Today’s New York Times article by Isabel Kershner about the (now aborted) extension of the cease fire in Gaza offers a brief history of the recent events, including this line:

An Israeli clampdown in the West Bank during the search for the [three Israeli] teenagers prompted increased rocket fire from Gaza and an escalation that led to the latest conflict.

You remember Israel’s “clampdown” in the West Bank, don’t you? In response to the disappearance of three teenagers whose fate was known but kept secret, the IDF rampaged through hundreds of homes and even universities, killing a half dozen civilians and arresting well over 500 people who had nothing to do with the Israeli teens’ disappearance and murder.

“Clampdown” is generally defined as the imposition or strengthening of regulations and restrictions. That is hardly an appropriate word to use for Israel’s wanton and murderous actions in the West Bank in June, which of course were greatly eclipsed by its carnage the following month in Gaza. Is that a word the Times would use if the “authorities” burst into hundreds of private homes in Ferguson, killed another five people, and imprisoned hundreds more without charge? It’s just another subtle way the Times depicts Israel’s utterly contemptible behavior as within the boundaries of reasonableness.

On the other hand, at least Kershner acknowledged that there was some factual predicate for the renewal of Palestinian rocket fire against Israel. The U.S. Congress would almost unanimously disagree, and in fact the Senate passed a resolution condemning the entirely “unprovoked” rocket fire by a vote of 100 – 0. I guess Kershner’s version that the rockets were provoked by a “clampdown” is an improvement.