New York Times Makes Rocket Attacks Disappear with Smoke, Mirrors, Euphemism

By Published On: October 31, 2011

beersheva car hamas rockets.jpg

Readers of the New York Times today are unwitting witnesses to a remarkable vanishing act. Reporters Isabel Kershner and Fares Akram take the reality of hundreds of rockets and mortars fired at Israel from Gaza in 2010 and 2011 and, with deft slight of hand, make it disappear:

Hamas has largely maintained the fragile cease-fire that went into effect after Israel ended its three-week military offensive in Gaza in early 2009. The smaller factions in Gaza are less committed, but are under pressure from Hamas to comply.

“Less committed to a ceasefire” is apparently the newspaper’s new euphemism for “committed to incessant and indiscriminate rockets attacks.”

In 2010, Palestinians fired 365 rockets and mortar shells toward Israel, according to Israel’s count. And through September of this year, another 566 rockets and mortar shells were launched by Gaza-based groups, including Hamas, according to Shabak monthly reports.

That’s nearly 1,000 projectiles in less than two years. Or, if you’re a New York Times journalist abandoning facts and precision for euphemism, it’s just an imperfect commitment to a cease-fire.

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