What you're not being told about Hamas
Imagine that American and British reporters had sent back a steady stream of news stories and photos highlighting the plight of German civilians: photos of ruined homes and apartment blocks, wailing women and children, overwhelmed hospitals and so forth. Suppose, further, that these reporters never mentioned anything about the ugly ideology of Hitler and the Nazis, their genocidal hatred for Jews, their plans for world conquest, their persecution of political opponents, etc.
We would all agree that reporters acting in this way would be guilty of a serious breach of journalistic ethics. They would be actively misleading their audience by telling only a small portion of the truth. One can mislead as effectively with half-truths as with lies, after all. The ideological divide between Hitler and the Western democracies was the single-most important aspect of the conflict. World War II was a clash of worldviews and ideologies more than anything else. It was a war for the heart and soul of Europe: Would Europe be a fascist, militaristic continent driven by genocidal hatred, or a haven for liberal democracy and the basic human freedoms that go with it?
As absurd as it sounds, the imaginary scenario sketched out here has been unfolding before our very eyes in the Gaza strip over the past month. Gaza is filled with Western reporters whose focus has been overwhelmingly on the suffering of civilians. The suffering of innocent bystanders in war is a newsworthy story, to be sure, but it is not the only or even the most important aspect of the clash between Hamas and Israel (and the Israeli military is far more careful to avoid civilian casualties than were the Allies in World War II). Like our hypothetical reporters in Nazi Germany, Western journalists ignore the most important aspect of the conflict — its ideological side.
Read the whole thing.
Here is the most important thing to know about this conflict: Hamas is an Islamic Nazi party, while Israel is a Jewish liberal democracy.
There's something else we're not being told about Gaza - unless you read this blog and others like it. According to this spread sheet, there were approximately 700 journalists in Gaza during the war. Of those 700, a grand total of 15 deemed it newsworthy to report on Hamas launching rockets among civilians, Hamas using civilians as human shields, Hamas using hospitals as military headquarters, Hamas using mosques as ammunition dumps, and many other war crimes. Why so few? Ask your local newspaper.
Labels: Gaza, Hamas, human shields, IDF, mainstream media, Nazis, Operation Protective Edge, war crimes
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 8:02 PM
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