Harriet Sherwood, Egypt’s opening of its border with Gaza, and the photos not posted

The Guardian’s Jerusalem correspondent Harriet Sherwood recently reported celebrated Egypt’s opening of the Rafah crossing to Palestinians in Gaza. How do I know Sherwood sees the opening of a border to citizens of a terrorist state as a positive thing? Well, here’s the accompanying photo:

In contrast, Sherwood’s lone passage on Israeli concerns that the opening of the border will result in an increase in deadly weapons into Gaza is this:

“Israel’s government has expressed concern that the reopening of the border will lead to the shipment of weapons and militants into Gaza…”

What’s instructive – especially in contrast with the personalization of Palestinians per the photo of the young boy – is that Israeli fears are never equally personalized, their concerns conveyed, at best, as mere abstractions.

Indeed, it wouldn’t have been difficult for Sherwood to note that the smuggling of weapons into Gaza (via state actors like Iran) is a very real and deadly reality.

Since the Egyptian “revolution”, and Mubarak’s departure, hundreds of rockets, capable of hitting targets within a 12-25 mile range, have been smuggled into the Gaza Strip, as have some 1,000 mortar shells, dozens of anti-tank missiles and tons of both explosives and explosive-manufacturing materials – according to the Shin Bet.

Regarding the Iranian made, Kornet anti-tank missiles,  here’s what they look like:

And, here’s the effect of such a missile on the yellow Israeli school bus targeted by Hamas in April.

And, here’s a picture of the Israeli teen killed in the attack – Daniel Aryeh ben Tamar.

Daniel died on April 17th, and it is instructive that neither Sherwood, nor any of her Guardian colleagues, have deemed it worthy to note his passing.

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