Muted criticism in American newspapers: Scepticism at reports of Jenin bloodbath

The outcry in the European press over the killings of civilians in Jenin has not been echoed in US newspapers. Since being allowed into the West Bank town, American journalists have reported extensively on the devastation there, but the editorial pages have offered a mixed response.
The New York Times has made no direct criticism of the Israeli operations, noting only that "there remained heated charges and counter-charges regarding the number of the dead and the extent of the attack's brutality".

A news analysis by one of the paper's leading commentators, RW Apple, pointed out that broad support for President Bush's anti-terror policy "had dissolved on the Continent", but attributed this to European unease with its own position in the world. "In truth, Europe is still trying to adjust to a world with a single superpower, and it is having a hard time doing so," he wrote.

The Washington Post has been far more outspoken against Israeli actions.

In a Sunday editorial, it argued: "Israel's right to target the authors of such murderous attacks is undeniable.

"But with its killings of women and children, its torture and terrorising of unarmed men and its mass destruction of the property and dignity of people in the West Bank, Mr Sharon's army is also achieving the opposite of its aim. Its brutal offensive has not and will not stop suicide bombers; it risks bringing on even more terrible bloodshed."

However, a front page Washington Post report from Jenin was sceptical of reports of a bloodbath: "Interviews with residents inside the camp and international aid workers who were allowed here for the first time today indicated that no evidence has surfaced to support allegations... of large-scale massacres or executions by Israeli troops."