Another Day, Another Way To Attack Israel

At least the NYT didn’t use this to illustrate it’s story from Israel

Dave just posted yesterday’s story of an Arab who pulled a gun on a soldier and got shot by another soldier. Funnily enough a similar thing happened to Police in New York yesterday. Here’s the New York Time’s headline and first paragraph:

Detectives in Queens Kill Man Pointing a Pellet Gun

Two plainclothes detectives fatally shot a man on a darkened Queens corner after he came at them — pointing what appeared to be a semiautomatic pistol, the police said Sunday.

Here’s the NYT (based largely on a Reuters story) reporting of the similar event in Israel:

Israeli Troops Kill Palestinian Youth in West Bank

HEBRON, West Bank (Reuters) – Israeli troops shot dead a Palestinian teenager on Wednesday in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron after the youth threatened them with what appeared to be a pistol, but which may not have been a real weapon, a police spokesman said.

Can you see the problem? Good, you’re not fit to work at the New York Times or Reuters.

  • “man pointing a pellet gun” – make clear there’s a gun involved right up in the headline
  • “fatally shot a man” – no use of the phrase “shot dead”
  • “darekened Queens corner” – excuses
  • “he came at them” – acting aggressively, in Israel the youth only “threatened them”

The NYT story from New York reads like an opening statement for the police officer’s defence at a trial for wrongful shooting that will never come.

7 thoughts on “Another Day, Another Way To Attack Israel”

  1. You’ve got too much time on your hands, Brian. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with either NY Times report of these two incidents involving fake guns. Unfortunately, street crime in New York and conflict between Palestinian youth and the IDF is an everyday occurence. Do you really expect the NY Times to assign an investigative reporter to provide their readers with an in-depth report on what really happened in either event? I don’t know with certainty what happened (and I certainly don’t know the motives of the individuals with the fake guns), neither do you, and that’s just the way it is, Brian.

      1. I know the context of the two events is completely different. I want to believe the IDF account, but I admit to a pro-Israel bias. There is an obvious political overlay with the West Bank incident whereas there is no apparent one in Queens.

        1. The point of the article is that there is a double standard at play here. Two similar incidents reported in entirely different manners.

          1. And my point, Yoni, is that the two incidents, while similar in some respects, are decidedly different in others. Any fair criticism of how the NY Times handled these two stories should take that into account, as well. I readilly agree that there is a long-standing double standard that the world press applies to Israel. All I ask is that Brian, and others, make better arguments to support this accusation.

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