APR is my own abbreviation for “After Palestinians Respond”. It is the unofficial but permanent demarcation for all of post-1947 history in Israel.
The Gregorian calendar uses BC and AD, making the birth of Christ the dividing line in world history. BC designates history “before Christ.” AD is an abbreviation for the Latin phrase Anno Domini, meaning “in the year of our Lord”.
For instance, Cleopatra ruled Egypt from 51 to 30 BC. Emperor Nero ruled the Roman empire from 37 to 68 AD. The birth of the Nazarene is the permanent line of demarcation between two historical eras.
But modern Israeli society has devised a new way to demarcate their history, especially their military confrontations with Palestinians. Now, the historical clock always begins immediately after the Palestinians respond to Israeli provocation. In this way, Israeli aggression is conveniently erased from the story. All that remains are Palestinian actions against Israel.
Let’s look at a few recent examples:
“Israel Launches Broad Air Assault in Gaza Following Border Violence” – This
was a NYT headline on July 20, 2018. The lead paragraph says: “Israeli warplanes launched a large-scale attack across the Gaza Strip on Friday, one of the fiercest in years, after a Palestinian sniper killed an Israeli soldier along the border fence during a day of escalating hostilities.” (emphasis mine)
Not until the middle of this article does the writer get around to mentioning that Israeli soldiers have been killing unarmed Palestinians regularly for the
past 17 weeks! Since the largely peaceful protests in Gaza began on March 30, at least 159 Palestinians have been shot and killed, including women, children and emergency first-aid workers. More than 16,000 have been wounded, many crippled for life as Israel insists on using live ammunition against unarmed people.
Yet, these facts are not considered relevant for the reader’s understanding of Israel’s recent assault.
The NYT would never deign to report this story more honestly by saying
that a Palestinian sniper retaliated against Israeli aggression after 17 weeks of constant Israeli sniper fire, during which time Israeli snipers killed 159 Palestinians and wounded over 16,000 more.
Or take this story from the Washington Post (8/9/18):
“Rocket Barrage from Gaza Prompts Fierce Retaliation by Israeli War Planes” — The lead sentence declares: “Israeli aircraft struck more than 150 targets in the Gaza Strip in response to a barrage of rockets from the Palestinian territory…” (emphasis mine).
According to the Post’s framing of the story, Palestinians continue to behave as irrational, suicidal actors instigating yet another round of Israeli bombing by their unprovoked aggression against Israel.
The writer mentions that 11 Israelis were injured by flying debris in their
neighborhood. Yet, nowhere does this article print a single word about Israel’s unrelenting assault against the residents of Gaza since March. The 159 dead Palestinians, including old women, children and medics, go unmentioned. Neither is there a word about the 16,000 innocent civilians wounded.
As always in APR time, Israelis remain the only victims in the story. Because that is the point of APR time.
Referring to the rockets sent from Gaza, Naomi Zolberg, 34, a resident of the Israeli city of Sderot (located less than 1 mile from Gaza’s northern border; only 840 meters at the closest point) complained, “We only slept an hour…People were freaking out. It is not normal to live like this, under the will of the other side.”
Perhaps Ms. Zolberg should turn down the volume on her TV. Apparently,
she hasn’t heard the regular, weekly (sometimes daily) rifle-fire targeting the imprisoned people struggling to survive only a short walk from her doorstep. These are her fellow human beings trapped in an open-air 
prison, shot like fish in a barrel by Israeli snipers enjoying target practice.
Is that a normal way to live, Ms. Zolberg?
Sadly, it is perfectly normal for people like Ms. Zolberg to ignore the human tragedy happening under her nose, just as it is normal for Palestinian families to endure it. Every single Gazan resident would think themselves blessed many times over if only they could switch places with you, Ms. Zolberg, and experience your hard, hard life of freedom living next door to their prison fence.
But we will never see this particular story-line on the evening news because it does not conform to the standard APR rule-book. And the one rule that can never be broken in Israel’s reporting – and this applies to the vast majority of the Western press which robotically repeats Israel’s perspective on all things Palestinian – is that you never describe Israel’s actions before the Palestinian response.
What came before the Palestinians acted? Before the people of Gaza began to march? Before Gazan activists shot their homemade rockets over the prison fence containing 1.8 million people in the Gazan ghetto?
What came before is repeatedly erased from Israel’s memory, even as it is etched indelibly into Palestinian consciousness.
Yet, it is exactly for the sake of conscience, that we all – especially God’s people – must refuse to abide by Israeli APR time frames. Ask, learn, study, become educated in the long, tragic history of the many crimes committed against them before the Palestinians finally responded.
