Will Donald Miller Correct?
Donald Miller
Four months ago, Donald Miller, a Christian writer who has a large following among Evangelical (and post-Evangelical) young adults in the United States, wrote a blog entry about the Arab-Israeli conflict titled “The Painful Truth About the Situation in Israel.”
The entry, which was posted on his blog which promotes his most recent book “Storyline,” began with a reference to the death of Jihad Misharawi’s 11-month-old son Omar and declares that he was killed by an Israeli airstrike in the Gaza Strip. To add drama to the entry, Miller posted a photo of Jihad Misharawi holding the body of his dead child and grimacing in agony.
Well, as it turns out, there’s good reason to believe that Omar Misharawi was not killed by an Israeli airstrike, but by a Hamas rocket that fell short during the fighting.
CAMERA researcher Tamar Sternthal provides the detail in a CAMERA analysis published on March 13, 2013:
On March 6, the United Nations’ Human Rights Council issued a report which found that Omar Masharawi and two relatives were likely killed by a Palestinian rocket that fell short. Many media outlets, including the Associated Press, New York Times, and theWashington Post (online) followed up with coverage of the U.N. report, noting its finding that Masharawi was likely killed by an errant Palestinian rocket. On March 11, AP commendably corrected […] its original caption of Jihad and Omar Masharawi, in which the infant’s death was blamed on Israel.
There was doubt about the circumstances surrounding Omar Misharawi’s death soon after it happened. Four months later, it appears that the boy was not killed by Israel, but by Hamas.
Will Miller correct or clarify his entry, or will he ignore the issue?
There are other troubling aspects about Miller’s post. For example, he describes Hamas’ actions as “troubling and unhelpful” but makes no attempt to describe the ideology Hamas uses to justify its violence against Israel.
He also blames the Second Intifada on Ariel Sharon’s visit to the Temple Mount, when there is substantial testimony from Palestinians themselves that state the uprising was planned long before its started.
Is Miller going to address the facts of the Arab-Israeli conflict? Or is he going to stick to his story line?
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