Israel Matzav

'I'm not defending Hamas, but...'

Multiple media members insist they're not defending Hamas. Why is that qualifier necessary?

Let's go to the videotape. More after the video.



If those statements didn't grate on you enough, try substituting al-Qaeda or the Klan for Hamas. Still doesn't grate on you? Here's more.

Hamas has been designated a terrorist organization by the United States since 1997. It has the destruction of Israel as a charter goal, has employed suicide bombings and rocket attacks on Israeli civilians, and openly urged Gaza citizens to remain in their homes to serve as “human shields” against Israeli shelling.

So it’s strange that so many have had to qualify their comments on the fighting over the past month by insisting they’re not defending Hamas while they simultaneously bash Israel. Much of the coverage has focused on the deaths of Palestinian civilians and international outrage at Israel’s supposed responsibility for the conflict, while less has been devoted to condemning Hamas for starting the war in the first place through indiscriminate rocket attacks and the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli boys, and breaking multiple ceasefires by continuing to fire on Israeli civilians.

...

One finds it hard to imagine any media members ever having to say, “I’m not defending al Qaeda” in the midst of a debate on foreign policy. The fact that this qualifier about another violent, anti-Semitic terror group is so prevalent among the media is curious, indeed.

Read the whole thing.

Labels: al-Qaeda, anti-Israel media bias, anti-Semitism, Hamas

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 12:39 PM