In its July 8 edition, the New York Times introduces a new semantic stretch, going so far as to exculpate stone-throwing, Molotov-cocktail-hurling anti-Israel protesters as non-threatening "unarmed" demonstrators. (U.N. Report Criticizes Israeli Role in Deaths at Border page A10). Jerusalem correspondent Isabel Kershner performs this linguistic jiu-jitsu in an article about a UN report critical of Israel for responding with live fire against about 1,000 violent demonstrators trying to breach its border with Lebanon last May 15.  The report, which asserts that Israel should have used less lethal crowd-control tactics after firing warning shots in the air, blames Israel for killing seven "civilians," although Israel points to Lebanese military forces on the other side of the fence who also used live fire that might have caused casualties. Kershner gins up a report already highly critical of Israel by loading up her lead paragraph with an unqualified hit against...(Read Full Post)