Israel ‘had no choice,’ but Hamas was ‘brutal’: Always portraying Hamas as the bad guys
August 16th, 2009I was shocked today to read how my colleague and friend, Haaretz’s Palestinian Affairs correspondent Avi Issacharoff, portrayed Hamas’ crushing of an Al-Qaeda inspired Islamic extremist group over the weekend in southern Gaza. The word “massacre” jumped at me from my computer screen; so did the word ‘brutal’.
In light of the analysis, maybe I shouldn’t have been surprised that some Jewish Twitterers also portrayed the battle as immoral, emphasizing that a place of worship was attacked and that innocent people were killed. “Hamas fires on mosque, kills little girl,” wrote @soccerdhg on Twitter (then blogged that reporters should not quote Hamas spokesmen because it gives Hamas ‘a platform to plead for Western support.’) “Where is Human Rights Watch???” asked @NGOMonitor, a pro-Israel lobby that focuses on media. “Where’s the outrage?” wondered William Daroff, VP for Public Policy and Director of the Washington office of United Jewish Communities, linking to the problematic Haaretz analysis.
But I can’t help but shake my head and ask, do these people have amnesia? In December Israel used the same reasoning – ‘to destroy Islamic extremists’ – in order to wage a relentless 22-day military operation on Hamas. Israel killed over 1400 people, including some 400 children, destroyed much of the infrastructure of the Gaza Strip and left thousands of people homeless after dropping bombs on their houses. But these people did not express outrage then. So my question is: where is the perspective and where is the bias?
But before I look to answer it, I’ll go back to the ‘massacre.’ I’m not going to let this word go because it should never be used wrongly or lightly. In my Macbook dictionary ‘Massacre’ is defined as an ‘indiscriminate and brutal slaughter of people.’ The fight with the Warriors of G-d began Friday afternoon when the group’s leader Abdel Latif Moussa announced in his sermon in a Rafah mosque that Gaza had become a theocratic emirate and demanded that Hamas impose strict Islamic law, DPA reported.
“Dozens of Jihad al-Salafi group members, masked and brandishing AK-47 assault rifles, had taken up positions outside the mosque. After the prayers, they exchanged fire with members of the Hamas police,” wrote DPA.
Can a battle between official security forces and an illegally armed group who has declared a new political regime to replace the one of the democratically elected ruling party be either ‘indiscriminate’ or a ’slaughter’?(Remember, part of the platform Hamas won the 2006 elections on was security. Too many groups had guns and used them for criminal purposes. After being elected, Hamas was lauded for fighting to make Gaza safe with guns-for-government-forces-only rule in Gaza.)
Now imagine if a heavily armed group declares a new religious regime from inside a church or synagogue near where you live. Would you not expect the security forces to go in and battle it?
Some of the dead extremists were, according to Reuters, formerly loyal to Hamas, but left the movement for the Al-Qaeda-inspired group because they wanted stricter Islamic rule. Hamas has accused the group of being behind the bombing of several Internet cafes, beauty salons and a wedding in Gaza. Hamas is preventing fighters from any group to launch rockets against Israel, but Israel has yet to lift the suffocating siege. And you don’t need an expert on Palestinian affairs or Islamic extremism to realize that as poverty increases and people’s lives are controlled by outsiders (Israel, the US, the MidEast Quartet) the Strip becomes fertile ground for extremists.
HAMAS: POLITICS OR TERROR?
Back to the question of perspective. Despite its rightful attempt to make law and order, Hamas is being portrayed as a ruthless evil terror organization. That simply is not accurate. At least, not anymore. Hamas took a strategic decision in 2005 to participate politically in the future of its people, rather than being an outsider, which only uses violence. It abandoned suicide bombings (the last one was in 2005, although Israel’s peace partner, Fatah, continued since) and ran for elections. It won but the decision by Israel and the international community was to isolate it, reject it. No, it does not believe Israel has ‘a right’ to exist on British Mandate Palestine. But it accepts that Israel exists and is willing to talk to it and declare a Palestinian state only on the pre-’67 borders. Yes, the party is Islamist, as Hamas MP Dr. Omar Abdul Razeq told a group of Israelis (Jewish), Americans, Palestinians, and Bosnians at a meeting in his office in Ramallah last week. (More on that meeting that I arranged – later.) But it wants to have dialogue. “We will talk with anyone,” said Dr. Abdul Razeq before the group parted. (Some of the Israelis also asked to take photos with him. He said with a smile,”Sure, but I’m not responsible if you get in trouble with your government.) And as Ahmed Yousef, a senior Hamas member in Gaza, told Howard Schneider of the Washington Post: “We are a liberation movement with an Islamist hue…We are not the Taliban or al-Qaeda. We like law and order.”
(My colleague at the Globe and Mail, Patrick Martin, wrote two excellent pieces on moderation in the Hamas movement. One about the Speaker of Parliament, Dr. Aziz Dweik, and the other about, believe it or not, Khaled Meshaal, Hamas’ politburo chief in Syria.
So why do some Jewish lobby groups and the Israeli government continue to try to portray it as a terrorist organization? Maybe because there is no doubt that Hamas will be a tougher negotiator than Fatah. Or because Israel likes others to make declarations about it, which Hamas is unwilling to make. But the fact of the matter is no agreement between the Palestinians and the Israelis can be signed that does not include Hamas. Moreover, Israel exists and does not need anyone to declare whether they believe in its right to exist or in what way it should exist. If Egypt and Jordan were required to declare they believed Israel had a ‘right’ to exist, the peace agreements would never have been signed.
Meanwhile, Hamas’ political path (with limited armed resistance) is causing the nationalist Islamist movement problems. In a 2007 video Al-Qaeda accused Hamas of “abandon[ing] jihad for politics. It has betrayed its youths. Its main activity is politics. Since its decision to go down the path of politics, Hamas has begun to descend on a downhill slope.”
BTW, there was an attempt to negotiate a peaceful end to the conflict (which would have meant WoG giving up its weapons and declarations.) But clearly the leader of the ‘Warriors of G-d’ group was not interested. DPA reported that he exploded himself by a detonator – as well the negotiator standing next to him. Note, six Hamas policemen were among the 22-28 people killed in the battle.
ANOTHER ATTEMPT BY FATAH TO OVERTHROW HAMAS IN GAZA?
Interestingly, Israel’s YNet reports that Hamas has revealed documents showing that Warriors of G-d are funded by none other than Mohammed Dahlan, the former FATAH Gaza strongman. Dahlan, who was in charge of the mainly Fatah-loyal security forces in Gaza is considered a thug by many Palestinians. (He just won a seat in the revolutionary council, which made some believe the vote was fixed.) Dahlan fled from Gaza in June 2007 with many of his forces after his coup attempt boomeranged. Didn’t know about the coup attempt. Remember all those clashes that ensued between Fatah and Hamas in Gaza in late 2006 and early 2007? Well, as it turns out they were instigated by Dahlan with US-backing.
Hamas people in the West Bank told me during the clashes that Dahlan was behind them and that the US was likely behind him. ‘Everytime we think we have an agreement for a unity government with Fatah Condoleeza Rice comes and then Abu Mazen suddenly changes his mind,” told me one man from Hamas who was close to the negotiations for a unity government with Fatah. That was back in December 2006.
In April 2008, David Rose of Vanity Fair exposed the Fatah-Bush Administration Gaza Coup attempt in a stunning piece of investigative journalism. The premise of the article was surprisingly not publicized in much other media. But there was a fallout and Rose addressed it and showed the documents he acquired as proof.
[Crossposted here.]
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Thanks for mentioning me; the point I was tying to make (in 140 characters on Twitter) was simply that if Israel or the USA had attacked a mosque, killing two dozen people (including unarmed civilians) and injuring scores more, the UN, the EU, the NGOs, and the Pope would be outraged beyond belief. But, when Hamas attackes a place of worship and murders unarmed civilians, there’s silence — and, as your post demonstrates, white-washing and rationalization by Hamas’ amen-lobby of those who seek to kill Jews, push Israel into the Sea, & the international community.
Hamas is a terrorist organization. It doesn’t matter if they have a non military wing. Look at their charter and look at their actions.
Remember that they kicked Fatah out of Gaza by using mob tactics. They threw people off of buildings, shot and beat them.
They are thugs.
[...] Israel, Orly comments on media and online reactions to the bombing of a mosque and the killing of an Al [...]
I agree that Hamas is a terrorist organization and Jewish advocacy groups should draw attention to the human rights violations committed under their rule. Still, using this attack on an Islamist group hiding in a mosque with guns and explosive to draw attention to anti-Israel bias doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. I know this issue of bias is important to many people who deal with world opinion and hasbara, but this is simply not a case that is suitable for this argument. They are fanatics with guns who hid in a mosque and declared an Islamic emirate in Gaza. There’s no way to deal with those kinds of people except with force.
Now, as for the post itself, portraying Hamas as peace seekers is absurd. Hamas is not willing to have a state within the 1967 borders, they are willing to sign a hudna for ten years and declare a state, which is very different. They don’t have to disarm and Israel has to release all Hamas terrorists from Israeli jails.
Muhammad Dahlan has been accused of everything, the fact that Hamas provided documents that proves his culpability should not carry a lot of weight. The elections for the Fatah Central Committee were rigged by almost anyone, including those who lost (like Abu Alaa’), so I don’t see why Dahlan deserves the attention for this.
The word “crushed” is appropriate to describe what happened. The word massacre, not sure. I just want to point out that Avi Issacharoff didn’t use that word in the Hebrew article. He used the word הרג which means “a killing” not “massacre”. The word massacre only appears in the English translation. Just goes to show that good translation is important.
William Daroff is complaining on Twitter that this post should be removed because it’s making him look bad. Anything that isn’t in favor of his political ideologies should have no platform or voice on the internet, apparently.
Mr. William said:
if Israel or the USA had attacked a mosque, killing two dozen people (including unarmed civilians) and injuring scores more, the UN, the EU, the NGOs, and the Pope would be outraged beyond belief.
But Israel did and stiull doing worse than what Hams did…. and government (including the Arabs) really care… the simple people did and still care and shout against the BRUTAL israeli actions.
Notice that, all the civilized WESTERN governments, US missionaries (including Jemmie the sweet), The UN, the EU, the Pope and all the Diplomats visiting Israel…. are weeping the “poor” israeli soldier named Gilaad for being captured while in military base…. but they forget, and nobody talk of the 11000 Palestinian prisoners including children and women that are kidnapped for decades by the zionist regime….. What a hypocrisy !!!!!
To care for a single soldier and to forget (actually deny) 11000 prisoners fighting (or simply speaking) to get their freedom? The hell with this discourse !!!
Sami, the bedouin.
I believe that Orly is correct in that Hamas is not the bad guy in this situation. Indeed, Israel should be thankful Hamas did what they did. After all, an Al-Qaeda wannabe operating in Gaza is not in Israel’s interest. It may also be true that Hamas is starting to moderate its positions.
But to portray Hamas as this wonderful peace-loving organization? Give me a break!! Hamas has killed many, many, innocent people and is proud of it! Not to mention their disgusting anti-Semitic charter. We can recognize why Hamas came about and why it does the things it has done without actually supporting them and making them look like wonderful people.
For the record, I did not ask that this post be removed. For what it’s worth, I don’t think it makes me look bad at all.
I think it makes this site look bad – but I’m not the webmaster – so I will leave it to them to decide whether they seek to be a conduit for this argument that seems to gloss over the fact that Hamas thugs murdered innocent civilians in a place of worship. The fact that their were al-Qaida thugs amongst the innocents reminds me of the tactics that Hamas itself uses when hiding their civilian killing missiles amongst school children and other innocents.
Thus the irony and the outrage I was looking for in my original tweet — that it’s apparently OK for Hamas to murder civilians in a mosque, but if Israel or the USA did it, there’d be no end to the cries of outrage. And, when Hamas terrorists kill al-Qaida terrorists and innocents are in the way, it’s not a problem — only when Israel tries to kill Hamas terrorists and their are innocents in the way.
That’s all. Thank you to everyone. Have a nice day.
@ Greg: Wonderful comment. Totally agree with you.
@ Sami: The prisoners you mentioned in Israeli prisons are terrorists and should be there. Unlike the murderers sitting in Israeli jails, Gilad Shalit was never visited by the Red Cross and is not allowed to see his family. He is denied of basic rights that Israel grants to the terrorists in its jails.
Orly states in her posting that:
Orly –HRW is not only viciously anti-Israel, but more importantly, it is an anti-human rights lobby, and by deflating their false claims, NGO Monitor is pro-human rights.
When asking “where is Human Rights Watch???” NGO Monitor highlights the double standards that are eroding the moral foundations of human rights. HRW has made no statement condemning Hamas for conducting a military operation that occurred in a civilian institution and place of worship(mosque), resulting in 24 deaths including an 11 year old girl and injured more than 150.
In sharp contrast, Joe Stork, the radical political activist, turned deputy director of HRW’s Middle East and North Africa division, condemned Israel in a press release Israel/Gaza: Civilians Must Not Be Targets, December 30, 2008:
If you care about human rights, you will join us in demanding that groups like HRW stop the practice of selectively applying these norms to match their ideological preferences.
Daroff, there are tweets proving how poorly and personally you reacted to what was mere criticism of your ideology. Here are copies of your tweets personally attacking the author of this post and us for publishing it, when in fact the author was kind enough to offer to discuss her opinions with you as an adult (an offer you completely ignored while consistently insulting her). And for the record, she never insulted you back despite your constant bullying:
Everyone can look at our tweets @mideastyouth, and let us know if we ever “berated” Daroff when in fact we challenged his perception of us by agreeing to publish a link he requested that we do. Instead of thanking us, he continued with the insults and personal attacks.
We do not aim to please any group of people with our website. We aim to inform our audience from as many different perspectives as possible. That ultimately means “this site looks bad” to anybody and everybody who’s only interested in one side of any story, as we give them all a hearing.
As for the author, her reaction to your initial Tweets was the following, despite you attacking her:
It seems you were not interested in this proposition, as you never took her up on it.
Daroff, if you are indeed a “Vice President” and “Director” of an organization, I am quite uncertain why you are reacting in this manner as it does not reflect very well on you. This is mere criticism on a website. The author pointed out that you are one-sided and you don’t agree with her. That is fine.
You kept asking that we moderate content, that is a direct implication that you want this post removed because it includes criticism of yourself and because the author simply disagrees with your opinion. Much to your dismay, we don’t lobby for any government or any political ideology. That is your job and ours is a very different one. Please understand that the author’s opinion is a personal opinion and she has the right to express that. We are sorry you disagree. Other members here do as well, that is normal and what our debates revolve around. But we are not sorry to have published this or to have given journalists like Orly a platform to express her thoughts, just like we have given others whom you agree with a platform as well.
As for your attacks and campaign on Twitter, we will not end up supporting your stance merely because of it. The tweets published here are only half of your tweets on the matter and again, the rest does not reflect very well on you. Please understand our stance on the matter and try to respect Orly as a journalist with an opinion that should be debated, not insulted and attacked.
First I’d like to say that this article is very interesting and the comments following it made me even go on twitter, to see what the fuss is all about.
@ William Daroff I am not happy that this piece got published here either as I disagree with how it portrays Hamas, but that is not how I would have gone about it. Those tweets you made both to the author and to @mideastyouth attacked people for exercising freedom of speech in a manner that was not hateful. Insulting people who are trying to be open minded for not agreeing with you is only dameging.
I am a frequent reader of this site and I know they do their best to be balanced. If you go look at blogs by Arabs, it will be hard for you to find places that are so open and accepting of different points of view. There are several Zionists writing here who were given voices just as loud.
The real discussion on this post is happening on Twitter
Like Avital I also searched on it to see what was happening and I saw this latest response from William
@mideastyouth I’m not surprised u choose to berate rather than engage in discourse over your hypocritical & one-sided policies & ideology
I expected to see something just as bad from mideastyouth but it seems like they were doing what he had asked them to do which is publish a story on an article he wants to see here:
@Daroff Just so you know, an author responded and said they will be glad to cover it and would publish soon. Now you can finally cut it out.
This is surprising behavior and I must second Avital’s opinion that this is very damaging for you @Daroff. They were encouraging the discourse and you were blocking it with your insults.
I am not for censoring this site. I believe that this site – like all sites – should be balanced – particularly if they hold themselves out as such. I do not believe that Orly’s article is balanced. My response to @mideastyouth (whose tweets are not cut and pasted here) was based on it’s abrasive response to my post (Daroff Here’s @mideastyouth slamming me , @soccerdhg & @ngomonitor for asking why Hamas can murder w/out condemnation http://ow.ly/kdOH) wherein it disclaimed any responsibilty for the contents of the site – saying that it is the opinion of one author, and not the site.
I still do not understand why no one on this site would condemn Hamas for murdering civilians in a mosque. Why the silence? Why does Hamas get a free ticket to murder in a holy site?
I have searched through this site expressing the opinions of pro-Israel Zionists — and I find them scant, at best — and stale — nothing of note during 2009. There are many slamming Israel.
I understand that this site represents a multitude of views in the region. However, it looks like you’ve drawn a circle around Israel and said: there shall be no center or center-right views of the Israel-Palestinian conflict.
Let me add one more point, I encourage the free discussion of the abusive practices & policies of the Arab and Iranian states here — and I honor those who are contributing opinions at great risk to their own well-being. I just wish that the views expressed on Israel were more open-minded and non-biased.
Feel free to cut and paste them but don’t deny your behavior. Pretty much everyone is aware and several have called you out on that, including people who actually agree with but not at all with your tone.
False. The majority of the site’s content don’t even have to do with Israel. There are dozens if not hundreds of pro-Israel articles here written by ardent Zionists, which we have been attacked for by extremists from the other side (you only represent one side of an extreme, we deal with people like yourself on a daily basis.) I challenge you to make an entire list to compare pro and anti Israeli articles since 2008. I sincerely challenge you to do that.
Either way, this website is called MIDEAST Youth, and not “Israeli and American Jewish youth,” which is what you are confusing this site to be. Therefore, your assumption that the entire site should somehow be pro-Israel and nationalist by default, is absurd to say the least. We have many Israelis AND many American Jews who are perfectly fine with how we run the site and unlike you, respectfully debate us, instead of insult and attack us the way you have. Again, your tweets speak for themselves, and many are disturbed by your attitude.
To paraphrase, criticizing corruption in the Arab world and Iran is fine and in fact highly encouraged. But criticism of Israel should be banned from the site. Brilliant!
I’m a frequent reader of this site and people spend a great deal of time criticizing extremists in their countries, and as Esra’a noted most of the material has nothing to do with the Israel/Palestinian conflict as that represents only a small fraction of what goes on in the Middle East. That is something that we as Israelis or supporters of Israel should appreciate. Finally, Arabs and Iranians who don’t think that the region’s only problem is the “occupation”.
Sometimes, attacks by Israel occur, and no one here writes about it. It’s impossible to want them to cover absolutely everything that happens. This site is an opinion site and people are free to write about whatever they want. The fact is that the majority of people living in the Middle East are not Zionists, so it would only make sense that the Zionist perspective would be less visible here. It is also natural that more Israeli leftists than right-wingers would write on a website that promotes dialog and understanding with Arabs. I’m not saying that right-wingers are intolerant, but they seem less interested in the perspective of their Arab neighbors.
Look – feel free to demonize me. I had no idea that your website existed before I was referenced in this post yesterday. Based on your feeble Twitter following, my guess is that mostly you are speaking to yourselves.
I asked questions that weren’t answered and still haven’t been answered – about your site being apologists for Hamas and unbalanced toward Israel.
I am content allowing you all to continue to flame me and be non-responsive to the substance of the issues involved – I’m sure your echo chamber will enjoy it.
I hope that your yelling and screaming will hope to promote your site. Perhaps you can all find some inner-peace by focusing on me instead of on the corrupt dictatorships that rule the Arab, Muslim, and Persian world.
When any of you are in Washington, I look forward to buying you a beverage – and showing you the town. My contact information is very Google-able and, as you know, I can be found on Twitter.
Good luck.
You did a great job doing that yourself, and your final comment was an excellent example of that.
William Daroff,
All the people working on this site are volunteers, no reason to attack them and say that they’re not influential when they’re just trying to make a positive impact. I suggest that you look at the press section to see that they were covered by CNN, BBC, WaPo, and more. As for twitter, despite the organization not even being Jewish, JTA included them in their list of influential twitterers.
Esra’a – when you come to DC, I’ll be happy to buy you a beverage too. You’ll see first hand that Jews (and Americans) don’t have horns.
Thanks very much Elizabeth for your support.
Just so you know, William, I will be in Washington in November for an event and I will plan on meeting you to see if you are up to your game and if you are like this in person as well, or just when you’re hiding behind a “feeble” Twitter handle.
Esra’a – no games here – I hope you aren’t as abrasive and dismissive in person. I’m tied up until Nov 11 – but mostly available thereafter. Send me an email as soon as you know your timing, and I’ll buy you lunch along with that beverage.
Your claim is baseless and irrelevant. I clearly don’t have a problem with Jews or Americans. Just because I take issue with how you insult and mistreat others whenever your opinions are criticized, doesn’t mean I put all Jews or Americans in the same category, the way you did with us. Stop claiming that everyone else around you is guilty of your own faults which were exposed here.
I will arrive November 21st and I will be there until the 24th. I will count on meeting you but I hope you at least realize that we don’t attack people here based on race or religion, in case you’re preparing to lecture me on that. Americans and Jews are around us all the time (we even have a Jewish ambassador serving my country in case you weren’t aware) and your claim that we feel they all have “horns” is uninformed and ridiculous.
I’ve met your Ambassador – she is a fine person. I hope you have a sense of humor in person, Esra’a. I’m available for lunch, at this point, on Monday, Nov 23 or Tuesday, Nov 24. Let me know which works best, and we’ll hold the date.
I’m thrilled that my analysis about Hamas and the Gaza government’s weekend operation against the Warriors of G-d sparked a dialogue (after a very heated debate) between you both, William and Esra’a. And if I may add, at the risk of causing you to get angry William, it’s that same willingness for dialogue that I hope you will find yourself open to when it comes to your enemies – such as people who support and are politically active in Hamas.
The movement has done terrible terrible terrible things against Israelis, making it so hard to even consider dialogue. I know that. I live in Jerusalem and I used to take buses when they were blowing up. But such dialogue helps people get over the idea that the other has ‘horns,’ as you say.
If you ever want to discuss this subject with me, and I understand how difficult that is, I’d be honored to share with you my knowledge from reporting here. And you can make your own judgments based on the information I share with you. I’ll be in DC in late October. All the best — Orly
(P.S. And I apologize if I sounded as if I were attacking you in my piece. I didn’t mean to.)
Dear Orly,
Thank you for your message, your explanation, and your warmth. I look forward to meeting you in DC this fall as well! No need for an apology – but while we are extending them, I’m sorry if I misinterpreted your article & your intentions.
Best,
William