Soccer Dad

Giving a terrorist a platform

The Washington Post continues its shameful tradition of giving a soapbox to terrorist leaders. As I noted earlier when it was Moussa Abu Marzook who was allowed an op-ed column, apparently the unpleasant Joerg Haider was barred from the op-ed page, but men who openly advocate the destruction of Israel are given highly prized opportunities to promote themselves.

Today it's Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh who has been honored with one of the greatest treasures of democracy: an op-ed column in the Washington Post Aggression under false pretenses.

A number of other bloggers have already commented on this outrage.

First of all there's Israel Matzav, from whose blog I learned of this, who writes in "Soapbaox for a terrorist"

You weren't 'besieged.' You were invaded. You were invaded in retaliation for invading Israel and for continuously shooting Kassams at Israeli civilians since last summer's surrender and expulsion of Jews. Why were you shooting Kassams? What were you hoping to accomplish? The only thing I can see that you were hoping to accomplish is to push the Jews out of Sderot and Ashkelon and the Kibbutzim that dot the pre-1967 side of the green line near the Gaza Strip. In other words, having reversed the results of the 1967 war, you now seek to reverse the results of the 1948 war. But if that's the case, you have to expect that your warlike actions are going to draw a warlike response. And that's what's happening now.

Israel Matzav also bothered to dig up and analyze past statements of Haniyeh to disabuse anyone of the notion that Haniyeh fits any definition of the term "moderate."

The Bullwinkle Blog does a nice job of fisking Mr. Haniyeh in False Pretenses abound in Palestine. Towards the end Bullwinkle Blog shines a light on Hamas's ideology

The slogan of Hamas is “God is its target, the Prophet is its model, the Qur’an its constitution: Jihad is its path and death for the sake of God is the loftiest of its wishes.” Hamas states that its objective is to support the oppressed and wronged and “to bring about justice and defeat injustice, in word and deed.” Hamas believes that “the land of Palestine is an Islamic Waqf (trust) consecrated for future Muslim generations until Judgement Day,” and as such, the land cannot be negotiated away by any political leader. Hamas rejects “so-called peaceful solutions and international conferences” as incapable of realizing justice or restoring rights to the oppressed, believing “there is no solution for the Palestinian question except through Jihad.”

Like the Bullwinkle Blog, Erick's blog notes the generous use of scare quotes in Haniyeh's article. When referring to Gilad Shalit, for example. Asks Erick's blog

Why does Hamas describe the soldier they kidnapped as "kidnapped"? Do they dispute that he was kidnapped?

Occidentality neatly disposes of Haniyeh's pretense, if only Americans knew what was really going on they would sympathize with Hamas

Mr. Haniyeh, I'm an American, and I know who the men who led our revolution really were. In other words: I know George Washington, George Washington is a friend of mine, and you sir, are no George Washington.

Lately the media has been claiming that it should be the sole arbiter of what is proper to report and what is proper to keep quiet. I can't see any benefit in allowing Haniyeh a platform. As the Post's editors put it so well last week

But if Hamas wants to be equated with Hezbollah or define itself as at war with Israel, then Israel has every right to try to destroy the Islamic movement's military capacity, to capture its leaders (it has arrested more than 60 since Wednesday, including eight cabinet ministers) and to topple its government. Isn't that what happens in war?

But this week is a new week. And it's time to give the terrorist the oxygen of publicity he so desperately needs. This is a perversion of the democratic principles editors trot out when they justify publishing government secrets. Allowing Haniyeh a voice in a free press to claim his commitment to democracy when his party has stated its plans to impose a tax on non-Muslims is hypoctitical in the extreme. By allowing Haniyeh a voice on its op-ed page the Washington Post is perversion of the democratic principles it claims to protect.

UPDATE: Welcome to NRO Media Blog and BuzzTracker readers.

After noting that if the Post wanted to allow Haniyeh a forum it should have been in the form of an interview where the interviewer could challenge him, Kinshasa on the Potomac concludes with a couple of crucial questions

What does Palestinian propaganda, written by one of the senior members of one of the worst terrorist groups in existence, have to offer, when presented in such an uncritical format in a major Western newspaper? All the WPost has done is show that they find his arguments - that America should abandon Israel, that Israelis are war criminals, that, eventually, Israel should cease to exist - a legitimate part of the debate.

Captain's Quarters administers a thorough Fisking to Haniyeh concluding in response to Haniyeh's offer of a hudna

The hudna goes back to Mohammed, who used the device to gather his strength while weakening his enemy. Haniyeh knows full well what a hudna means, even if he thinks his audience does not. It's the final prevarication in a column full of lies and half-truths, hyperbole and hypocrisy. We leave Haniyeh's column more convinced than ever that Hamas has no intention of negotiating for Palestinian statehood along the framework of previous agreements, but intends to wage terrorism against Israel until it concedes.

Flopping Aces seconds the Fisking.

Boker Tov Boulder sees this decision of the WaPo as one more sign of insanity gripping the world. She's declaring a personal hudna. I hope she isn't going to take to long of a break we really need her sanity.

Fellow MBA member, Maryland Conservatarian didn't know how to react at first; for good reason

I first read his piece late last night and was struck by the sheer moonbatiness of it. It has all the intellectual gravitas of Cindy Sheehan…which is why I resisted immediately posting on it. I can’t improve on his effort here to come across as a wacko; some things just speak for themselves.

In an e-mail he added

If that Op-Ed was presented as a final exam question to discuss the errors and distortions therein...three hours wouldn't begin to be enough time.

Partisan Times upbraids Haniyeh effectively

Unfortunately, the prime minister fails to recognize that US foreign policy and American public opinion favor Israel for the simple fact that Americans do know the truth.

and points out some of the propaganda techniques used in the op-ed.

NoisyRoom also notes

Even the briefest skim over Haniyeh’s column reveals that we will not get the truth from Hamas, as Haniyeh manages to hit all of the Hamas talking points while oddly neglecting to mention their part in escalating the conflict into open war in Gaza.

Lawhawk wonders something else

Would they carry an opus by Osama bin Laden in the same way?

Alternatively the RCP blog asks

Would the Washington Post grant op-ed space to Hitler?

Little Green Footballs concludes

This is utterly disgusting. Has the Washington Post no shame?

In a similar vein PowerLine asks a modest question

Why on earth would the Post willingly serve as the vehicle for such terrorist propaganda?

TBIFOC has another excellent question

Is the use of "Gaza, Palestine" in the byline typical for the Washigton Post's identification of Gaza, or will they claim that editorials are held to a lower factual standard than actual news pieces?

Meryl Yourish concludes with refreshing directness

Way to go, WaPo. You just helped Hamas continue its Jihad against Israel.

To Blue Crab Boulevard The Washington Post is a Mouthpiece for terrorists now.

PostWatch has more.

Backspin notes something that was noted above.

Judeopundit has put together a nice collection of links including a few moonbats (the first two).

Fred Fry International observes in general

This is the basis of the problem with the current Palestinian leadership. They want to be in control, but they also want to play the same old games as before when they were simply a militant organization. That just won't fly.

Technorati tags: Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas, Media Bias, Washington Post.

Posted by SoccerDad at July 11, 2006 5:44 AM | TrackBack