The Situation in the Middle East is slowly moving towards major conflict as Israel declares Hamas controlled Gaza Strip a hostile entity. This cabinet decision comes in wake of repeated unprovoked rocket attacks on Israel from the strip. The immediate meaning of this move is the cessation of fuel that runs the electricity in the strip. Both the Hamas and Jihad Islami have called this move a declaration of war.  It’s not clear how these two organizations will increase their activity as a result of the new Israeli policies.

The backdrop to all of this is the tension between Israel and Iran / Syria in the wake of a clandestine Israeli raid into Syria a few weeks ago. In addition Hosni Mubareks failing heath has made possible a three front war with the Jewish state in the not so distant future.

With Israel being surrounded and only reacting to major threats against her its unclear why many of the New York times front page images seem to always slant towards the plight of the attackers and not those of the attacked. Case in point.

The Times on September 19, 2007 has plastered on its front page a image of School girls crying in fright during a gun battle between Israel soldiers and terrorists in Nablus. This is a very difficult image, as innocent school children wherever they are should not be exposed to such violence. The uninformed reader will naturally assume that the Israeli army is responsible for these difficult images.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

The Israeli army entered Nablus to thwart a suspected terrorist attack of suicide bombers into Israel. Those schoolgirls were frightened because local residents were planning acts of terror. There is no mention of all this in the picture of course.

Go figure.