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Why Does The New York Times Love Hamas?
Despite the fact that Hamas has executed scores of rivals, smuggled in hundreds of tons of explosives and tens of thousands of weapons, killed local Christians and shut down their churches, and summarily executed “collaborators” (those who have been accused, mostly falsely, of working with the Israelis), the paper appears intent on humanizing the brutal regime in Gaza.
On October 20, 2008, for example, The Times painted a sweet portrait of Hamas fostering love, not war, through arranged marriages for members of Izz ad-Din al-Qassam (the terrorist squad that specializes in suicide bombings, although this fact was conveniently left out in the story). “Taking advantage of the pause in violence,” El-Khodary wrote, “the Hamas leaders have turned to matchmaking, bringing together single fighters and widows, and providing dowries and wedding parties for the many here who cannot afford such trappings of matrimony.”
How touching. The next installment could be on Al Qaeda’s mixers for Gen-Y terrorists or Hezbollah’s eHarmony-style dating service for those terrorists too shy to walk up to a female mujahid and ask her if she likes his AK-47. And by the way, those Hamas lovebirds were able to participate in an open-air wedding ceremony, because, The Times reported, Hamas “has been observing a truce with Israel since June, allowing its underground fighters to resurface but leaving them without much to do.” In fact, Hamas was routinely violating the truce, allowing scores of rockets to be fired into Israel, smuggling explosives, building underground tunnels, and, as we now know, building tens of thousands of rockets and long-range missiles to target southern Israel.
Yet a week before Israel launched its most recent offensive in Gaza, on December 20, Bronner was still promoting the Hamas line that it had “imposed its will and even imprisoned some of those who were firing rockets.” What he neglected to say is that those allegedly imprisoned were never jailed more than two days, and that more than 200 missiles were fired at Israel by Hamas during the truce.
In this same article Bronner places the blame for breaking the truce on “Israel’s decision in early November to destroy a tunnel Hamas had been digging near the border," which "drove the cycle of violence to a much higher level.” In fact, if Bronner had read his own paper’s June 25 report, “Rockets Hit Israel, Breaking Hamas Truce,” he would have learned that “three Qassem rockets fired from Gaza on Tuesday struck the Israeli border town of Sderot…constituting the first serious breach of a five-day-old truce between Israel and Hamas.”
Another example of The Times downplaying Hamas’ evil nature occurred deep in a December 29 story by Bronner and El-Khodary. Although focused mostly on the Palestinians killed by Israeli bombs, it did make a relatively brief reference to the fact that “Hamas gunmen publicly shot suspected collaborators with Israel,” which the paper described somewhat nonchalantly as “internal bloodletting.” The Times said five victims were taken out of their hospital beds and shot in the head—a chilling episode that should have been a stand-alone story about the thugs who rule Gaza. Moreover, calling these men “collaborators”—when, for all we know, they were simply political opponents of Hamas—conjures up self-justifying images of the French collaboration with the Nazis.
Throughout last week’s reporting by Bronner and El-Khodary, there were numerous references to two Palestinian children killed by an Israeli bombing raids, with the clear implication that Israel was recklessly attacking civilian areas. The paper never once blamed Hamas for intentionally using civilians as human shields. Even more telling of The Times’ bias: On December 26, 2008, the Jerusalem Post reported that, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry, two Palestinian children, ages 5 and 12, were killed when Hamas rockets fell short of their Israeli targets. Yet The Times never once reported those deaths.
In its purportedly evenhanded approach to reporting the news from the Gaza front, The New York Times continues to betray the trust placed on journalists to give readers all the facts. And in this clear attempt to place the blame on one party alone—Israel—The Times is advancing the cause of Hamas. If The Times really wanted to present the truth, it would simply drop the pretense of being honest and simply register as a foreign agent of Hamas.
—Additional reporting by Linda Keay
Steve Emerson is executive director of the Investigative Project on Terrorism and author of 5 books and countless articles on terrorism. His most recent book is Jihad Incorporated: A Guide to Militant Islam in the U.S.
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You know, this title of "terrorists" does begin to wear very thin...why is someone a terrorist just because they choose to defend people in their own country!!!!
I don't hear anyone calling Israel "terrorists" in what they are doing and they are doing a darn sight worse...invading Gaza and stopping media getting in..where is the justice in all this?
It is shameful that our Govt condone these barbaric attacks and occupation of the Palestinian people by Israel...the world is outraged and we should be too..
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Cajola is a perfect example of the ignorance exploited by Hamas and others. Israel left Gaza in 2005. What did the terror groups do? Instead of buiilding their own prosperous and peaceful mini-state they spent all their efforts on building tunnels for weapons, smuggling in tons and tons of munitions and building rockets to start a war - aiming thousands of rockets indiscriminately at Israeli citizens.What would Cajola do? The Israelis warned and warned they could not expose their people for ever to this random murder. The true barbarism is Hamas - terrrorists, get it? They hide among the civilian population. They want to exploit the propaganda value of dead Palestinians so that people like Cajola will, as usual blame it all on the Israelis. What passes for humanitarian concern is limited to nonJews.
The longer I read about the Israel/Palestine conflict, the more I become convinced of 2 things:
1) Most people who are knowledgeable about this conflict are biased towards one side or the other, and
2) This conflict will never end peacefully. Its very frustrating to see that in this little, discordant corner of the world is likely festering World War III, a possible nuclear holocaust, and the raw materials for the destruction of civilization, and we as the spectators can do little to curb its inevitable trajectory.
What unmitigated crap. Hamas is not a 'terrorist' outfit. It is a grassroots political organisation that has university professors, doctors etc among its members. If Israel really wants a settlement it will end the seige of Gaza, which has lasted for years, and let its people breath. Then the rockets will certainly stop. But a vibrant, honest popular political party on its doorstep is, of course, far from what Israel wants.
what do you call an intentional attack on a properly identified U.N. school serving as shelter for civilians? humanitarian relief? come on.
Again, we all must ask the oft forgotten question, who's supplying the weapons? Frequently the answer to this question will help answer the bigger question. Although these 2 groups would be killing each other anyway and always will be. They just would be less efficient at it without the arms manufacturers of the US and Russia readily supplying them with the killing apparatus.
Teh NYt is parltly responsible for the recent dowbnfall of Israel, and uit has nothing to do with them supporting Hamas..The NYT is in fact a proxy Zionist paper.
they have supported Israel regardless, allowing them to annex another's land, and commit genocide among the Palestinian people. It's pretty simple. Look at teh masthead.
The idea taht they support Hamas is as dumb as the guy who wrote this article.
The thing is that the NYT suport for Israel has done them no good. Israel is on the brink of dissolution, an illogical biblical entity in a modern world.
If the Times had had more balanced coverage over the years, Isreal would not be decaptitating baby's in the streets.
Israel is the New Nazis, driven by the Old Testament, literally trying to wiope out the heathens. And my tax dollars support this?
Something tells me that Mr. Emerson has failed to read any Edward Said. I wonder, why is it the barbarities of Israel and US tactics have never been qualified as terrorism?
Isreal- "we need to blow up schools and decapitate children in the street for our security purposes."
Maybe Hitler was right. .
cajola: What Israel refused to do was to wait until one of Hamas' rockets hit a school ( as it did yesterday) and killed a large number of children to attack.
Look at the tunnels that Hamas built to smuggle arms, rockets, grenades etc. If they cared about their people, why didnt they use those tunnels to bring in food & medicine for the people? Israelis had built a series of sophisticated farms in gaza that was immensely successful. It left these farms, buildings and homes intact when it left Gaza. Hamas destroyed all of it rather than allow the arabs in Gaza a place to live and work. Check it out for yourself.
This is my definition of a terrorist.
robertell: While both sides have plenty of fault, nothing sways my opinion more in Israel's direction than when knuckle-dragging mouth-breathers pull out whoppers like "Maybe Hitler was right."
There's no such thing as a "terrorist". One man's terrorist is another's freedom fighter. A terrorist act is labeled so only if the people who perpetrate it have incompetent publicists and or bad aim.
Jews wanted that land and they won. Now it just remains to settle things up with the survivors.
The model for all this is how the US dealt with the American Indians.
Bottom line: Gaza and the West Bank should become casinos.
There. Problem solved!
Just like the US did with the natives in the 1800's. Eventually we'll all feel much better about it in the next century. There will be movies made a
Thank you for calling out the Times on its bad behavior. The Times likes to "bend over backwards," contorting itself to deflect or head off criticism. They bent over backwards to lend comfort to the Bush administration. They bend over backwards to prove that they are not the "liberal press" they are accused of being. And they have been bending over backwards (maybe forwards, too) in favor of Islam since, oh, about 9/12/01. Odd, isn't it?
loebster-
typical Jewish thinking.....
you support Isreal because I'm pissed at them for being genocidal and threatening my children with their Biblical land grab? Isreal has no right to exist. They are the new Nazis.
we wiped out the Nazi's, it time to wipe out Isreal.
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Seems to me that Hamas thrives on Jihad more than anything else, like civility. Even if Israel is totally wrong and always has been, Hamas could stand to learn some lessons from Martin Luther King, Jr. By completely and permanently trading in terrorism for peaceful, civic disobedience, they would win the hearts and minds of the world. Israel would be forced, and I believe willing to open all their doors and land to the Palestinians. Unfortunately, like I said before, Hamas seems to thrive on violence and incapable of reason.
'Israelis had built a series of sophisticated farms in gaza that was immensely successful. It left these farms, buildings and homes intact when it left Gaza'
and there you have it. Israel was building farms on another's man's land.
what would you do if your neighbor came over and annexed your land? Cuz his Bible said to. In fact, it said that you should be killed for worshiping wrong. The Holy Bible. A bloody screed.
get teh NYTimes today. There is a picture of three dead Arab babies. Yahweh says they should be dead. I say Israel has no right to exist.
You pick, the new nazi's, or the freedom fighters.
robertell: I don't believe for a second that you pay taxes. How could someone with your lack of understanding of basic grammar, spelling, logic, or reality possibly earn a paycheck?
Dear Steve:
What do you want the Times to do?
Say this, every time it mentions Hamas:
"Hamas, whose charter says that Israel shall exist until Islam destroys it, and in whose territory no Jews are allowed to live"
and this, every time it mentions Israel:
"Israel, whose constitution guarantees full citizenship to its Arab population, and where Arabs serve in the Knesset."
Yes. The NYTimes is biased and its reputation has eroded to the point where anyone reading it for content is, well, innocent. Hamas is a terror organization--professionals at terror not at building a state-- men who have taken Gaza as hostage to wage war on Israel for reasons too involved to go into here. marcyhdg and johnnorth above are absolutely right--reread their post. And by the way pangloss, Israelis are not German Jews. The majority is made up of Jews expelled from Arab lands who had been living a precarious existence under Muslim dhimmi laws before and after 1948, that is before the Jews organized themselves and returned to the land of their ancestors. The large majority of Jews in Israel today are Sephardic Jews.
Why does every other news organization, including this website, love Israel and treat them as some perfect entity? Hamas isn't perfect, and is classified as "terrorist" by the common definition, but constantly portraying it as nothing short of Al Qaeda Part Deux doesn't sit right.
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