MEDIA WATCH

MMN: Who killed 3 US security guards in Gaza?

"In terms of motive, almost no credible Middle East analyst doubts that Israel is the only political beneficiary from the attack."

On October 15, a large roadside bomb was detonated under an easily recognisable US convoy escorted by Palestinian security in the Gaza Strip. The huge explosion tore through the vehicle, leaving three of its occupants dead and one injured.

An anonymous call to Agence France Presse came from someone claiming to represent an umbrella organisation, the Popular Resistance Committee (PRC), and saying they were responsible for the attack. As soon as this claim became public, the PRC leadership denied any knowledge of it and disassociated itself from the attack.

“From the very beginning we have denied responsibility for what happened today,” PRC head Yassir Zanoun told the Times. Unusually, no other group or individual has claimed responsibility, leaving a question mark over who the culprits are.

However, much of the media decided to throw caution to the wind and point the finger of blame in one direction. “Palestinians bomb US convoy” was the front page headline of The Guardian the following day. “Palestinian guerrillas blew up a US diplomatic convoy” claimed the Daily Telegraph, which also allowed itself to indulge in some of the worst misinformation available in the mainstream media: “It may well be that Hamas or Islamic Jihad employed the flag of convenience of ‘Popular Resistance Committee’…there is no doubting the common ideological well-spring from which all these groups drink. Young people in the occupied territories are indoctrinated from an early age into the Wahhabist version of Islam that so inspired Osama bin Laden.” Most were a little more sober with their wording, but clearly implied that it was only a question of which Palestinian faction.