I just love the subtle, yet effective, ways in which the media spins the Middle East story. Take, for example, this snippet from the AP:

Palestinian militant groups abandoned a truce last month after Israel killed a Hamas political leader in response to an Aug. 19 Hamas bus bombing that killed 22 people.

The order noted here is that Hamas abandoned a truce after Israel killed a Hamas leader, when the truth is that Hamas abandoned their truce as soon as they bombed that bus. After an attack of such magnitude, Israel could no longer be expected to pretend that the cease-fire was still valid.

International news agencies love to spin things this way. Israel is, after all, a big bully, and the Palestinians are helpless victims of oppression, right? Give me a break; Israel has made wrong moves, and is occasionally responsible for unnecessarily high civilian casualties, but it is still only targeting military targets.

The Palestinian Authority, on the other hand, is giving terrorist groups like Hamas an implicit green light by not demanding an end to attacks; when it does respectfully request that Hamas stop killing Israelis, it stops short of actually enforcing those requests in any significant way. The “temporary cease-fire” that recently broke down was a joke; it was an opportunity for militants to rearm and regroup, nothing more.

Until the PA is willing to rein in the terrorists that operate on its own lands, Israel should not be expected to sacrifice its security while it is under attack. The US is taking the right approach: it is urging restraint from Israel, but putting real pressure to act on the PA.