Steve Inskeep reporting for the IDF--oops--NPR

After a mediocre report from Linda Gradstein and a lopsidedly pro-Israel report from Eric Westervelt this morning on the escalating violence between Israel and Palestinians, Steve Inskeep asks Eric Westervelt, the reporter on the ground, "Do the Israelis have any other options here [to stop the rocket attacks from Gaza into Sderot]?" Westervelt goes on to answer that the main options are commando raids or a full invasion to establish "buffer zones." Nothing is mentioned about Israel's options of stopping the use of airstrikes, artillery barrages, illegal imprisonment and assasinations, or of using backdoor-diplomacy to maintain the 16 month old ceasefire, etc. He mentions that there are politcal/military risks for Israel in an invasion, while barely mentioning the horrors that such an invasion would visit on the civilians of Gaza. Once again NPR shows that its coverage of the Israel's actions in the occupied zones and the armed conflict between the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) and Palestinians will always at its core be from the Israeli military's viewpoint. This is too bad, not only because it is poor journalism that fails to address the historical, moral, and legal aspects of the conflict-- but it also fails to cover the the wide range of opinions that exist among Israeli's themselves.