Letter to The Washington Post

Dear Editors and Staff,

The modus operandi of any group with a cause is to get attention. The Palestinians take it a step farther by routinely putting their own at risk to gain this attention. They tried sending protest boats into Gaza. When no one noticed or seemed to care, they create a crisis by launching missiles into Israel. Of course any country needs to respond to an attack, and they got their desired attention. You would think that after years of such shenanigans, the media would catch on to it, but no - apparently it makes too good copy, so they replay it over and over, especially in a slow news cycle.

In As Israel-Hamas Clashes Continue, Gazans Face Crisis (Nov. 15, 2008), there is a photo (almost 1/4 of a page) of a Palestinian child crying - as if the crying was due to Israel’s embargo (the caption even doesn't state this) - but the inference is unmistakable. What a cynical use of a child as a prop!

And why does The Post feel the need to say it was the "military wing" of Hamas that launched the Soviet-style Grad missiles? Of course it was the military wing! What does the Post think - that readers will think it was the administrative branch doing the attacks?

Deflecting blame for the attacks by saying a "wing" was the culprit is dishonest. It was Hamas that did it. They control the entire area. Their mission, their cause, is the destruction of Israel.
If the Washington Post would really like to help the Palestinian people avoid self-inflicted crises, they would refrain from giving them coverage that encourages them to manufacture crises to obtain world sympathy. Doesn’t the Post understand that it is this coverage that encourages Hamas to launch their rockets?