James Hider's Bias In The Times

James Hider, the Times' favourite Israel-hater, had a poor and biased article published on Monday with obvious omissions of facts and context.

The IDF, acting in self-defence killed two Palestinians on Sunday, who had attacked them with a pitchfork, and were also armed with a syringe and glass bottle filled with stones. The Times says that "the unrest was prompted by Palestinian anger at restrictions on access to farmland which is close to an Israeli settlement", as though the only natural reaction to settlements is to try to stab an Israeli with a pitchfork.

Hider uses EoZ's favourite phrase "protests erupted" (the media uses passive phrasing when referring to Palestinian violence); and quotes Ghassan Khatib, an aide to Salam Fayyad the Palestinian Prime Minister, as saying: “We look at this as part of the Israeli escalation. It could have been treated in a completely different way. But the Israelis have been escalating..."

So Hider quotes a Palestinian on Israel's behaviour, but chooses not to mention Hamas' threats of a new intifada.

He talks about the Palestinians that Israel killed, but doens't mention all the injuries and damage caused by the rockets and boulders that Palestinians have been attacking with. Injuries and damage caused to Israelis, even if the intention is to kill, is just not newsworthy compared to some houses being controversially built in Jerusalem.

Here's what Hider and the Times missed:

Today (because it's safe to say it won't be in the Times tommorrow), two Israelis were wounded when Arabs threw rocks at them in their car. One was treated on the spot, the other had to be evacuated to hospital. This incident occured near where a checkpoint was removed in June, under pressure from the US. There has been a rise in rock and fire-bomb attacks in the area, since the checkpoint was removed.
Also today, a rocket fired from Gaza landed on Israeli farmland.

Yesterday, two rockets launched by Palestinians landed in an open area in Sderot, and one mistakenly in Gaza.

On Sunday, several Israeli vehicles were damaged in separate rock-attacks. Also on Sunday, a rocket launched landed south of Ashkelon, no damage.

On Saturday, at least four rockets were launched from Gaza, one landing close to a kibbutz in the South, and sirens going off in several areas from Sderot to Ashkelon.

On Friday, five rockets had been fired in the last 24 hours, with one landing in the Western Negev, and another in the Gaza strip. A man also had his windshield smashed and 18-month old daughter injured in a rock attack in the Old City in Jerusalem.

On Thursday, several Israeli vehicles were damaged in separate rock-attacks at different locations, and a woman and man were injured in two other attacks. A Thai worker on a kibbutz was killed by a rocket in one of five rockets launched into Israel in two days.

On Wednesday a bus was stoned and a rocket was fired landing near Sderot and causing two people to go into shock, one of them a girl.

On Tuesday three buses were stoned, an Israeli woman was injured in a rock-attack and had to be treated in hospital, and two mortar shells missed their target and landed in Palestinian territory.

And on the Saturday before that, Palestinians attacked IDF soldiers with a firebomb and rocks, and in a separate incident that day, a Palestinian was caught at a checkpoint in possession of three knives.

Those incidents are not "resistance"; there was no provocation: the building of houses does not merit an innocent civilian to be injured or killed by rockets or boulders. But perhaps that is the case to James Hider of the Times.