Left I on the News

If you live in the U.S., and watch American network (or cable) TV, there are certain things you won't see, or at least, extremely infrequently - dead American soldiers in Iraq for one, and Palestinians killed by Israelis for another. BBC World (admittedly available in the U.S., on some public TV stations) tonight broke the second barrier tonight (not for the first time), with some graphic footage of today's events in Gaza, where 22 Palestinians were killed by Israeli tanks and helicopter gunships. The dead included five children and a Reuters photographer.

The Israelis, as you'll see in the footage, blame all the civilian deaths on "Palestinian militants using civilians for cover." Watch the footage and see if you think there were gunmen hiding behind the two boys on bicycle. Watch the footage and see if, from where they were, the Israeli tank gunners who fired the shell that killed the Reuters cameraman could have possibly identified him accurately, and imagine if you think it's likely he would have allowed militants to use him for "cover" as he was filming the Israeli tanks.

If you're an American, as I am, these are your (our) tax dollars at work.

Update: Overlapping (but supplementary) footage posted by Al Jazeera on YouTube. I am reminded that Al Jazeera posts a lot of its coverage on YouTube, which is important because, thanks to U.S. corporations (and no doubt pressure from the U.S. government), only a minuscule fraction of the American cable-TV viewing public gets Al Jazeera English on their TV.

Additional update: Thousands turn out for the funeral of Fadel Shana, the Reuters cameraman.