Prediction Confirmed: International Media Presents Israeli Retaliation as "Savage Revenge Attacks"

On Sunday, I predicted the following regarding Israel's response to the rocket bombardment from Gaza:

The international press, which is complicit in Palestinian propaganda, is all too eager to present the Israeli and Palestinian misinformation as "savage revenge attacks"

Later that day, the AP published this:

The Israeli soldiers danced in a circle after firing the artillery and sang a biblical song of revenge.

The incident itself did not convey the impression that the AP was looking for, because it was a test firing (or perhaps a warning shot) into an empty field that caused no casualties. So the reporter ignored the fact that there is no such thing in Hebrew as a biblical song of revenge.

I am familiar with this fact because it was a turning point in the must-read story of a PLO terrorist who became an ardent pro-Zionist through conversion to Christianity (here is the must-hear version). Walid Shoebat recounts how his life was suffused with anti-Israel hate propaganda and was stunned by his eventual realization that in contrast, Israeli songs are filled with themes of peace. He even related an anecdote that as he was studying this phenomenon, he thought he had caught an exceptional use of the word "war." He was corrected with an explanation that the song was quoting the Messianic prophecy written on the Isaiah Wall of the United Nations:

Nation shall not lift up sword against nation
neither shall they learn war any more

Of course, the AP is rather selective about its reporting of celebrations of violence. CAMERA notes "the difference between the following Jerusalem Post description of Palestinian rejoicing at the August 31, 2004 double suicide bombing in Be?er Sheva with that of AP."

Jerusalem Post:

While hundreds of Palestinians took to the streets in major cities in the West Bank and Gaza Strip to celebrate the double suicide bombings in Beersheba, Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat reiterated his call for sacrificing millions of martyrs to liberate Jerusalem. Women in Nablus ululated in joy as Arab satellite TV stations interrupted their normal programs to break the news of the bombings. Scores of gunmen opened fire into the air, shouting "Allahu Akbar!" or God is Great. Similar expressions of joy were reported in Tulkarm and Jenin.

AP:

In the Palestinian refugee camp of Ein el-Hilweh in southern Lebanon, gunmen fired shots into the air to celebrate the attacks, a Palestinian official said.