Israel is always to blame

Over this weekend around 18 rockets were fired from Gaza into Israel. 18 potentially lethal devices that only didn't kill and maim because Israel protects its people and the targeted population flee to bunkers (or similar) when they get the short warning of incoming missiles. The BBC chose not to report the Palestinian attacks on Israel, as is their policy. The BBC have however decided to report the Israeli response. So the BBC can print the headline 'Palestinian killed in Gaza air strike' and start the article thus:

'One civilian has been killed and at least 20 others have been hurt after an Israeli air strike on a militant base in Gaza City, Palestinian medics say.

Missiles reportedly struck a Hamas training facility overnight, sending shrapnel flying into nearby houses.

Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniya accused Israel of an "unjustified and serious escalation" in the Gaza Strip.'

In this instance the BBC do place the Israeli explanation quite high in the report which is refreshing:

'Israel's military expressed "regret", but blamed Hamas for operating "while embedded within a civilian population".

A statement said the civilians were not harmed directly by the missiles, but by the explosion of rockets stored at the Hamas facility. Hamas, it added, had used the civilians "human shields to protect their actions".'

However the historical context is buried and obfuscated further down:

'On Thursday, Gaza-based militants fired rockets into southern Israel in response to another air strike that killed two militants.

The men died when missiles hit a car in which they were travelling on a crowded street in Gaza City.'

So the Palestinian missiles only started on Thursday and only in response to an Israeli attack! Is that really the BBC case? Have the BBC really no knowledge of the regular firing of rockets at Israeli civilians or do they see their role as to propagandise on behalf of Islamist terrorists rather than to impartially report the news? Now, more than ever, the BBC's withholding of the Balen report makes total sense.

The BBC end the piece with these odd sentences:

'The Israeli military said the men had been planning an attack on Israeli civilians and soldiers along Israel's border with Egypt's Sinai peninsula.

Palestinian sources say one of those killed was a member of the Fatah movement's military wing; the other was his nephew, a Hamas member.

The BBC's Wyre Davies in Jerusalem says much of southern Israel is on high alert.

At least one major road near the port of Eilat has been closed, and according to Israeli intelligence sources a significant cross-border attack in the area is expected anytime soon, our correspondent adds.'

'The Israeli military said the men had been planning an attack on Israeli civilians and soldiers along Israel's border with Egypt's Sinai peninsula.' - Palestinian terrorists have been attacking Israelis almost every week this year, not that the BBC have reported this news, so why do the BBC pretend that this is a new threat? Is it because they can portray Israel as attacking Palestinians at just the rumour of an ataack?

I hate, absolutely hate, the way the BBC pretends that Fatah and Hamas have political and military wings, as though the political wing has clean hands and no control or influence over their 'military' wings. Fatah and Hamas are terrorist organisations with the same aim - the destruction of Israel and the killing of Jews. Just as the BBC portrayed Sinn Fein as being somehow separate from the IRA during 'the troubles', the position is laughable and disgusting - terrorists and their associated 'politicians' are as guilty of murder and hate-crime as each other and all should be treated the same. There is no moral difference now between a Hamas terrorist firing a rocket in the direction of an Israeli school and a Palestinian politician who protects this terrorist by lying to the world about why the rocket was fired and what the aims of the joint organisations are.

'The BBC's Wyre Davies in Jerusalem says much of southern Israel is on high alert.'

Does the BBC's Wyre Davies not know how much of Israel is on near permanent alert because of the rockets being fired at Israel? Does he not know or does he not care?