The New York Times has all but confirmed to The Electronic Intifada (EI) that the son of its Jerusalem bureau chief Ethan Bronner was recently inducted into the Israeli army.

Over the weekend, EI received a tip suggesting this had been the case and wrote to Bronner to ask him to confirm or deny the information and to seek his opinion on whether, if true, he thought it would be a conflict of interest. (full article…)

On Saturday December 27, the latest US-Israeli attack on helpless Palestinians was launched. The attack had been meticulously planned, for over 6 months according to the Israeli press. The planning had two components: military and propaganda. It was based on the lessons of Israel’s 2006 invasion of Lebanon, which was considered to be poorly planned and badly advertised. We may, therefore, be fairly confident that most of what has been done and said was pre-planned and intended.

That surely includes the timing of the assault: shortly before noon, when children were returning from school and crowds were milling in the streets of densely populated Gaza City. It took only a few minutes to kill over 225 people and wound 700, an auspicious opening to the mass slaughter of defenseless civilians trapped in a tiny cage with nowhere to flee. (more…)

Branding foreign journalists “spoiled crybabies” unwilling to make “a little effort” to get into Gaza during Operation Cast Lead, Government Press Office head Danny Seaman denied Sunday there had been any ban on their entry into the Strip during the battle. (more…)

Just like an Israeli propaganda chief to call the international media “crybabies” while placing a media ban on Gaza so harsh that even the New York Times and CNN questioned Israel’s intentions.

“Israel has never restricted media access like this before, and it should be ashamed,” says Ethan Bronner, Jerusalem bureau chief of the New York Times. CNN’s Ben Wedeman complains it feels like North Korea. (more…)

Before boarding my flight this morning, I picked up a copy of the New York Times (I had forgotten what a strange printing dimension it is – very narrow) and discovered this picture adorning the front page:

According to the caption, the image depicts, “Soldiers rested on the Israeli side of the border with Gaza during the three-hour cease-fire on Wednesday”

Apparently the Times has taken to printing exposés on the exhaustion of Israeli killers in the Gaza Strip. I mean, how tragic that they spend their days slaughtering women and children… You can almost picture feel Ethan Bronner cringing at this sorry sight, just before he writes another lousy article justifying the murder of civilians.