Bias

Of all the headlines the Toronto Star could have used to lead with this Associate Press report on an offensive launched by Hezbollah against Israel it deliberately chose to report it this way:

Israel invades Lebanon: Report

To add a further insult the Associate Press report deliberately used the neutral word "clashes" as if there was an equal measure of culpritabilty to the unprovoked offensive launched by Hezbollah against Israel. I suppose the idea that an Israeli would not lie down and die like a good dhimmie offends certain reporters sensibilities:

BEIRUT — The militant group Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers during clashes Wednesday across the border in southern Lebanon, prompting a swift reaction from Israel, which sent ground forces into its neighbour’s territory to search for them.

The forces were trying to keep the soldiers’ captors from moving them deeper into Lebanon, Israeli government officials said on condition of anonymity.

Failure to mention that Hezbollah launched an unprovoked attack is nothing more than a balant attempt to smear the Israeli state as the actions of the Israeli state.

Update: Someone at either the Toronto Star and/or AP has a slight attack of conscience from the 5:44am original report and the lead paragraph has been updated to read as follows at 6:25am:

BEIRUT - Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid Wednesday, triggering an Israeli assault with warplanes, tanks and gunboats striking southern Lebanon as Israeli troops crossed the frontier to hunt for the captives.

Now we go from clashes to raids. I suppose this is what passes as "progressive". I really must learn how to screen capture these reports for future reference.