STATISTICS LIE AND WHY I HATE THE MEDIA:
No normal pro-Israel person is not upset by the tragic deaths we hear about among Palestinian civilians. When we hear that a Palestinian woman has died, we feel ashamed despite the fact that we are not guilty. Yes, accidents happen in war, but with the Palestinians it seems like everyone being killed is an innocent, pregnant woman. Or maybe that's just the result of egregious media bias.
While it is true that more Palestinians have died in the two years of uprising than Israelis, this is to be expected. Urban gunfights kill people, such as Mohammed al-Dura, the 12-year-old boy who was actually killed by Palestinian shots in 2000. (Of course, Israel was blamed. What did you expect?) While we say the facts behind the numbers lie, the numbers also lie.According to Jerusalem Media & Communications Center, a Palestinian research organization (which isn't too keen on Israel), 37 Palestinian women were killed between September 30, 2000 and May 7, 2002. This is 2.8% of all Palestinians killed in that period. During the identical period, according to figures issued by Israel's Foreign Ministry, 126 Israeli women were murdered by Palestinians. In other words, 25% of the total Israelis murdered were innocent women. Another Palestinian research group, the Palestinian Monitor, recorded that 11.7% of those killed were children under the age of 15. 57.7% of all Israelis killed were under age 15. In other words, three Israeli women were murdered for every Palestinian woman killed.
Where is the outrage in the media? In Europe? Those who stood by as Jews were slaughtered do so again. At each Palestinian death the media mourns, Robert Fisk shakes an angry fist, the world threatens Israel, and innocent folks in Gaza are lovingly profiled by pandering reporters. I'm not saying that attention shouldn't be paid to the unfortunate Palestinian civilian victims of war. But I haven't seen too many reports on what should be reported: The 126 Israeli women (plus however many more have been killed since May 7) who have been butchered. Why don't BBC cameras enter homes in Tel Aviv and show how a family is now struggling to live without its mother? Why doesn't Jerrold Kessel take his CNN crew to meet the parents who lost both an 18-year-old daughter and her grandmother who went out for ice cream? Where is Peter Jennings, where is Tom Brokaw, where is Dan Rather to show the Itamar basketball court sprayed with the blood of three high school students who magnanimously chose to play basketball? Why do we read flattering profiles of suicide bomber Wafa Idris but never of the victims of these murderers? We don't want equal time for our victims. The Israeli people are being murdered, blown up, stabbed, shot at, but the media doesn't see it fit to report.
UPDATE: I should've said that the RATES were disproportionate and not the numbers. I've mentioned it in a correction post, but if you're being referred to here, check that out.
