odd factual error:

Hamas police described those shot at on Friday as youths who had gone to the area near a Gaza border fence with Israel to hunt for dogs

Hunt for dogs??  We'll reserve further comment on this likely gaffe until Reuters inevitably updates its story.

Finally, following a report of a Palestinian Arab attempting to stab an Israeli policeman with a knife, there is this sentence of 34 words containing a gross understatement, a red herring, and a one-sided false account:

There were no reported injuries in the incident in Jerusalem, where tensions have led to sporadic protests in the past few weeks by Palestinians accusing Israel of allowing Jewish nationalists access to the holysite.

Sporadic "protests" in Reuters' parlance actually refers to Palestinian Arabs throwing rocks and mortar bricks at French and Jewish visitors to the Temple Mount, Judaism's holiest site, as we noted here.  The entire statement represents a red herring as the Palestinian riots of over a month ago are wholly unrelated to the knifing incident today -- except to the extent that Palestinian violence directed at Jews is routine.  And Reuters offers only a Palestinian account of the cause of the earlier violence ("allowing Jewish nationalists access to the holysite"), an account which is false.

Reuters warns of "grim Gaza winter". You know who gets the blame

In an appeal to pity, Reuters' Nidal al-Mughrabi interviews Maxwell Gaylard, UN Deputy Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process and Humanitarian Coordinator for the Palestinian territories. Al-Mughrabi cites UN figures on the number of Palestinian homes destroyed or damaged during the Gaza war in January and then paraphrases Gaylard as urging Israel to allow in to the territory steel, cement and other raw materials earmarked for various UN building projects. As a response to Israeli concerns that these materials will be used for military purposes by Hamas, Gaylard is quoted as saying:

We can account for all the materials that can go into those projects.

Reuters fails to provide readers with any context for Israeli concerns by, for example, reporting on documented cases of Hamas stealing food and blankets and cement and other construction materials from the UN in the past.

We have little doubt that Palestinians are facing hardship as a result of property damage sustained during the Gaza war. A genuine and unbiased news story however, would balance an interview with a UN official sympathetic to the Palestinians with countervailing testimony from the Israeli perspective so as to fully inform its readers and enable them to draw their own conclusions as to who ultimately, is accountable for that hardship.

The alternative, manufactured by Reuters, is simply propaganda intended to play on emotions and lead the reader to a preordained verdict -- with Israel the guilty party.

The one-sided match

Imagine for a moment you're watching the Wimbledon tennis championships broadcast by the BBC.  The camera is focused intently on Maria Sharapova as she dives to return an ace service traveling at 125 mph.  On the next serve, we see Sharapova successfully return; the ball then comes back to her as a wicked cross-court which she manages to drive across the net with her inimitable two-handed backhand.  The ball once again crosses the net toward Sharapova, this time as a lob to the backcourt.  The camera follows her as she falls back, allows the ball to bounce, and smashes a winner down the line.  All the action captured in breathtaking fashion by the BBC except for one missing element: the opponent.

This is the way Reuters typically covers the Middle East conflict.  Hamas or one of the other Palestinian terror groups in Gaza will fire rockets at Israeli communities.  There may or may not be a direct hit; there may or may not be casualties (although there will always be a terrorized civilian population), yet there will be no mention of the attack on Reuters' website.  Then, perhaps 12 to 24 hours later, Israel will retaliate with a military strike in Gaza and within minutes, Reuters will be reporting prominently on the incident. At this point, the preceding Palestinian attack will sometimes be mentioned (but downplayed), sometimes not.

The intent of this pattern of selective reporting is of course, to draw attention away from acts of aggression by the Palestinian Arabs while highlighting Israeli military force in response. The cumulative effect is an audience which is anesthetized to Palestinian homicidal violence and hypersensitive to a nation defending against it.

Reuters serving as mouthpiece for discredited HRW

Following their usual tidy disclaimer,

Reuters and AlertNet are not responsible for the content of this article or for any external internet sites. The views expressed are the author's alone,

Reuters acts as a mouthpiece for the corrupt and Nazi-infatuated rights "experts" at Human Rights Watch by publishing an HRW press release which urges the UN to implement the recommendations of the Goldstone report on the war in Gaza.

We won't fully critique the Goldstone report which despite its 575 pages has, within hours of publication, already been stripped of all credibility by other readers 1) here, 2) here, 3) here, and especially comprehensively 4) here, 5) here, 6) here, 7) here, 8) here, 9) here, 10) here, 11) here, and 12) here.

We do however, need to point out a couple of inanities in the press release by HRW which as a result of its partnership with Reuters as an AlertNet member, obtains free and unfettered publishing rights on the Reuters/AlertNet website.

The essence of the press release is to urge the US government, "not to stand in the way of the recommended Security Council action that would for the first time address the conduct of both Israel and Hamas". HRW goes on to aver that:

The Human Rights Council alone is no substitute for the Security Council because Israel has dismissed the council as biased and because the Security Council can refer the situation in Gaza to the International Criminal Court (ICC)... The ICC, the only permanent international criminal court, is the obvious international tribunal for war crimes committed during the Gaza conflict.

Of course, the International Criminal Court has no power whatsoever to successfully prosecute Hamas leaders for war crimes who after all, represent an outlaw terror group -- not a state -- and are answerable to no international body or legal authority. Thus, only Israeli military officials and/or government leaders would be subject to the prosecution for which HRW bays.

Even Arab states traditionally ignore the ICC. Remember Sudan's president, Omar Al-Bashir? While he tours the Arab/Muslim world freely, the ICC is still trying to enforce the warrant it issued for his arrest on war crimes and crimes against humanity. Good luck arresting Hamas' Khaled Meshal; we're sure the Syrian authorities will be right on the case.

The UN Security Council is similarly helpless to punish Hamas for war crimes as any international sanctions aimed at ejecting them from power would almost certainly impact negatively on the Palestinian population in Gaza. We wonder if the United Nations, assisted by HRW, would then accuse itself of "collective punishment" and "crimes against humanity" as Goldstone has labeled the Israeli blockade.

HRW then goes on to promote some of its previous accusations of war crimes against Israel, like "shooting civilians who were waving white flags".

Yes, we remember that.

The artful use of the adjective; the verbose use of the verb

Yesterday, we commented on the highly politicized NGO press releases appearing on Reuters AlertNet website. Digging into the "related articles" section of the Palestinian territories portion of the site, we find this whopper propaganda piece from June written by Katie Nguyen. (Note that Nguyen is not an aid worker but a Reuters AlertNet correspondent based in London).

A revealing and informative way to analyze Reuters' handling and perspective on the conflict is to simply list the descriptive terms employed by the writer to advance her story. Let's have a look.

For Nguyen, Israel:

thwarts
flattened
damaged
blockades
frustrates
strangles
forces
restricted
tightened
bombed
invaded
devastated
barred
prohibited
punishes,

while the Palestinians:

struggle
suffer
depend

and are:

traumatized
tired
depressed

In an article of over 800 words, Nguyen devotes five -- "militants firing rockets into Israel" -- to contextualize the war in Gaza which was actually preceded by more than 3,000 rockets and mortars launched against Israeli civilian communities by Palestinian terrorists in 2008 alone.

We can think of a few adjectives to describe that side of the story.