The initial CBS headline
The initial CBS headlineScreenshot

A major terrorist attack was narrowly averted in Jerusalem earlier Wednesday, when no less then three heavily-armed Arab terrorists opened fire on Border Police stationed near the Old City's Damascus Gate.

While two officers were seriously wounded, the quick and remarkably precise reactions of their comrades put an abrupt end to the attack, killing all three attackers in response. The terrorists were revealed to have been armed with sub-machine guns, knives and bombs, and were clearly intending to massacre as many people as possible.

But you wouldn't know that from the outrageous headline provided by the CBS news network, which informed its readers: "3 Palestinians killed as daily violence grinds on".

The article itself was barely much better, with nearly every sentence concerning the incident preceded or qualified by words like "Israeli police say," as if the attack in broad daylight were somehow not an objective fact.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry reacted angrily to the article, which is just the latest in a string of misleading and downright cynical headlines by some foreign media outlets portraying Palestinian terrorist attackers as victims.

"An unprecedented chutzpah" is how a foreign ministry spokesman described it, blasting the "bias and false headline," while adding that the ministry was urging CBS to change it.

The headline was indeed changed, but to one that is arguably not much better: Israeli police kill 3 alleged Palestinian attackers.

"Alleged," despite having opened fire and injured two police officers in broad daylight while armed to the teeth.

Ari Soffer contributed to this report.