Update: Israel, Gaza and Iran in Conflict

Our continuing analysis of the events in Gaza relative to the strategic objectives and timing continues today with reflection on the relation of internal Israeli politics to the conflict and the curiosity of the war being conducted in the media.

As our lead analysis in this series did, The New York Times speculates on the effect of the conflict on the improved political stature of Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak. While there are two other leading candidates for the prime minister position, Tzipi Livni of Kadima and Benjamin Netanyahu of Likud,the Times manages to minimize discussing any political effect of the conflict on them.

The leading sentences quoted just below are from a The Italian Journalism Agency (AGI) sourced story.

Almost one third of the 689 deaths caused by the Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip are children, according to medical sources. The number of civilian dead has risen dramatically since last Saturday, when the Israeli army began its land attack.

The Age (Australia) originated a similar but enlarged story, but note the remarkable similarity to the just quoted story.

Almost a third of the 689 Palestinians killed in Israel's Gaza offensive are children, with most killed since the start of a ground offensive after a week of aerial bombardment, medics say.

The proportion of civilians killed has risen dramatically since Saturday when ground troops joined the assault on the Hamas rulers of Gaza after a week of aerial and naval bombardment.

Beside the striking similarity in wording between the two stories, they also have in common the anonymous medical source. The similar wording suggest the same source and that both news services could not have both originated the story.

One also must take into account the veracity of the details. Since no actual detail are provided we might properly ask what were the ages of the children. It is easy to include the military personnel in the category children if one includes all those under age 21 as children. The category can be further expanded by describing anyone with living parents as children, since from the perspective of the parents they are children regardless of age. On the other hand the description of children may be simply fictional altogether.