Monday, April 25, 2005

When Israelis--any Israeli--die, the New York Times reporters write their obituaries using their own tears, instead of ink. Here is one about Ezer Weizman. As usual, the NYT re-writes the history of Arab-Israeli wars; the writers--it took two to write this obitaury for some reason--states: "He was the military's chief of operations in 1967, when the Arab forces, led by Egypt, began gearing up for a coordinated offensive against Israel. On the morning of June 5, Israel launched a pre-emptive attack..." Of course, there is absolutely no evidence that the Arabs were planning for a coordinated offensive against Israel, especially that the main countries (Syria, Jordan, and Egypt) were bitter rivals until several days if not hours before the war. Secondly, even when Israel attacks--i.e.TAKES the OFFENSIVE--it is referrred to as "pre-emptive attack." Would that language be used to refer to Palestinian political violence?