Fairfax Jerusalem Bureau Chief Ed O'Loughlin [pictured left], who seems to be doubling as Hamas' Australian media man these days, continues to bat for the Islamic fundamentalist Hamas movement in today's Melbourne Age - ISRAEL SELECTS FRIENDS AND FOES.
The tenor of his report is that while Hamas and Fatah are both dedicated to murdering Jews, there is something not quite right in the fact that the Israelis have selected the more secular Fatah movement as a partner against the democratically elected Islamists whose only fault appears to be their "refusal to renounce armed struggle or recognise the Jewish state's right to exist."
Of course, O'Loughlin omits to add the mere triviality that Hamas also advocates genocide against all Jews – even those who act as its apologists in the West.
O'Loughlin attempts to prop up his case by parroting the discredited line about Israel's blockade of "the isolated Gaza Strip" and how its population is fast becoming "dependent on emergency food aid because of Israel's decision to shut down all of the enclave's border crossings and external trade." Everything is always Israel's fault!
The problem for O'Loughlin is that his mates at Hamas openly say they have no interest in opening the crossings into Gaza, even for the provision of humanitarian relief for their own people HAMAS SAYS OPPOSES REOPENING ISRAEL-GAZA BORDER CROSSING.
Typically, O'Loughlin deals with this uncomfortable little problem by simply not disclosing it to his readers. Similarly, other important facts are also consigned to the blank pages - such as the news that Hamas has been rearming itself through its "closed border" with Egypt. Melanie Phillips points out that "while Gazans are reportedly starving in a humanitarian crisis (caused by the fact that they themselves are preventing the arrival of food and essential supplies) they are nevertheless managing to supply themselves at the same time with 'import' dimensions of weapons with which to murder Israelis (and each other)."
It's no wonder these truths are inconvenient for the Jerusalem correspondent of the Melbourne Age who is doing his best to give Hamas some credibility as an elected Palestinian government that's painted as being as benign as your local friendly neighbourhood social club.
It might come across that way if you routinely hide news of Hamas' violence against fellow Palestinians and Israeli civilians on the other side of the border via quassam rocket attacks, the pathologically twisted education Hamas is giving to Palestinian children, the incitement to violence in its media and the plain, garden variety, filthy racial hatred it promotes in places like this. And O'Loughlin scratches his head in wonderment as to why Israel opposes a movement that promotes and performs terrorist acts (including cross border kidnappings) against its people, calls for an Islamist-dominated planet and works with antisemites around the world.
O'Loughlin is right. Israel could possibly improve its decision-making when it comes to selecting its friends.
On the other hand, O'Loughlin himself could also do a lot better.
The tenor of his report is that while Hamas and Fatah are both dedicated to murdering Jews, there is something not quite right in the fact that the Israelis have selected the more secular Fatah movement as a partner against the democratically elected Islamists whose only fault appears to be their "refusal to renounce armed struggle or recognise the Jewish state's right to exist."
Of course, O'Loughlin omits to add the mere triviality that Hamas also advocates genocide against all Jews – even those who act as its apologists in the West.
O'Loughlin attempts to prop up his case by parroting the discredited line about Israel's blockade of "the isolated Gaza Strip" and how its population is fast becoming "dependent on emergency food aid because of Israel's decision to shut down all of the enclave's border crossings and external trade." Everything is always Israel's fault!
The problem for O'Loughlin is that his mates at Hamas openly say they have no interest in opening the crossings into Gaza, even for the provision of humanitarian relief for their own people HAMAS SAYS OPPOSES REOPENING ISRAEL-GAZA BORDER CROSSING.
Typically, O'Loughlin deals with this uncomfortable little problem by simply not disclosing it to his readers. Similarly, other important facts are also consigned to the blank pages - such as the news that Hamas has been rearming itself through its "closed border" with Egypt. Melanie Phillips points out that "while Gazans are reportedly starving in a humanitarian crisis (caused by the fact that they themselves are preventing the arrival of food and essential supplies) they are nevertheless managing to supply themselves at the same time with 'import' dimensions of weapons with which to murder Israelis (and each other)."
It's no wonder these truths are inconvenient for the Jerusalem correspondent of the Melbourne Age who is doing his best to give Hamas some credibility as an elected Palestinian government that's painted as being as benign as your local friendly neighbourhood social club.
It might come across that way if you routinely hide news of Hamas' violence against fellow Palestinians and Israeli civilians on the other side of the border via quassam rocket attacks, the pathologically twisted education Hamas is giving to Palestinian children, the incitement to violence in its media and the plain, garden variety, filthy racial hatred it promotes in places like this. And O'Loughlin scratches his head in wonderment as to why Israel opposes a movement that promotes and performs terrorist acts (including cross border kidnappings) against its people, calls for an Islamist-dominated planet and works with antisemites around the world.
O'Loughlin is right. Israel could possibly improve its decision-making when it comes to selecting its friends.
On the other hand, O'Loughlin himself could also do a lot better.
4 comments:
The Age newspaper has become a disgrace ranking second only to the BBC for naked bias in the Middle East conflict.
The newspaper is struggling with sales and its declining readership must be scratching its head when one writer gets sacked for calling a colleague a liar.
Strange fellow this O'Loughlin. He earns his bread from the human misery the Palestinians inflict upon themselves so he's not too keen on the possibility of any peace being concluded between the Israelis and the Palestinians.
I wonder how he felt about the British government talking with IRA terrorists before that conflict was resolved?
Barry Rubin's current article on Israel Insider explains how the Hamas propaganda campaign works vis a vis the US media http://web.israelinsider.com/Views/11707.htm
The modus operandi is not dissimilar here but they don't need Hamas functionaries when they have apologists who do the job neatly for them.
Apropos to the above ...
"And ironically, Western pressure to make sure that food, supplies, and even money continues to flow to the Gaza Strip will make it easier for Hamas to maintain its stances and stay in power. The same applies to Western media whitewashes of Hamas and its behavior as Gaza 's ruler.
But as it becomes clear there will be murdered repression and no more free elections in the Gaza Strip, as women are forced into Islamist-approved behavior, and children are taught to view Jews as sub-humans and Christians as sworn enemies in the public schools, what will the op-eds and the news coverage tell us then?"
Barry Rubin
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