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Comments, possibly informed.

Tim Wilson
Daytona Beach, Florida, USA
timatollah@mackandtim.net
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Just plain indiscriminate murder.


In this most recent -- could almost write "today's" -- bombing of Israelis, it seems likely that the bus that was blown up was carrying both Israeli Jews and Israeli Arab passengers. A story in today's Washington Post includes the following:

The bus had left from Tel Aviv, on the Mediterranean coast, and was making several stops in northern Israel. The route passes a number of mostly Arab towns, and both Arabs and Jews were believed to be on the bus, authorities said.

Ugh.

Today's Papers-esque comment: The lack of parallelism at what seems to me to be the right level between "Jew" and "Arab" stands out (on reflection). Are the Arabs mentioned in the story Israeli Arabs or Palestinian Arabs? My immediate conclusion, based on what little I know about the geography, is Israeli Arabs. And I know that "Jew" works on some levels like "Arab" and on others like "Muslim". But it seems to be something deserving of a context-driven care in usage.
posted by Tim Wilson at 6:54 AM