Letter to Washington Post Staff

Dear Washington Post Staff,

In Seven Palestinians Die In Israeli Strikes on Gaza - the World in Brief section, page A17 on July 1, 2007, the headline doesn’t seem to specify whether those killed were militants or civilians. The article, though, states that three of the Palestinians killed were “senior Islamic Jihad fighters” and another was “a rocket manufacturer for a wing of Fatah.” The other three were not identified but Israel did say the attacks were targeting those either involved in previous attacks against Israel or planning future attacks. All of this would seem to indicate the need for the usage of what The Post usually refers to as militants. So why didn’t The Washington Post call them Palestinian Militants in the headline rather than just Palestinians? Is it because they find that Palestinians and Militants are synonymous – that they feel the readers, once seeing Palestinians in the headline, will automatically surmise that they were militants?