Hamas belies its friends at Time Mag -- CNN takes up the relay

Despite Time's best efforts to cover up for its brutality, Hamas proves that a tiger doesn't lose its stripes. More on that below. Now, CNN has taken up the pro-Hamas relay from Time. First CNN had their ridiculous "God's Warriors" series, which was an asinine stew of absurdities. Jews in Hebron who have been the victims of Arab/Muslim terrorism, more than the reverse, are depicted as the equivalent of Bin Laden. So were the American anti-abortion TV preachers. All this thanks to CNN's star international correspondent, one C Amanpour.

Then, CNN came out with a somewhat obsequious interview conducted with Khaled Mash`al, the head of Hamas who sits in Damascus, where his patron, Bashar Assad, plots on bringing Lebanon back under Syrian control. Mash`al claimed to CNN that he had been very generous for releasing an audiotape of Israeli Gil`ad Shalit, whom Mash`al implicitly equates with Arab terrorists sitting in Israeli jails. He proceeded to complain that he had not been compensated for his generosity. Nevertheless, according to international law, all prisoners of war, which is how Mash`al described Shalit, are supposed to be accessible to the International Committee of the Red Cross. Hamas is a government in Gaza and was also the government in the Judea-Sarmaria region until the recent mini-civil war between Hamas and Fatah which left Fatah in control of Judea-Samaria with Hamas in control in the Gaza Strip. And Hamas wants to be treated as a legitimate government by those Western powers, like the United States, the EU states, Norway, etc., that are so eager to give away monetary goodies to Hamas if they would only make some rhetorical gestures toward "recognizing" Israel. These states --especially Norway which already has full relations with the Hamas govt-- show their contempt for international law by not conditioning their dealings with the Hamas statelet on the Hamas' complying with international law by making Shalit available to meet with Red Cross representatives. This is what one can expect from the Western powers, that pretend to oppose terrorism and to promote human rights and international law.

Be that as it may, Shalit's father, No`am Shalit, has already called Mash`al a liar for claiming in the CNN interview that he --Mash`al-- had established contact with the elder Shalit, and that he had informed the father that his son was alive and in good condition, and that the Hamas had brought him a pair of eyeglasses from home [Yisraeli, 8-26-2007]. Needless to say, the CNN interviewer did not remind Mash`al that not allowing Shalit access to the Red Cross was a violation of international law. Nor was there any mention of this requirement of international law.

As for Time, following our quotes [in a prior post] from its pro-Hamas propaganda gush of 8-13-2007, Time continued with:

"With peace on the streets, civil society is returning to Gaza."

Yet, despite Time's slick rhetorical efforts to cover up Hamas brutality, even against its own palestinian Arab brothers, Hamas insists on being itself, thus proving the old American proverb: You can't shine s***. Most recently, when a mob of Hamas supporters demonstrating at the Rafiah border crossing with Egypt got out of hand, the Hamas operatives in charge did what comes naturally to them. They shot at their own. See here. Only one was killed. Earlier, last Friday, August 31, Fatah supporters demonstrated against Hamas control of certain mosques in Gaza, by praying on the street instead of inside the mosques. So the Hamas powers that be outlawed praying on the street and imposed fines on Fatah men arrested for praying on the street [reported on the Israeli news website in Hebrew, nfc.co.il on 9-2-2007; part of the story is reported by Reuters].

Other abuses of their own population by the Hamas rulers of Gaza, after the raid on the wedding and the forced conversion --reported in our previous post on Gaza-- they suppressed a demonstration by their opposition. Here are more tidbits about the life of law & order in Gaza under Hamas. Here is an update on the journalists' situation in Gaza as of 8-26-07.

But never fear. Nothing can shake the partiality of most Western governments for Hamas. The US Secretary of State, Miss Rice, called Hamas: a "resistance" movement [see previous post here] in congressional testimony. Tony Blair, the delegate to the "peace process" of the so-called Middle East "peace" Quartet, has long been sympathetic to the Judeophobic Hamas.

Demonstrating Time's anti-Israel commitment is Time's reporter extracting the following simplistic accusation against Israel from Gaza Arabs:

Yet Gazan business owners like Telbani and Helou --practical, apolitical men-- are unanimous in their criticism of Israel rather than Hamas for economic problems.

What would any Gaza resident dare to say now? Especially if he's apolitical and does not want to get in trouble with Hamas?

Yes, it's always Israel's fault whatever it does. Even if it leaves Gaza and forces Jewish inhabitants there to leave along with the army. Even it restores Gaza to the status quo before the 1967 Six Day War.

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Coming: more on US Middle East policy & James Baker, more on Jews in Hebron and Jerusalem, etc.