Has anyone else noticed that Hamas fighters are completely missing from the international media's ongoing Israel-Gaza body count?
Every breakdown of Israel's casualties is along the lines of, "[Number] of Israelis have been killed, [X] soldiers and [Number-X] civilians."
Every breakdown of Gaza's casualties is along the lines of, "[Much Bigger Number] of Palestinians have been killed, most of them civilians."
So for one thing, that "most of them" (AFP was even claiming 80% civilian casualties at one point, although they made sure to cite "rights groups") is almost certainly untrue. Given the age and gender breakdown in Gaza as a whole compared to the age and gender breakdown among those killed, it's extremely unlikely that the civilian death toll is even all that close to 50%, let alone higher. (Odds are astronomically against an 80% civilian death toll.)
(My knowledge of both math and politics comes in handy, for once).
Obviously the ideal is no civilian casualties. I'm not saying the current rate is fine by me. Just saying that the media is, as always, full of crap.
But that's not even the strange part (I expect the media to be full of crap). The strange part is - why not "[Number] of Palestinians have been killed, [20% of Number] Hamas fighters and [80% of Number] civilians."?
OK, we don't know the exact numbers. So, say, "1,050 Palestinians have been killed, an estimated 500 of them Hamas members and at least 300 civilians."
But no. The fact that Hamas' people are dying by the hundreds is left for the reader to figure out themselves, through their own mental calculations.
If I saw that in one or two news stories I'd think it was a coincidence, but so far it's been literally every single one (except perhaps in Israeli media).
I'm leaning toward thinking that it's intentionally soft wording aimed at protecting news agencies' people in Gaza. As in, Hamas would not be kind to any reporter who dared to explicitly state that its death toll is far higher than the IDF's. Their PR has always involved denying their own losses.
Whatever the reason, it makes Israel look pretty terrible (the wording gives the not-so-subtle sense that there are only three parties involved: the IDF, Israeli civilians, and Gazan civilians. True, nobody who's following the news could actually think that, but I believe wording has a subconscious impact regardless).
Other conspiracy theories welcome (as are links to articles that totally disprove my theory by using explicit wording re: Hamas casualties).
Every breakdown of Israel's casualties is along the lines of, "[Number] of Israelis have been killed, [X] soldiers and [Number-X] civilians."
Every breakdown of Gaza's casualties is along the lines of, "[Much Bigger Number] of Palestinians have been killed, most of them civilians."
So for one thing, that "most of them" (AFP was even claiming 80% civilian casualties at one point, although they made sure to cite "rights groups") is almost certainly untrue. Given the age and gender breakdown in Gaza as a whole compared to the age and gender breakdown among those killed, it's extremely unlikely that the civilian death toll is even all that close to 50%, let alone higher. (Odds are astronomically against an 80% civilian death toll.)
(My knowledge of both math and politics comes in handy, for once).
Obviously the ideal is no civilian casualties. I'm not saying the current rate is fine by me. Just saying that the media is, as always, full of crap.
But that's not even the strange part (I expect the media to be full of crap). The strange part is - why not "[Number] of Palestinians have been killed, [20% of Number] Hamas fighters and [80% of Number] civilians."?
OK, we don't know the exact numbers. So, say, "1,050 Palestinians have been killed, an estimated 500 of them Hamas members and at least 300 civilians."
But no. The fact that Hamas' people are dying by the hundreds is left for the reader to figure out themselves, through their own mental calculations.
If I saw that in one or two news stories I'd think it was a coincidence, but so far it's been literally every single one (except perhaps in Israeli media).
I'm leaning toward thinking that it's intentionally soft wording aimed at protecting news agencies' people in Gaza. As in, Hamas would not be kind to any reporter who dared to explicitly state that its death toll is far higher than the IDF's. Their PR has always involved denying their own losses.
Whatever the reason, it makes Israel look pretty terrible (the wording gives the not-so-subtle sense that there are only three parties involved: the IDF, Israeli civilians, and Gazan civilians. True, nobody who's following the news could actually think that, but I believe wording has a subconscious impact regardless).
Other conspiracy theories welcome (as are links to articles that totally disprove my theory by using explicit wording re: Hamas casualties).
No comments:
Post a Comment