Militant in Gaza
17th May 2023
Catching up with last week’s hard copy Wall Street Journal, I was struck by the numerous uses of “militants” in lieu of “terrorists” or “jihadists” to describe members of Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Take the headline of the May 9 story by Dov Lieber, Aaron Boxerman, and Anas Baba, for example: “Israeli Strikes Kill Senior Militants, Civilians in Gaza.”
Query what you have to do to become a “senior militant.” Does anyone read this stuff or pause to reflect how utterly inane it sounds? But I digress.
The story reported in the opening sentence: “Israeli airstrikes killed three Palestinian militant commanders and 12 others who were mostly civilians in a surprise attack in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, the Israeli military and Palestinian officials said, threatening a new round of escalating violence.”
Going back to May 2, Lieber and Baba also reported the story “Gaza Militants Fire Rockets at Israel After Palestinian Hunger Striker Dies.” You have to be pretty “militant” to fire rockets at civilians.
Wherever you go,
Whatever you do,
A Muslim waits there
To try to kill you.