Headlines:
Israeli man escapes lynch as tensions flare in Arab sector followed by
Netanya man manages to flee masked assailants who beat him and set fire to his car in Tayibe.
Jewish Driver 'Lucky to be Alive' After Attempted Arab Lynch followed by
Serious incident caps day of violence by Arab citizens of Israel, supposedly sparked by shooting of a crazed knife wielder.
Israeli Almost Lynched by Arabs, Saved by an Arab followed by
An Israeli man was nearly lynched Sunday night by a violent Arab mob. The potential victim was saved – by an Arab.
Which headlines and initial paragraphs are sane and which are fear mongering and inciting to violence?
Only the last one, the one from United with Israel.
The first headline is from Israel haYom; the second headline is from Arutz 7 - Israel National News.
And now, as Paul Harvey once intoned, the rest of the story.
Israel haYom ( Israeli man escapes lynch as tensions flare in Arab sector) gets around to telling some of the story
After escaping his attackers, two locals helped German and called an ambulance. A large police force was dispatched to the scene to search for the perpetrators, though as of Monday morning no arrests had been made.
before moving on to recap the day's riots and mayhem.
Arutz 7/Israel National News (Jewish Driver 'Lucky to be Alive' After Attempted Arab Lynch) reports in its second paragraph that
Rioters near the Taibeh bridge forced a car, in which a resident of Netanya was driving, to stop, and proceeded to set it on fire. The driver received treatment in an ambulance and filed a police complaint.
The United with Israel (Israeli Almost Lynched by Arabs, Saved by an Arab) report was the only one with any depth.
First its rewrite person reviewed multiple sources, including IDF Radio and Ynet. According to the United with Israel article,
“I came back from work in Netanya. When I came to the stoplight, they stopped me and started talking to me but I didn’t understand a word because I don’t speak Arabic. So they started throwing stones at my car and then set it on fire. A few Arabs helped me to get out of the car from the passenger side,” the potential victim told Israel’s IDF Radio on Monday.
“I was afraid I was going to die and the car was about to go up in flames any second. Suddenly, someone pulled me out of the car and put me into his car that had his children in it. He saved my life. What happened to me was really on the level of a miracle. I got out with just a few scratches. I didn’t even have to go to the hospital. An ambulance came, but I only had to wash my face. I just wanted to give many thanks to the people who helped me.”
An eyewitness to the attack told Israel’s Ynet about the extreme violence he saw: “More than 20 people, a few of them masked, stopped the car and began to throw stones and launch firecrackers. They took the driver out of the car and began to beat him all over his body while shouting Allah Akbar.”
An Arab who was driving by, identified only as Makdy, saw the developing lynch and went to save the Israeli. He told IDF Radio that “during the first moments I did not think twice. Someone threw rocks but I stopped him. I took him [the Israeli] into my car and drove away quickly, and then dropped him off at a police checkpoint.”
IT SEEMS TO ME that the headline should have read Arab saves Jewish driver from Arab mob showing all readers that not all Arabs or Muslims behave like animals.
This is not the first time Jews have been saved from Arab mobs by Arabs. I personally know of one instance. I also know that it was an Arab who stopped to offer assistance to a sister-in-law who fell on a Haifa sidewalk . . . good Jews ignored her compound fracture.
There is enough tension in Israel without editors and writers adding to the problems.
We need more media akin to United with Israel - media that tells "the rest of the story."
