Casting the first (and last) stone

I've written in the past about the dirty little secret behind those dramatic photos you see all over the world media showing the poor Palestinians bravely waging their impromptu resistance using whatever improvised weapons are at hand.  If you haven't seen the short video I posted on the topic, It's worth a quick look:

What we learned from that is that the made for TV and newspaper resistance is neither spontaneous nor waged with stray objects which happen to be 'at hand'.   In fact, as much preparation goes into these attacks as any well orchestrated military ambush. 

The only difference is that the press is notified in advance and allowed to set up their equipment to capture the most advantageous and dramatic still and video shots.

Apparently, the only people not given advance notice of the ambush, and who are therefore unprepared, are the Israeli victims who happen to drive into the well planned traps.

This past week there were a lot of attacks on vehicles along the route I take to work.  And when I passed the site of one of the more serious attacks, I noticed that the photographers had not finished packing up their gear.  There was so much equipment and so many photographers that it looked like a location shoot for a Hollywood movie or TV series.

Here's a photo that appeared in the media after the ambush was wrapped completed for the day:

What the photo shows is an Israeli woman (a school teacher named Zahava Weiss who lives in a community not far from me), being attacked on her way home from work by a bunch of Arab teens.  In the photo it is clear that she (like several of the cars before and after her) was attacked with large cut stones and bricks... not harmless pebbles as the apologists and useful idiots would have you believe.

What you don't see is the group of photographers who had received advance notice of the ambush, and who had set up their equipment on the opposite side of the street from the stone/brick throwers... far enough back from the street to avoid being hit by the overthrows and ricochets, but close enough that their high powered lenses could capture every detail of the repeated attacks.

Here's where my thinking goes sideways.

How can it be that any civilized society can grant actual or de facto immunity to a segment of the population from having to report foreknowledge of violent attacks that can reasonably be assumed will cause damage to property, serious injury and even loss of life?

Of course, many times I'm sure there isn't actual advance notice, but rather those throwing the stones and molotov cocktails see a group of photographers and manufacture a tailor made event for the audience.  I view this scenario as somewhat akin to shouting fire in a crowded theater. 

By this I mean that a person can shout fire all day long as they sit alone at home or walk along a sparsely traveled street.  But the moment they find themselves in a crowd, it is incubate upon them to cease shouting fire. 

By the same reasoning, journalists may come and go pretty much anywhere and anytime they wish.  But the moment they see evidence that their presence is precipitating an imminent violent incident, they should be required to pack up their cameras and remove the primary cause of the impending disturbance; (themselves) from the scene.

I'm sure many of you legal scholars and accredited journalists can tell me why my thinking is wrong.  But I can't help feeling that in addition to violating the above-mentioned prohibition against not reporting crimes about to be committed, joburnalists who show up in advance to cover these ambushes should be prosecuted as full accessories, and be subject to penalties as severe as for those who actually carry out the attack.

And to carry it one step further, just as embedded journalists traveling with a group of combatants are in danger of being targeted by enemy forces, I would say that those who find themselves in mortal danger from both impromptu and pre-organized ambushes should be held blameless if they accidentally hit journalists while trying to shoot at the actual attackers.

Now you tell me why I'm wrong.