Not surprisingly, journalists and the media in general continue to take their cue from Hamas terrorists and insist on describing attacks on Israel’s border and attempts to infiltrate as peaceful demonstrations.
At the start of the organized riots, NBC informed us that
The sit-in demonstration is set to culminate on May 15 — the day after Israeli independence
NBC News, April 5, 2018
Sit in?
If you listen closely, the voices you will hear are definitely not singing kumbaya.
Still, after 6 weeks, the media has begun to notice a thing or two, interspersed among the required proclamation of peaceful demonstrations.
For example, there is some reporting on the fact that what is happening is not spontaneous and that Hamas is behind it. Not only is Hamas pulling the strings, but some newspapers have pointed out that the terrorist group manipulates Gazans by lying to them and deliberately putting civilians in danger.
The Washington Post has noted how the leaders of the riots deliberately endanger lives:
But the protests appeared to have a more violent edge than in previous weeks. Some young men brought knives and fence cutters. At a gathering point east of Gaza City, organizers urged protesters over loudspeakers to burst through the fence, telling them Israeli soldiers were fleeing their positions, even as they were reinforcing them. [emphasis added]
Similarly, The New York Times reported
The atmosphere grew more charged after midday prayers, when more than 1,000 men gathered under a large blue awning. Officials from Hamas and other militant factions addressed the worshipers, urging them into the fray and claiming — falsely, to all appearances — that the fence had been breached and that Palestinians were flooding into Israel. [emphasis added]
With all the trouble Hamas is going through, they are very determined. When Israel tried to impede the riots by warning bus companies in Gaza not to bring people to the border, Hamas threatened to imprison the drivers – leaving them no choice.
Similarly, in order to encourage the largest possible of participants in what was supposed to be the last day of the riots, Hamas declared a general strike and even UNRWA complied and closed down.
Just as the media has begrudgingly mentioned the hand of Hamas in encouraging the riots, journalists have been a bit more forthcoming — even if they cannot quite bring themselves to admit to the weapons that are being brought and used:
MSNBC reporter Matt Bradley falsey [sic] claims Palestinian rioters in the Gaza Strip were “unarmed,” then admits they “had some light weapons.” pic.twitter.com/V3o3chQwnL— Josh Caplan (@joshdcaplan)
Apparently, not all journalists have bothered to pay attention to what Hamas leaders have been saying from the very beginning:
The fact is, not all that much encouragement by Hamas seems to have been necessary:
While some said they would abide by official calls to keep the demonstrations peaceful, others talked about their enthusiasm to break into Israel and wreak havoc.
“We are excited to storm and get inside,” said 23-year-old Mohammed Mansoura. When asked what he would do inside Israel, he said, “Whatever is possible, to kill, throw stones.”
Two other young men carried large knives and said they wanted to kill Jews on the other side of the fence.
Since this is from the same article that notes how Gazans were lied to in order to get them to the border, it is not actually clear where these “official calls to keep the demonstrations peaceful” came from — but it is typical of the media’s schizophrenic approach, or what they like to think of as ‘balanced reporting’.
Whoever it is that was calling for peaceful demonstrations, it sure wasn’t this guy:
Since Hamas is doing everything it can to encourage violence and death, it really is difficult to understand who the Washington Post thinks it is referring to:
We are just chiming in to let you know the above Facebook post, literally telling its millions of followers to invade armed with knives and guns into Israeli towns and kidnap people, is still up. pic.twitter.com/UfaakgTcea— The Mossad (@TheMossadIL)
Hamas is literally drawing Gazans a map on how to infiltrate and invade Israel:
The official Facebook page of the riots in Gaza published these photos, directing rioters to breach the fence and infiltrate nearby Israeli communities pic.twitter.com/PSHEmmustX— IDF (@IDFSpokesperson)
And when some Gazans were successful in infiltrating across the border, they made it very clear they got Hamas’s message:
This is what a border infiltration from into looks like. See the man (0:30) clutching a meat cleaver? Imagine hundreds like him coming into Israeli territory, hoping to murder as many Israelis as possible.This is what Israel is up against. pic.twitter.com/97c9jvEWOT— Emanuel Miller (@emanumiller)
This is not just about people being caught incidentally on film.
The rioters are more than happy to tell journalists what they intend to do:
A young Palestinian man boasted to National Public Radio on Tuesday about putting swastikas on incendiary kites and flying them into Israel, saying that “Jews go crazy” when they see it and “we want to burn them.”
And of course, there is always a terrorist video to make the point. This one is from Islamic Jihad:
Hat tip: Elder of Ziyon
Of course, sometimes while talking to journalists, there is always a possibility of getting your lines wrong, as a correspondent for AFP reported:
Me: So why are you protesting tomorrow?
Naseem (14): For the right to return
Naseem’s friend (giggling): But you are a Gazan (meaning unlike most Gazans his family weren’t refugees)
Naseem: Ok. So for Jerusalem pic.twitter.com/e1XtzquwmB— Joe (@joedyke)
A bigger problem is coordinating civilians so they can be used as human shields to effectively cover for the Hamas terrorists among them:
Hamas has warned its own members to stay away from the security fence during Gaza’s mass protests, lest they get shot, while actively encouraging Palestinian civilians — particularly children and teens — to approach the border, the Shin Bet added, citing findings from a number of interrogations. If the fence is breached, however, armed Hamas gunmen are poised to enter Israel to carry out attacks.
“There is a prohibition for Hamas operatives to approach the border, from a fear that they will be killed or captured by IDF troops, unless the security fence falls and then they must enter, armed, into Israel under the cover of the masses and carry out terror attacks,” the Shin Bet said in a statement.
…Yahya Ijlah, a 19-year-old Hamas member who entered Israel on April 29, told Shin Bet interrogators that he had been sent to the border in order to steal a security camera along the fence.
According to the Shin Bet, Ijlah said Hamas “is working to make its activities look like a popular uprising in the media, and not a violent operation by its members.”
But despite it all —
With all the evidence of premeditation and advanced planning,
Despite statements in Arabic that are easily available online in translation,
Contrary to statements made to the media by the rioters themselves,
And even with video of infiltration into Israel, of kites setting fields on fire and of calls for death to Jews,
The media still insists on writing about peaceful protests, bewildered by how Israel uses live ammunition to prevent Gazans from doing what they proclaim to the world they want to do and eagerly accepting whatever explanation Hamas terrorists tell them.