Ambushed
I think I should start a category devoted strictly to why one should never strictly rely on the NY Times for news and information.
JERUSALEM — An Israeli police officer was shot dead in the West Bank on Monday and two more were wounded in the first fatal shooting attack on Israeli security personnel in the area in more than a year. The West Bank has seen only sporadic violence in recent months, but tensions have risen in the region following Israel’s deadly raid on a flotilla bound for Gaza two weeks ago. The attack was on a police vehicle driving in the Hebron area of the southern West Bank, according to a police spokesman, Micky Rosenfeld. Three officers were wounded, and one, Yehoshua Sofer, 39, died in the hospital. No group had claimed responsibility by Monday evening, and no suspect had been arrested.
In February, an Israeli soldier was stabbed to death by a Palestinian police officer in the northern West Bank, and in March of that year two Israeli policemen were killed by gunmen who opened fire on their car in the Jordan Valley area of the West Bank. Last December, an Israeli resident of a West Bank settlement was shot to death on a road near his home, and last month a Palestinian youth who had been throwing stones at Israeli cars passing his West Bank village was shot dead, when an Israeli settler whose car was hit opened fire. The Israeli military, which maintains overall control in the West Bank, has been easing movement for Palestinians in line with improving security and a readiness to help the local economy grow. Roadblocks have been removed as newly trained Palestinian security forces loyal to the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, began to assume a more active role. Noting an easing of restrictions, the Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem stated in its annual report, released Monday, that there were 44 staffed checkpoints inside the West Bank in February, compared with 64 in 2008.
What the NY Times fails to tell its readers is that 1 Israeli police officer was murdered and three others were injured. and not in the line of duty where police officers might be expected to encounter potential violent suspect(s ), but when the vehicle they were traveling in came under sniper fire on Route 60 where a checkpoint was only recently dismantled. Why was there checkpoint established at that particular junction? If you ask Palestinians its to make their lives harder but if you ask the Israelis it was because this site was often used to launch attacks in the past…so who are you going to believe?
In other news, you won’t find in the NY Times, a kassam was launched into Israel from the Gaza Strip today.
