Idealogian

A Cycle of Tit-for-Tat Violence

I know this isn't anything new, but I can't believe the New York Times is still using language like this:

Israeli soldiers killed Jihad Abu Swerah, 34, a senior member of Hamas's armed wing during a raid in a refugee camp. It was the latest in a series of Israeli attempts to clamp down on militant groups behind suicide bombings in Israel that killed 38 people over the past month in a cycle of tit-for-tat violence that has derailed a U.S.-backed peace plan.

(Emphasis mine. That's the text that was downloaded to my Palm this morning; the current online version is slightly different, and I'm not sure what the print version has.)

That phrase implies that the suicide bombings are simply revenge for Israel's targeted killings (and, admittedly and regrettably, the accompanying civilian casualties), which are in turn simply revenge for the suicide bombings. The first implication is clearly belied by the fact that the bombings began years before any targeted killings. Note, in fact, that this "senior member of Hamas's armed wing" was named "Jihad" 34 years ago. And the second implication runs counter to the first half of the very sentence that made it, which states that the killing was one of Israel's "attempts to clamp down on militant groups behind suicide bombings." How much more wrong can you be?