How to Veto a Veto

Even USA Today saw fit to comment on the John Bolton's US veto of a Security Council resolution on Israel's Beit Hanoun slaughter of last week. This really isn't surprising given the slanted and threadbare coverage of the ongoing crimes of Israel against the people of Gaza. Consider the coverage of the Beit Hanoun killings offered by NPR:

• Morning Edition Nov. 8, 2006: The story gets a brief mention. "The Islamic militant group Hamas today declared an end to an unofficial truce with Israel. This followed the shelling of the northern Gaza town Beit Hanoun that killed 18 people. All of those killed were civilians."

• ATC Nov. 8, 2006: Michele Norris states " at least 18 Palestinian civilians were killed in the Gaza Strip when Israeli artillery fire struck a residential area. Israel expressed regret at the civilian deaths and said its military was targeting militants...." Eric Westervelt adds "Nearly 300 Palestinians, about half of them armed militants, have been killed in Gaza since Israel launched a series of operations in late June after militants attacked an Israeli border post, killing two soldiers and capturing 20-year-old Israeli Corporal Gilad Shalit." Notice how often targets and the dead are described as "militants" even though there has been no impartial investigation into any of these killings. Also notice the continuing lie about Israel launching a series of operations AFTER a border post attack and capture of the Israeli soldier. The fact is that Israel had been assaulting Gaza from early June and had targeted and killed a family on a Gaza beach on June 9, 2006.

• Morning Edition Nov. 9, 2006: Linda Gradstein states, "Then yesterday...errant artillery shells hit a residential compound in Beit Hanoun." Amazing that Gradstein can verify and conclude that they were "errant" and not fired intentionally. You'd never know that groups like Human Rights Watch and B'Tselem have called for independent investigations.

When I condsider how Palestinian people and their culture are being slowly crushed and wiped out by Israel and the US, it sickens and saddens me. The UN Resolution vetoed was a watered down balanced denounciation of the Beit Hanoun attack and still it was too much for the US/Israel coalition. And to listen to NPR' s complicity and silence in this sordid chapter of our history is really maddening.