Israeli soldiers kill British journalist....

I am stunned that the mounting toll of foreigners killed by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) gets such short shrift in the U.S. media.

I have come to expect an appalling level of callousness when it comes to Palestinian deaths; after all, Americans have long de-humanized Palestinians, seeing them all as terrorists. This level of ignorance and prejudice is particularly unforgivable considering that the Israeli army's deadly toll on Palestinians is perpetrated with American foreign-aid dollars.

But I would have thought when the Israelis started shooting American, Danish and British peace activists and now a British journalist--not to mention, running down 21-year-old American, Rachel Corrie, with a bulldozer--the American media might have changed its tone. So far, it seems not. The coverage remains sparse and surprisingly forgiving.

The latest death was reported by Agence France Presse (via Common Dreams):

British television journalist James Miller died after being shot by Israeli troops in the southern town of Rafah in the Gaza Strip.

An Israeli army spokesman expressed "regret" at the death, but pointed out that the man had "taken great risks by being in a virtual war zone."

Miller, 35, was hit as he was filming a stand-up segment as part of a documentary he was making on the army's destruction of hundreds of homes of militants in the Palestinian territories.

Complete story here.

The standard--one might say, reflexive--IDF routine is apparent here. The Isreali military spokesperson expresses regret and claims "it was a mistake," or is "under investigation." Then the victim is blamed. Invariably, the attitude seems to be, put yourself in the path of my bullet, and your death is your fault, for my right to pull the trigger is inalienable.

Just how many "mistakes" need to happen before the actions are viewed as premeditated policy?

According to Agence France Presse, Miller's death brings to 3,207 the number of people killed in Israel and Palestine--2,419 Palestinians and 729 Israelis--since September, 2000.

You remember what happened then? On September 28, Ariel Sharon--then Israel's opposition leader, not yet prime minister--took a 34-minute stroll at the most disputed site in Jerusalem, what Jews call the Temple Mount and Palestinians the Haram as-Sharif mosque complex. He made sure to bring along some 1,000 armed soldiers and police officers, forestalling any pretext that he didn't know exactly what a provocation his actions represented. The resultant riots involved hundreds of Palestinians civilians and Israeli law enforcement forces and evolved into what is now called the Al Aqsa Intifada.

Sharon made the most of the havoc he had ignited, bringing down a government and parlaying a law-and-order platform into two consecutive terms as Israeli prime-minister.

Many of those killed by Israeli forces in the ensuing carnage have been children. The International Press Center (IPC) website, sponsored by the Palestinian State Information Service (SIS) says the following about the children killed and the IDF excuse that their deaths are mistakes:

...You find that “mistakes” are positively littering the Palestinian landscape. Israel may cling to the fallacy that the IDF is the most moral army in the world, but as the number of child deaths approaches 400, it is surely the most error-prone.

In the first Intifada, Israeli journalist Amira Hass calculated that a child was killed by the IDF every two weeks. In the current Intifada, that figure has climbed to three and a half every week. That’s seven every two weeks — an escalation of 700%. Careless, careless, careless.

Of course, it is absurd to try to continue categorizing this number of slain children as accidents. To use Amira Hass again, an IDF soldier rather gives the game away in her now famous Ha’aretz interview: “12 and up, you’re allowed to shoot ,” he said. “That’s what they tell us.”

Full piece here.

For those who don't know, Amira Hass is an Israeli reporter who lives and works in the occupied territories and whose work regularly appears in the Israeli daily Ha'aretz. For samples, go here.