Pam Bailey: 4 Most Common Myths About Israel and Gaza!r

As Israel continues to pound the Gaza Strip, and factions within the beleaguered territory retaliate as best they can, there are many myths and stereotypes dominating mainstream media coverage, and many conversations. Here are a few of the most common misunderstandings: Myth: Hamas started the round of fighting that led to Israel's "Operation Pillar of Defense." Fact: This myth represents a common error in mainstream, and even much progressive media coverage. The "truth" all depends on when you start the timeline. What is clear is that while both Israel and resistance groups in Gaza bear  responsibility for keeping the warfare going, Israel is more often the precipitator. In an analysis that has received very little attention by Western audiences, Nancy Kanwisher, the Walter A Rosenblith Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology asks, "As Israel and Palestine suffer a hideous new spasm of terror, misery and mayhem, it is important to ask how this situation came about. How did the last ceasefire unravel?" President Barak Obama and the mainstream media in the United States and Israel place the blame squarely on Hamas. It is true that a barrage of Palestinian rockets have been fired into Israel, and that ending this rocket fire is the stated goal of the current Israeli invasion of Gaza. However, this simplistic summary leaves out crucial facts. Consider this chain of events, which followed a lull of sorts over the previous couple of weeks: Nov 4: Israel killed a mentally ill Palestinian walking near the Israeli imposed "no go zone" inside the Gaza Strip, an event that triggered a rocket from Gaza into southern Israel, which did not cause any deaths or injuries. Nov 8: Four Israeli military tanks and a bulldozer entered Gaza, fatally shooting a 13 year old boy who had been playing soccer by his family's house. Nov 10: In retaliation, two rockets were fired from Gaza into southern Israel, and an anti tank missile injured four soldiers, when it hit an Israeli army jeep that had crossed over into the territory. Meanwhile, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights reported the killing of five more Palestinians, four of whom were civilians, including two soccer players age 16 and 17, and two young men 18 and 19, who ran to the scene. Forty nine others were wounded, including ten children.