Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Does CNN.com believe Israeli victims do not deserve names?

The following two young Israeli policemen were killed by terrorists this week:

David Rabinowitz
David was born in Kiryat Shmona and grew up in Kiryat Bialik, north of Haifa. He attended the ORT Dafna high school and the Israel Air Force technical school. He served in the Air Force as a mechanic. At the age of 25, while a student at Haifa University, he joined the Israel Police. David's brother Sharon relates that he was a sensitive person who enjoyed his work. Every free weekend he would visit his parents to help them. He was particularly devoted to his mother. "He so loved to help people," Sharon said, "and was killed trying to help." David was divorced. His son Eden recently celebrated his bar mitzva.
Warrant Officer David Rabinowitz was buried in Haifa. He is survived by his son Eden, 13, his parents Moshe and Ruby, and eight siblings.

Yechezkel Ramzarkar
Yehezkel was born in India, near Mumbai, as the eldest son, and his family immigrated to Israel in 1967 and settled in Yavne. He moved to Maale Ephraim after his marriage.
Dani Biton, head of the Maale Ephraim local council, described Yehezkel, a policeman for 30 years, as a modest man who devoted himself to raising his three children, and to his work as a police officer. An officer in the West Bank traffic department described Ramzargar as a professional and experienced policeman, who was always courteous and polite, a good friend and colleague.
Yehezkel's brother Menashe said that he was mother and father to his children, to whom he gave everything. "Yehezkel had two loves, his family and his country. He was a single parent for 10 years. Despite the difficult police work in shifts, he dedicated every free moment to his children."
Senior Warrant Officer Yehezkel Ramzarkar was buried in Yavne. He is survived by his three children: Alon, 23, Elior, 19, and Elinor, 16, as well as his mother and eight siblings.

The above information came from Israeli's MFA website; you can find more in the links above.

Now, here's what CNN.com had to say about their murders:
JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Police searched Sunday for gunmen who opened fire on an Israeli police vehicle in the West Bank, killing two officers, according to Israeli police.
The shooting took place at 8:20 p.m. (1820 GMT) on the 90 Road in the Jordan Valley, in the West Bank, police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld told CNN.
"The police and IDF (Israel Defense Forces) are conducting a search for the attackers in the direction that they fled. They are working on an operational and intelligence level to arrest those who carried out this attack," said Rosenfeld.
An emergency vehicle found the victims, said Rosenfeld. It was not immediately clear whether the emergency vehicle was responding to a report of the incident.
Witnesses told CNN that all traffic in the area was blocked as authorities conducted their investigation.

There was nothing about the victims, and there was no follow-up about them, or their families.

In contrast, when an Arab tried to murder policemen with a backhoe ten days earlier, this was the opening line of CNN's article:
JERUSALEM (CNN)
-- A Palestinian man from East Jerusalem rammed a construction vehicle into a police car before he was shot and killed, Israeli police said Thursday.
The driver was identified as Mir'ei El Radida, 26, from the Beit Hanina neighborhood, police said. He was married with one child.

Every terrorist gets his lifestory broadcast and analyzed, but the good guy victims are anonymous.

5 comments:

  1. I do find myself wondering about CNN and their "editorial" decisions on more occasions than I care to think about.

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  2. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  3. Oh, sure, you removed your good stuff, Jack.

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  4. In some fairness to CNN: the Palestinians are very slick about this. After all, they know who's going to die and when and how he's going to die. They're prepared with a complete press package: biography, photo, etc., that they cheerfully hand out to journalists at the scene. When an Israeli dies, the media isn't spoon-fed such information. They would have to do actual research to find out who it is, and they don't have time for that. (yes, much sarcasm is intended)

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  5. Tracey-
    Not sure how much of that was tongue-in-cheek; do you really think it's laziness rather than bias?

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