So whilst debating the issue, the IDF itself deliberately targetted and killed civilians in Gaza, an act of state-sponsored terrorism.

This is Israel, "taking all the right steps along the pathway to peace"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gk9_5OUWy3M

It is pointless debating people who defend a state that engages in such actions. They have long given up any pretence of supporting all human beings equally. Or rather, like the former Israeli government's Foreign Affairs chairman Dr. Hacohen

'..they are not human beings, they are not people, they are Arabs.'

Cue... 1... 2... 3.. for the clarions of "but what about Hamas' terrorism?"

Nobody here supports Hamas' terrorism. But we read in disgust when people defend terrorism from a State - or deny it exists - just because they have irrational and inhumane prejudices.

Lev

Lucky you were there to see for yourself. No investigation needed. Couldn’t be any of a half-dozen things like, - they were accidently identified as insurgents, a missile went astray, there actually were some insurgents in the area etc. They don’t even know if it was the tank round which did the damage or whether it was a missile. Who in their right mind actually films on the front line of a battle against the Israeli army anyway?

Your suggestion rests upon a hypothesis that battlefield intelligence is perfect. That everyone always knows what is going on, who is where etc. But in real life that is not the case. You don't have the ability to sit back and analyse with the benefit of 20-20. You have to make decisions, often without all the information, and you have to do it NOW. The front line of a war is a very dangerous place to be, between the lines even more so.

It could actually be what you suggest it is; that soldiers or airmen deliberately targeted the Reuters journo and his car; in which case I find it as abhorrent as you. I expect if it is true then Israel will punish the transgressors. But to suggest that it is the policy of the IDF to intentionally target and kill civilians is absolutely not true. And you know this.

No one here defends state terrorism. We don’t accept that Israel or the IDF are terrorists. I won’t deny that there may be incidents which are not acceptable. But to attempt to taint a whole country with the acts of individuals during wartime is unfair and unrealistic.

During WW2 many civilians died when the allies attacked German held towns. They shelled anywhere that the Germans were fighting from. If you want to call the Allies terrorists then find a new word to describe the deliberate attacks on civilians which is HAMAS’s only method of war.

I see you have realised that your one-state solution won’t stand the scrutiny to which you subject Israel. Took a while.

Strict codes of practice apply to Professional Journalists and photographers in any combat zone, and these codes implement strict protocols to ensure that preservation of safety of jounalists is maintained ... and also of persons nearby.

It would seem that this journalist had not been trained. Indeed one suspects that he was a freelancer who submitted photographs and information to Reuters. Even then he would have had - indeed, should have been grounded in protocols for Professional Journalism.

According to such protocols.

Fatal Mistakes:

1. Fronting a tank in open territory; not from a concealed place where he could not be spotted.

2. He had stopped the vehicle.

3. He and his companions were not wearing flak jackets.

4. From those on bikes killed, he disregarded the possibility of others being killed or injured.

Unfortunately, in the territory from where he took the photographs, press stickers on cars mean zilch. The Hizbolah used press stickers, ambulance emblems, UN insignia and other devices as cover.

However, this is pragmatic; sadly journalists do get killed and maimed in combat zones.

As Paul ably pointed out there could have well been a number of additional factors contributing to this tragedy.

One very obvious problem is in the "idea" of Israel knowingly and deliberately taking out a press vehicle. It would achieve nothing - only worldwide condemnation. The anti-Israel frenzy has already started and the Hamas will ensure that it reaches a crescendo.

Propoganda: Israel -0

Propoganda: Hamas 100+

Lev is already leading the charge. Lev never applies forensic knowledge ... indeed, does not know what this is ... nor does he wait for the findings of expert analysis supported by evidence.

For full information about ethics and protocols of journalists in combat zones:

Society of Professional Journalists
http://www.spj.org/war.asp

As totally expected the grovelling apologists crawled out on their bellies with a new round of excuses. Imagine complaining that a Reuters reporter was apparently not using the standards of a journalism society based in Indianapolis. It was all the reporters fault!

Maybe we should blame the five Palestinian children who died in the same week as not following the standards set by others on where and how to stand around.

Denial, excuses and yet more denial. Anything but actually admit that Israel ever deliberately targets civilians.

Ignore the reports from Amnesty International. Ignore the reports from Human Rights Watch. Ignore the reports from B'Tselem. Ignore the reports from the International Herald Tribune, from Haraatz, from the BBC, from Reuters, from Le Monde, from the Guardian.

Just keep on ignoring it, excusing it and denying it. After all, they're only Arabs.

Even the self-admission of terrorism by Israeli civilians? Will that be defended as well?
http://youtube.com/watch?v=f5s9hHycmiQ

It is no wonder with such prejudice they keep on losing the public relations war over and over again. Most people just aren't that stupid or that prejudiced.

The evidence of the systematic violence, from the state and individuals, keeps pouring out. The new media is killing the lies and the pretence. People can see for themselves what is happening and how it happens.

The greatest tragedy is that what is good about Israel may indeed be lost because of those who can never bring themselves to acknowledge its worst features. After sixty years of attempted colonialism, it comes down to this..

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/apr/20/israelandthepalestinians

"I didn't kill anyone, thank God. But when you're kicking down doors and shooting live rounds over the heads of young children in their own homes, you have to question what you're doing."

What they're doing is called the deliberate targetting of civilians. It's called collective punishment. It's called state-sponsored terrorism.

Now let's see a new round of denials.

As expected Lev has become Judge, jury and executioner. It’s not yet even been confirmed what exactly killed the Reuters stringer. You just don’t know and neither do we.

But if you stand in front of a tank during a firefight then you have definitely contributed to your own misadventure.

There has been much blood spilt on both sides. Whilst ever Hamas continue to fight a war from behind the protection of their civilians, civilian casualties are inevitable. I blame Hamas for these casualties as surely as if they had gunned the children down themselves. I mean just look at the article you posted.

>> “Yesterday Hamas militants rammed a bomb-laden car into an Israeli border crossing, killing three of the militants and wounding 13 Israeli soldiers.”

Do you honestly think they had TERRORIST written on their doors? No, they were pretending to be ordinary Arab citizens.

>> “These were the latest attacks in a conflict which has been fed by Arab nationalism, Islamist hostility to Israel and its allies, and the threat of a nuclear Iran.”

>> “The 'Zionist entity', as its enemies call it, remains an object of awe and envy. 'Israel makes us Arabs feel bad. It has no oil, no resources, no nothing, but it wins wars and, if we're honest, looks like a nice place to live. It exposes our own failings and that's why so many of us hate it,”' says Ibrahim Rajoub, who was visiting relatives on the West Bank from his home in Jordan.

>> “But above all the self-analysis and self-criticism of Israel, within what is the closest thing to democracy in the region, have given the Jewish state its greatest strength.”

Of what relevance is winning the PR war. Does it extinguish the need for Israeli children to hide under their school desks during indiscriminate rocket attacks? Does it make civilians at bus stops safer?

The new media is a vehicle for all sorts of voices, many of whom have axes to grind. But heck, the reputable press just aren’t towing the right line to your satisfaction.

The new media is what's gonna help save Israel from itself. "Reputable" sources such as Fox & CNN only confuse people.