The Hamas repertory company

Lisa

I'd laugh myself silly, but this whole farce has a promoter and theatrical management in the shape of the Western media. No doubt they'll all be going on tour with this pantomime.

John

Of course, the western liberal media laps it all up uncritically because they are all graduates of the same drama school. None of them have any interest in the facts - just promoting the latest Palestinian theatre production.

kate b

Yes, it was so obviously staged by western directors, quiet, choreographed beautifully instead of the ranting mob we're used to seeing....and people take it in.

Lynne T.

I'd love to know which journalists other than Khaled Abu Toameh. I suspect they were all Palestinian journalists who are chaffing at the repression they face from both Fatah and Hamas (there are more of them than just Mr. Toameh, but they don't work for the J-Post or have the protection of the Israeli gov't.) and none of the meat puppets from western media.

Scipio

Yet for some insane reason in Britain the Palestinians are the most popular people in the world. Copious tears are shed for them in the media, academia, the Royal Family, etc.

davidka

Yes there are scores of examples of dishonest fabrication. However it would be arrogamt to believe that our own press is "fooled" and are mere naive dupes. They feed on these lies and distortions to feed their Aidiences wishes to portray Isralis as pariahs of world society.The Truth is immaterial.

Mladen Andrijasevic

So it was staged. Yet again the gullible western media were duped. But the point is that even if the darkness were real, Israel had every right to cut electricity off while Sderot was being bombed, because the last time England was attacked by V1 and V2 rockets the German cities were not in darkness – they were illuminated by the firebombs dropped by the RAF. The layers of Palestinian deception and layers of world bias are so thick that we have to explain the very core values and seemingly all arguments stacked against Israel , and explain why even then Israel is in the right. The Palestinians might have overplayed their cards this time. The truth came out too quickly. It took 6 years for the truth to emerge in the al Durah case, a few weeks in fake photography of burning Beirut, and only two days now. On the other hand, no one must ever underestimate the state of mass hypnosis the world is in when Israel is concerned . The UN Security Council meeting in progress influenced by staged darkness while ignoring thousands of real rockets is proof enough. The only ray oh hope is that Israeli officials have finally woken up and placed 4,200 red balloons on the UN's doorstep , each representing one of the 4200 Kassams fired on Israel since disengagement . Let’s see if the photo of the red balloons in front of the UN will be carried by even one British paper. http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1201070786324&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Reid of America

A couple of weeks ago I commented on this blog that Egypt would eventually take back Gaza and exterminate hamas. I'm sure many readers thought this to be a crackpot notion. Well now that hamas has destroyed the border wall Israel is silently smiling while issuing pro-forma complaints. It seems that Gaza is well on it's way to returning to 1967 borders whether Egypt likes it or not.

Paul Carter

From your detail about Hamas's tactics ( which I do not doubt) you go on to make the large assertion that if Israel were to withdraw from the West Bank, Hamas would surely take control of it. I don't necessarily accept this. Israel should withdraw from the illegally occuppied West Bank but this withdrawal needs to be done with the support and intervention of the UN, USA and other major powers to prevent its takeover by Hamas. It seems to me that Israel never wanted the Palestinian Authority to be able to run a viable stable state and did what it could to destabilise it.The result is that the Palestinian extremists are strengthened which in turn allows Israel to contine to argue that a fully independent Palestine state is an unacceptable risk to security of Israel itself but then maybe I am just a sucker for the western liberal press.

g

Paul Carter, yes you are.

field

Arafat started early - The all time most famous Palestinian was actually born and bred in Egypt.

field

Paul Carter - I have some sympathy with what you say. But the West Bank is different from Gaza. Jewish Israelis have some legitimate interest in some of the locations on the West Bank, whereas straightforward withdrawal from Gaza is the best policy I believe. But of course if they have the interest in the West Bank, it is not illegimate for the Palestinians to have an interest in Israel proper.

Brian O'Connor

Paul Carter wrote:

I don't necessarily accept this. Israel should withdraw from the illegally occuppied West Bank but this withdrawal needs to be done with the support and intervention of the UN, USA and other major powers to prevent its takeover by Hamas.

The UN?

This is a joke, right? You're spoofing us, right? Or, you wrote this after having had one too many beers, right?

Would this be the same UN which turned a blind eye towards the slaughter in Rwanda? The same one whose peacekeepers regularly trade humanitarian help for sex with children? The same UN which played the Oil for Food game with Saddam Hussein? The same one which can't find a way to deal with the human rights violations of the North Koreans? The same UN which can't find a way to stop the genocide in Darfur? (The list is endless.)

Question: how many resolutions has the UN passed condemning Israel for its supposed aggression/human rights violations against its arab neighbors, and how many resolutions has the UN passed condemning Israel's Arab neighbors for aggression against Israel?

And if you believe those numbers represent an honest measure of which side is in the right and which is not, what is the argument against the US simply nuking Israel in the interests of eradicating an evil people and making warm and fuzzy kissy-faces with her Arab neighbors? You know -- the same Arab neighbors who are the marvelously admirable people who, for the most part, celebrate diversity and demonstrate their commitment to the multicultural ideal of tolerance by requiring that women be second class citizens, avert their eyes from honor killings and female genital mutilation and have no problem visiting death on homosexuals.

BJ

I remember during the first Gulf War Netanyahu would put on a gas mask before being interviewed by television journalists. A blatant attempt to play for world sympathy. You can hardly complain if Hamas use similar techniques in handling the media.

Michael N

BJ - your point might have some validity in a vacuum, but it is made in a world in which the openly islamic-supremacist, Jew-hating, non-negotiating monsters of Hamas are winning a media war against a modern democracy. In this sense, the supposed logic of your moral equivalency is rather meaningless. Israel was not trying to murder anyone during the first Gulf War, after all. It was, again, being attacked unprovoked by an Arab neighbour.

sirius

There is another cause celebre which was staged: when Arafat gave his blood after 9/11. This has been confirmed by Charles Enderlin himself, no less. Although he is a professional liar, in this case I really believe him.

Adam B.

BJ, if you think donning gas masks whilst Scud missiles were landing in Tel Aviv every night was simply a stunt, then you are utterly clueless. This was a time when Saddam had stockpiles of chemical weapons, and had used them. Israelis were terrified at that time of an unconventional attack (several older people died from heart attacks) and putting your baby into a chemical and biological proof cot was no joke. The difference also is that in both cases (then and now), Israel is the country being attacked, yet Hamas manages to play victim despite initiating the whole crisis to convince people like you.

g

...yes, of course, BJ. Don't let the minor detail of the 39 scuds Saddam launched into Israel during the conflict disturb your narrative of equivalence.

Andy Gill

The mainstream media in the UK have become part of the Islamic propoganda machine. They seem congetinally incapable of reporting fairly on the Middle East. Thank heavens for the Internet, and the fearless few like Mel. Otherwise we'd never know the truth.

J. Isaacs

Andy Gill is quite correct. As just one example, without the reporting of Melanie Phillips the UK would not have heard from the MSM of the death of Ecuadorian kibbutz worker Carlos Chavez at the hands of a Palestinian sniper in Gaza a few days ago.

hank

Yeah, what a farce! Hamas is DEMOCRATICALLY elected and the USA and Israel sanction, siege and systematically kill them for it. BRAVO! Well played. Any modicum of credibility we had in promoting democracy around the world has been flushed down the toilet by these two so-called "democracies".

David

What will it be? Peaceful protest doesn't seem to work and Palestinians are punished for fighting back. I'm a little confused. http://www.peace.ca/rachelcorrie.htm

field@tiscali.co.uk

Interesting that the Egyptians have also built a wall to contain the Palestinians. Not something that the MSM has ever reported on while telling us about Israel's "wall". Interesting also that there were quite a few references to families from Gaza meeting up with their relatives from Egypt. I think the population is a lot more fluid around there than the MSM ever lets on. I mean, how many times did you hear that Arafat was born and raised in Cairo. Remember Arafat - he's the one a BBC journalist (think I know the name but don't want to get it wrong) admitted on camera to crying over?

N. Simon

Hank, Hitler and the Nazis were democratically elected.

So are you trying to point out that all genocidal maniacs elected to run a country should be free to slaughter millions?

Maven

Hank, the UK, Spain and USA are democracies and what do Islamists want to do? Kill them! (9/11, 7/7, 21/7, Madrid)

Adam B.

David, Israel LEFT Gaza, and every Jew living there was forced to leave so that the area could be Judenrein. Since then Israel has had nothing but violence from Gaza, including thousands of rockets fired indiscriminately at the civilians of Sderot and Ashkelon. How does this constitute "fighting back"? What are they fighting back against? The existence of a Jewish State? Remember, Hamas' goal is to exterminate all the Jews of the world (stated in its charter). Is this "fighting back"? Poor Hamas, they only want to continue where Hitler left off. How inconsiderate of the Jews not to go along with their plan. And Hank, Israel's government was also democrtaically elected. I don't see Hamas (or you) saying "well, we should respect the decision of the Israeli people and engage with their democratically elected government". And how democratic was Hamas' coup in Gaza, when they threw Fatah officials off the rooftops? Why don't you think these things through?

sebastian

Who are the Palestinians? They are a group of dissident Jordanians and Egyptians that neither of those Governments likes very much and who have been fooled by their leaders into thinking their wholly artificially created "State" - a vehicle for the late Arafat's inflated personal ambition and largely private profit - is achievable. Which of course it isn't. It isn't because the leaders - Hamas in particular - now seek the impossible on one hand; and the unwanted on the other. The "impossible" is Israel's total destruction - mainly for Islamist reasons; the "unwanted" is the halting of funds following a peace deal and the attainment of more or less economic self-sufficiency and approximate financial accountability. This is the last thing either of them want. Certain members of this terror and embezzlement syndicate of money-spinning, thuggish mendicants called Hamas in Gaza and Fatah in the West-Bank, have done very nicely thank you. They have profitably managed to avoid a peace deal while appearing permanently to be on the brink of one. So they've had it both ways: the cash trailing, the hope leading it a dance at the front. Which is why there's no peace. Peace is bad for business. Their own people's histrionic suffering - "West Bank theatre at its finest." as Shimon Peretz once correctly described it - and manipulated, schooled outrage sets the tills merrily ringing. Outrage and suffering are good for business. I think we should leave them to their side-show. Stop the funds and force - yes "force" as a responsible parent forces a recalcitrant and overindulged child to eat its greens - these silly and utterly misled dissident communities to grow up.

Uncle Rudolf

Sirius: "There is another cause celebre which was staged: when Arafat gave his blood after 9/11."

Oh dear. If this is true, not good considering what caused his death.

Brian O'Connor

Hank wrote"

Yeah, what a farce! Hamas is DEMOCRATICALLY elected and the USA and Israel sanction, siege and systematically kill them for it. BRAVO! Well played. Any modicum of credibility we had in promoting democracy around the world has been flushed down the toilet by these two so-called "democracies".

I'm not sure what point you're making. Could you please clarify? Thanks.

Lynne T

Adam B: Note David's link to that late great advocate of peace, Rachel Corrie, who died when she accidentally fell down a hole and broke her back while valiantly trying to prevent Israeli bull-dozer tanks from covering over bomb-smuggling tunnels. The autopsy on Ms. Corrie's body found no evidence of her having come into contact with the earth-moving vehicle and the inquest also found that the design of the vehicle that drove over the hole would not have afforded the driver the ability to see her from where she was perched. Ergo the determination that her death was accidental. Of course those rather pertinent facts are not likely to be found on the website David is directing you to. Nor are you likely to see pictures of Rachel dressed in hejab demonstrating to the children around her how to set fire to a paper replica of a US flag. Peace activist indeed!

Adam B.

Lynne T, I agree with you completely. I would like to add that whislt the name Rachel Corrie is known amongst the chattering classes, with Alan Rickman directing a play about her (ignoring the hateful side of her "activism") no-one has heard the names of the dozen or more Israeli victims of Palestinian terrorism who were also called Rachel, going about their ordinary lives until deliberately targeted for death. Alan Rickman doesn't give a fig about them, and I bet can't even name one of them.

david

Lynne? Lynne Cheney? How are you?! Love your work on behalf of Satan! We're all sooo proud of the work you are doing up here. Keep it up! Armageddon ho!

david

Now Sebastion, This "Jordan" argument can be used against any citizen of Israel if you go back far enough. That is the point I am trying to make in my posts. Its time for this finger pointing and stereotyping to end. This kind of rhetoric is getting us nowhere. Its time for pragmatic leadership on the Palestine issue. At the risk of sounding too hippy-dippy, I am going to expose a truism. We are all citizens of the WORLD and RELATED by blood. Last time I checked, we were all members of the same species (as much as I'd like to deny some membership). This tribalism that is so evident in the ME and Africa has got to come to a close. It is based on fallacious and arbitrary assumptions. Jews and Arabs are not going away. Hitler already tried that and failed miserably. We need to promote pluralism and tolerance and tear down the fences we have built. As history has shown, those who attempt to cleanse and divide (South Africa and Nazi Germany to name a couple) ultimately fail. I blame the Arabs (Hamas) as much as anybody. What we need now more than ever is a Gandhi or MLK Jr. to rise in the ME. Its a long road, but it eventually leads to righteousness and peace. Those who live by the sword will eventually be struck down by it.

david

And Maven, Many would argue the countries you mentioned are oligarchies with very narrow interests. None of them has acted in the name of righteousness. The USA has lost all credibility since it began to act on very narrow interests, beginning with the war in Vietnam. As an American, I can tell you the average citizen here is beginning to wake up to this fact.

david

"So are you trying to point out that all genocidal maniacs elected to run a country should be free to slaughter millions?" N. Simon, If Hank won't answer I will. Apparently, that is what YOU believe.

david

Michael wrote: "...Jew-hating, non-negotiating monsters of Hamas are winning a media war against a modern democracy." Calm down Michael. You're going to have an aneurysm. I think BJ made a valid point. When Hamas uses the media to make a point everyone cries foul. When Israel or the USA do it for affect, they are "fair and balanced"? REALLY??? This kind of hypocrisy serves no good purpose. Both sides need to tone down the rhetoric and let cooler heads prevail. It's just so absolutely juvenile. Frankly, it's embarrassing to witness.