The latest report by Jodi Rudoren in The New York Times, “To a Philosopher-General in Israel, Peace Is the Time to Prepare for War,” profiles Herzl Halevi, “a triathlete and father of four who said his university studies in philosophy proved more salient to military leadership than courses in business administration.”

Some quotes–

“I don’t think there is the war or the operation that will solve the problem,” General Halevi explained during a recent tour of the border his troops patrol. “The interesting issue is how you create a longer gap between the wars.”

Sounds like a re-statement of “mowing the lawn”.

Hezbollah is seen as Iran’s proxy and the Palestinians’ enforcer, the boots on the ground in global terrorist attacks and the likeliest to retaliate for Israeli aggression anywhere in the world. Military officials from the chief of staff on down talk ominously in public speeches and tactically in private briefings about the group’s swelling arsenal of more than 100,000 rockets — and about Israel’s meticulous preparation for a quick, intense campaign in Lebanese cities and villages where, as one recently put it, “houses consist of a living room and a missile room.”

Excellent piece of hasbara: it gives a justification for killing over 1000 civilians in the 2006 war. By the way, the civilian death toll goes unmentioned, as does the liberal use of cluster munitions. The only thing (in the entire article) that couldn’t have been typed by an Israeli government hack are the two words “Israeli aggression”.

To the left was Ayta ash Sha’b, home to perhaps 7,000 Lebanese and “hundreds of rockets, missiles, I.E.D.s,” he said, referring to improvised explosive devices.

“We cannot shoot toward Ayta ash Sha’b because it is a village,” the general said. “This is a problem we somehow have to solve. The stronger the weapons, the stronger our response will be.”

Again, no mention of what was actually done in the 2006 campaign. (Or to allegations about Halevi’s role in the Gaza war of ’08-’09). This is as far as Rudoren goes:

Israel’s prosecution of that war was widely panned.

It’s amazing that the Times would run this. Along with the piece on pro-Israel graffiti artists the other day– “On a Mission Within Earshot of a War, Armed With Paint”– it’s like they have absolutely nothing to say in defense of Israel, so they’re printing pointless stories about graffiti artists and an embarrassing hagiography about a philosopher general, which doesn’t even pretend to be balanced.

P.S. The IDF promptly tweeted the piece.

To a Philosopher-General in #Israel, Peace Is the Time to Prepare for War http://t.co/N4MB9nKmAJ #IDF

— Peter Lerner (@LTCPeterLerner) November 16, 2013

And now for something completely different:

And that’s what objective reporting is supposed to look like.