Israel and Hamas: The Obscenity of Blameing the Blameless

Photo courtsey Getty Images FORT LAUDERDALE, FL - DECEMBER 30: Palestinian supporters rally to bring attention to the bombing campaign Israel has unleashed in the Palestinian territory of Gaza on December 30, 2008 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Responding to continued rocket attacks by Hamas in Gaza, Israel has carried out air strikes for four days. According to the White House, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is leading intense diplomatic efforts to pressure a cease fire between Israel and Hamas.

The above photo caption ignores the fact of the obscenity of comparing the holocaust to Israel's defense of it's own citizens. It ignores the fact that President Bush is insisting that any cease fire be "sustainable and durable."

I also found this photo of Abu Moussa Marzouk, with this caption:

2 days ago: Hamas deputy head, Moussa Abu Marzouk talks during an interview with the Associated Press in his office in Damascus, Syria Monday Dec. 29, 2008. Abo Marzouk rejected any talk about truce with Israel before it stops attacks on Gaza and lift the siege calling on Arab states with relations with the Jewish state cut these relations.

This is interesting as it is a current AP Photo and caption of the man who wrote the Hamas Manifesto published in Trinity United Church of Christ (TUCC) bulletin, on the Pastor's Page, by Obama's pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright. 

Could we get the press to print the simple fact that Jeremiah Wright lent a voice to Hamas? Was there a conversation in the press that Obama was a member of the church at the time of the publishing of the Hamas Manifesto? Of course not. Marzouk is a founder of CAIR's parent organizations, the Islamic Association for Palestine, found liable for the murder of an American youth in Israel; the Holy Land Foundation, and the United Association for Studies and Research - all now shutdown by the U.S. Treasury. The Middle East Journal says this about Marzouk:

Musa Abu Marzuq was arrested at Kennedy Airport in July 1995 on charges of murder and attempted murder for Hamas, the other fundamentalist Islamic group that repeatedly engages in terrorist acts against Israel. At the time of his arrest, Abu Marzuq--a permanent resident of the United States for five years--headed a Washington-area think tank called the United Association for Studies and Research.

He is a man of many aliases, (Marzouk, Marzook, Marzug) with a U.S. Ph.D. Did I mention that Barack Obama's church printed Marzouk's manifesto, on July 10, 2007, retitling it "A Fresh View of the Palestinian Struggle?"
 

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Simply Jews always has great probing commentary and today does not disappoint. The truth is often ugly. Mix the press and their often convoluted version of the truth and it is a picture of obscenity.

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Apparently Amos by Snoopy the Goon at Simply Jews December 31, 2008 In the propaganda war that unfolds around the war in Gaza, the sides follow the old played out scenario. Our FM and its tentacles declare a "hasbara" offensive that in a few hours becomes overwhelmed my the well oiled (pun intended) wave of Muslim histrionics, accompanied by a not much more subtle chorus of their friends. "Friends" could be a bit of a misnomer, though, the people of this kind are motivated by their hate to Israel rather than by their passion for Islam, Palestinians or anything else. 

Why would I link to the article by Seamus Milne - the Guardian pet communist, a liar, a serial falsifier, a patented Israel-basher? Because, besides several ripped out of context quotes statements and lies of omission, I have encountered a rare case of a precise* quotation - from an Israeli journalist Amos Harel, not known for being anti-Israeli, anti-establishment or anti-IDF - quite the opposite was supposed to be true, in fact. First to the linked above article:

As Israeli journalist Amos Harel wrote in Ha'aretz at the weekend, "little or no weight was apparently devoted to the question of harming innocent civilians", as in US operations in Iraq.

Wow, I said. An Israeli military journalist, quite respected in his chosen line of work, publishes a statement that (and I know this for a fact) is not only patently untrue, but causes a crippling blow to any Hasbara attempts - no, something is wrong here. So I have started to look for the original. It wasn't that easy, since Seumas Milne does not link to the sources of his quotes - for reasons that must be clear to anyone familiar with the kind of garbage he publishes. Eventually I came up with the original article in the English version of Haaretz. And to my chagrine here comes the full sentence:

Like the U.S. assault on Iraq and the Israeli response to the abduction of IDF reservists Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser at the outset of the Second Lebanon War (the "night of the Fajr missiles," a reference to the IAF destruction of Hezbollah's arsenal of medium-range Fajr missiles), little to no weight was apparently devoted to the question of harming innocent civilians.

Wow again. It is one thing to see a libelous statement in an article by an Israeli-hater and a liar. It s something completely different when you read this coming from a leading Israeli military journalist. To double check, we went to the Hebrew original of the same (translated in English) article:

כמו ארה"ב בעיראק וכמו המהלך הישראלי בתגובה לחטיפת חיילי המילואים רגב וגולדווסר בפתיחת מלחמת לבנון השנייה ("ליל הפאג'רים" שבו הושמד מערך הרקטות לטווח בינוני של חיזבאללה), גם הפעם לא ניתן כמעט משקל לשאלה כמה אזרחים חפים מפשע ייפגעו בהפצצות.

And you know what: as far as the English translation, gladly picked up by Milne goes, it is even less damaging than the original - somebody thought enough to add the word "apparently", which word does not appear in the Hebrew original... IDF has its faults, its f-ups and its villains, but one thing I know for sure, not even being a military correspondent: IDF invested months of effort and intelligence gathering to choose its targets having in mind maximum "awe and shock", that's true, but to the same degree of importance (even higher due to accumulated knowledge of previous botched attacks) minimum civilian victims. Even the Hamas and other non-Israeli sources confirm that the first wave of attacks reached its designed targets - overwhelmingly Hamas "militants". 

Read more the full article at Simply Jews. 

Related: The Angst of Supporting Israel