Josef Ratzinger is a Roman Catholic, bears do what they have to do in the woods and The Guardian is a newspaper with a particular dislike for Israel. None of this is news. However, I feel it would be remiss of me not to mention something in The Graun’s leader today about the current state of play between Israel and the Palestinians.

Among other things, it says,

A ceasefire with Hamas in Gaza that has held for nearly five months has begun to unravel after an Israeli raid killed six militants and rockets began to fall on southern Israel.

An Israeli raid; a raid which, for the Guardian’s leader writer, just occurred, had no purpose and which brought the ceasefire to an end. If this is what the Guardian believes then it’s perfectly entitled to say so, but one would have thought that some remaining shred of fairness would have obliged it to mention the fact that the raid was carried out to destroy a tunnel that was intended to facilitate the kidnapping and murder of Israelis on Israeli sovereign territory.

Of course it’s possible that the Guardian believes that the Israeli side of the story is all lies or, more likely, that though true, it’s irrelevant; Hamas preparing to kidnap and murder Israelis is seen as normal and unremarkable, while Israelis taking steps to avoid being kidnapped and murdered is a breach of the ceasefire and something inherently abnormal and newsworthy.

If that’s what The Guardian thinks, fair enough; it’s an opinion piece after all. A brief mention of Israel’s point of view, if only to dismiss it with contempt, would, however, have done a considerable favor to its readers.