What Else Is New?

One of the big international news stories of this week so far has been the clash between Israeli and Lebanese forces.  Questions about who threw the first punch so to speak arose instantly, but it looks like the Lebanese opened fire first in what has been described as a border ambush.

Israel's Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, expressed his outrage over the ambush via Facebook:

The International Community Must Condemn Attacks on Israel

For years many in the international community have remained silent when rockets have been fired at Israeli civilians, and when unprovoked attacks have been launched against our soldiers.

Expressions of outrage have largely been reserved for Israel's response to those attacks.

Firing missiles on civilians is a war crime, and unprovoked attacks on soldiers are blatant acts of aggression.

Israel expects the international community to condemn such attacks in the strongest possible terms.

All those in the international community committed to peace should support Israel's right to defend itself against those who attack the innocent and seek to destroy peace.

Of course, since this is Israel and her right to self-defense being discussed, I don't expect an international condemnation of the ambush on the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), but rather more or less an international parroting of Lebanon's President Michel Suleiman's condemnation of Israel.  I also frankly expect them to swallow hook, line & sinker stories like this article from Al-Jazeera claiming Israel attacked Lebanon (which also conveniently overlooks the fact the two Lebanese journalists either killed or wounded were affiliated with Hezbollah and knew in advance of the planned ambush by Lebanese forces).

Another case of the genuine underdogs in the Middle East being wrongly painted as the aggressive oppressors; what else is new?