Did you see the story? It is in the Israeli press and making the rounds on Facebook. You can find the details in my post on HonestReporting, but basically settlers and soldiers in Itamar — scene of the recent terrorist attack — saved the life of a Palestinian woman and her baby. It’s an amazing story, and I hope people keep sharing it until the mainstream media is forced to write about it.

I know that the media is reluctant to cover the story because that is not the image of settlers they want to portray. They prefer the extremists who prance around screaming that we should kill all the Arabs or ship them off to Saudi Arabia. Pictures of settlers must all show men with long beards (obviously religious extremists.)

Recently, I was taken to task for describing the words of a prominent leader of a right-wing group as “ranting.” Specifically, I was appalled at her description of Tsomet HaGush (one of the main crossroads here in Gush Etzion) as a “Bastion of the PLO.”

After much reflection, I have decided that I was indeed wrong to criticize her writing that way.

“Ranting” is way too kind a word to use.

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The esteemed Judge Goldstone.

I spoke with a friend of mine who saw combat in Gaza this past January. He told me about having to kill a seventy year old man.

These are the kind of stories that the media love.

The United Nations Human Rights Commission just published the report of Judge Goldstone accusing Israel of war crimes. The report is five hundred pages long, much of it devoted to tales of Israeli atrocities — based almost entirely on Palestinian accounts.

Now, put yourself in my friend’s position and decide if he is a “war criminal.”

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