In an interview with Mark Austin of Sky News, Dr. Bassem Naim, Director of Political and International Relations for Hamas, insisted today (Wednesday) that no Israeli civilians have been killed in this week’s attack on southern Israel, and claimed that world media had fallen prey to Israeli propaganda. When challenged by Austin, Naim clarified: “We have to redefine what ‘civilian’ means.” Every Jewish Israeli – even the infants that were butchered in their beds – is a combatant, a soldier, and a legitimate target. Every means of eliminating Jewish Israelis is legitimate (including beheading, burning, raping, mutilating) – because every man, woman and child among them is a “settler” (no matter where they live) who “set fire to the Arab village of Huwara,” “a cyber-spy, a soldier not wearing a uniform.”
The Hamas official went on to boast that all hostages would be treated humanely – more humanely than the Hamas terrorists languishing in Israeli prisons (where they enjoy Israeli medical care, conjugal visits, canteen rights and more, and where they complete university degrees during their incarceration!). Austin accepted this patently outrageous committment, and made no mention of the footage that has flooded social media of Israeli hostages dragged through the streets of Gaza, caged Jewish children paraded through the streets to be spat at, and countless photos of naked, bound Israeli captives lying in dank Hamas dungeons.
Anti-Israel (“pro-Palestinian”) media are being forced to work overtime to explain away these atrocities, to reframe, “contextualize” and quietly justify the pogrom – but Hamas isn’t making it easy for them.
There are questions that every journalist should be asking him- or herself, and media outlet should be forced to answer, in light of this and other outrageous media appearances by high-ranking Hamas officials in recent days (such as Husam Zumlot’s interview with Christiane Amanpour of CNN):
How and why do you continue to provide a platform for Hamas to spread evil and falsehood?
How can you continue to give credence to a single word they say?
If your entire understanding of the Arab-Israel conflict is based on sources such as these, isn’t it time to re-examine your basic assumptions and conclusions about this conflict?
Isn’t it time you admit that you have been used – badly – by a bloodthirsty gang that has been feeding you bald-faced lies for decades, and admit that you eagerly accepted these lies in order to join the anti-Israel condemnation chorus?
