The Numbers game...

It's sometimes very educational to read differing news sources of the same story. Any bias the reporter or the newspaper has sometimes is easy to spot just in the way they report numbers and how they refer to a group being reported about.

Here's an example from today:

Some 30,000 right-wing Israeli protesters, many clad in orange, staged a boisterous rally in southern Israel this evening against the planned withdrawal of Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip. But police and soldiers, who were present in only slightly smaller numbers, blocked their route to the coastal territory. (New York Times)

NETIVOT, Israel (Reuters) - Israeli security forces blocked thousands of rightist protesters on Monday from heading toward Gaza's Jewish settlements for a march aimed at impeding Israel's withdrawal from the occupied territory next month. Looking for a showdown with Sharon, settler leaders had vowed to defy an official ban on their protest, which they had expected to attract more than 100,000 people. (Washington Post)

Police are allowing some 30,000 anti-disengagement demonstrators marching from Netivot to enter Kfarm Maimon and spend the night, according to an agreement reached through negotiations between Public Security Minister Gideon Ezra, Police Commissioner Moshe Karadi and heads of the Yesha council, which represents the settlers. (Haaretz)

By 8:00 p.m., however, tens thousands of activists had streamed into Netivot and had launched the official demonstration under the banner "Giant march to Gush Katif; helping our heroic brothers." Police estimated that 10,000 people had arrived at the demonstration, while protest leaders put the number at over 50,000. (Jerusalem Post)

In defiance of a police ban, 20,000 protesters gathered in the town of Netivot and started marching toward the Gush Katif bloc of Gaza settlements, 15 miles away. A line of soldiers and police stopped them shortly after they started. (USA Today)

NETIVOT, Israel — Security forces blocked thousands of Jewish settlers and their supporters from marching Monday night in protest of Israel's pullout from the Gaza Strip next month. (Fox news) Yet Fox gives us this interesting "American human interest tidbit":

In Jerusalem, nearly 100 withdrawal opponents waited for buses that never arrived. "It's very frustrating ... you know we're on vacation and we want to do whatever we can to help the country," said New Yorker Sandy Brown, wearing an orange T-shirt.

So what does this all mean? There were alot of protestors and alot of soliders, and?

Never read just one source...

:-)