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June 23, 2006
Israel and Media Reporting
On Friday, June 9th, in the northern Gaza area, seven members of a Palestinian family enjoying an excursion to the beach were killed by an explosion. Immediately, the Islamic fundamentalist ruling party of the Palestinian Authority, Hamas, issued a statement claiming that the explosion was the result of a deliberate shelling by Israeli artillery. This news was released to the world's media organizations accompanied by video of a young girl holding onto a dead family member, screaming and weeping. Like most folks who saw this, I, too, couldn't help but feel compassion for the young girl when I saw this.
The next day, Hamas declared that because this attack resulted in casualties, the cease-fire agreement with Israel was void. That same day, Hamas launched more than 10 rocket attacks against Israel from inside Gaza. To almost anyone who has been observing this, Israel looks very much at fault.
The Israeli government promised to investigate this incident. Then, on the 13th, Defense Minister Amir Peretz announced that investigators had found that the explosion was not the result of shelling by Israeli troops. Here's the gist of their findings.
In response to the Israeli government's announcement of findings, the communications minister for the Hamas-run Palestinian Authority critcized Israel by saying, "It's a total fabrication. The Israeli military is just trying to shirk the blame for this."
- Two of the Palestinians wounded by the blast were taken to an Israeli hospital for treatment. However, at the time of their admittance, it was discovered that all pieces of metal had already been removed from their bodies. What's more, it was learned that a Hamas unit had rushed to the scene immediately after the explosion and removed anything that could have been used as evidence.
- The hole left in the ground by the blast is indicative of a land-mine explosion rather than one that is created by an artillery shell. Also, the time of the explosion does not match up with any IDF artillery firings that were carried out on that day.
- The images provided to the media by the Palestinians which linked the attack to the firing of an IDF naval gun in the Mediterranean Sea, were intentionally edited to depict that connection. Israeli naval firing exercises ended more than one hour before the explosion on the beach.
- The most likely cause of the incident seems to be that this was the detonation of explosives that had been buried on the beach by Hamas to guard against possible landings by IDF commandos.
I suppose, by now, we should all be used to seeing this same pattern in the way the media handles this kind of news. The thing that really struck me this time was the trifling way they dealt with the Israeli response as compared to the initial reports about the explosion. News that's critical of Israel always gets a megaphone, but news that supports Israel barely gets heard. It looks like not much has changed.
In closing, I'd like to call your attention to one unrelated item. Harvest Time has just published a new book by recent program guest, Dr. Okio Hino, entitled, Figuring Out Life from a "Philosophy of Cancer" Perspective (Japanese-language only). The content of the book is based upon an interview I did with Dr. Hino, so it's quite easy to read but has real depth to it. To commemorate the publication, we've planned a reception for Dr. Hino. We've asked him to speak and he's now preparing a PowerPoint® presentation for us. The event is free to the public (although we'll be taking a free-will offering) and will be at the Ochanomizu Christian Center's 8th floor chapel (this is in Tōkyō's Chiyoda Ward, a two-minute walk from Ochanomizu Station). It will be on July 10th at 6:30 p.m. I definitely feel like something wonderful will be coming out of this get-together, so please join us if you can. Grace and peace to you in Y'shua's precious name.
Kenichi Nakagawa
Posted by HarvestTV at 11:14 PM | Comments (0)