SOURCE – http://themagneszionist.blogspot.com/2009/01/from-ticking-bombs-to-bombing-tics-why.html

SOURCE – http://themagneszionist.blogspot.com/2009/01/only-jewish-prophet-left-gideon-levy-on.html

It must feel good to be a Palestinian.

But will you hear even a whiff of that from the correspondent? No. He would argue that he merely presents the evidence and allows readers to draw their own conclusions. In a more nuanced case, that might be acceptable. But there is no nuance in what the IDF did in Gaza. An F-16 missile lacks any semblance of nuance.

I think you go way overboard in your reaction to Ethan Bronner’s reporting. I find so often I read his articles and they sit well with me. I don’t expect a moral judgment from him. I expect reporting- as best he can get it. It was not until the so-called “ceasefire” that he was allowed into Gaza and now we get his impressions. I appreciate how hard it is to phrase things to allow the reader to make the “correct” or even obvious judgments as you and I and others do. I don’t want Bronner to spoon feed me and tell me what is moral and what is not.

If you listen to his recent interview on Terri Gross you get a good idea of what is trying to do. I recommend it.

If he had said “Gazans during the recent war did not question the legitimacy…” then he’d certainly be correct. But the way he actually wrote the sentence is patently false. Many Palestinians question the efficacy of firing rockets at Israel. Opinion polls which Bronner has full access to confirm this month after month. The percentage of respondents who question this tactic varies depending on the horror of the week that Israel has inflicted. But the truth is that a significant number of Palestinians feel that firing rockets is a counter-productive tactic. It’s is really unpardonable that Bronner botched this.

Many Palestinians ( both WB’ers and Gazans) can believe in the legitimacy of firing rockets and at the same time question the efficacy of it. Two different things, two different poll questions. They can feel that it is legitimate ( and necessary) and at the same time feel it ( or know it is) counter-productive ultimately, but that they have little choice.

Again, for me good reporting presents facts and impressions in such a way that I am able to make the proper judgments. This has to do with the whole article and all the choices that go into it, choices of which anecdotes to tell or not to tell. It’s an art in a way…. and subject to a deadline.

I read this blog for commiseration and articulation on the similar moral judgments I make. I read certain columnists (opinions) for that commiseration too. I don’t want a reporter to do this. A reporter should report. Bronner has gone well enough beyond reporting so as to set the reader up to make moral judgments of their own.

I personally have been greatly educated by what I’ve read and heard from Bronner on NPR.

You aren’t mentioning reports that you trust more, or contrasting impressions, to provide more complete information, from sources that are equally subject to skepticism.

Please assist in our getting information. I THANK Ethan Bronner for the extent that he and his colleagues have informed. I understand that there is more to inquire into.

by Adam Morrow and Khaled Moussa al-Omrani, February 4, 2009

CAIRO – Despite declarations of victory by Israel, the military assault on the Gaza Strip failed to achieve its stated aims, many analysts say. The assault, and even its exceptional brutality, may only have vindicated the notion of resistance among the Arab public.

“The steadfastness of the resistance in Gaza in the face of Israeli military power has resuscitated the idea of armed resistance,” Gamal Fahmi, political analyst and managing editor of opposition weekly Al-Arabi al-Nassiri, told IPS……

ENTIRE ARTICLE – http://www.antiwar.com/ips/morrowomrani.php?articleid=14189