Someone should keep a scorecard of the MSM using “moderate” (noun, verb or adjective) in the same sentence as Hamas; the raw data are easy to track. Those Antique Media outlets that do so will be showing their gullibility or worse; it would be nice to have a record in one place. Kind of one-stop-shopping for evaluating a MSM writer, editor or broadcaster. (The blogosphere wasn’t around at the time to track “moderate Taliban.”) Yossi Klein Halevi in TNR:

A two-fold spin has already begun. The first spin concerns Hamas. The same commentators who once assured us that power and responsibility would transform Yasir Arafat from terrorist to statesman now assure us that Hamas leaders similarly will be transformed by the process of governance. Fatah was supposed to control Hamas; now, presumably, Hamas will control itself.

And so get ready for the era of the wink and the hint. Experts will examine Hamas statements for signs of the slightest shift; they will ignore what Hamas tells its own people and celebrate every seemingly reasonable utterance to Western journalists. And Hamas leaders will readily oblige: They will speak of “peace,” just as Arafat spoke of the peace of the brave. And the peace they will mean, as the bitter Israeli joke once went, is the peace of the grave.

The essence of Hamas is a commitment to destroy the religious affront of Jewish sovereignty. For Hamas to “moderate” would mean turning into an apostate of its own most sacred truth.

Halevi is correct. Take a look at this AP photo on the left, captioned: “Hamas political leader Khaled Mashaal, pictured, whose group achieved a resounding victory in Palestinian elections…” Notice the campaign poster behind him, particularly the green map of Palestine.

If the pictures of Arafat and Yassin were not sufficient to tell you the agenda and political program of Hamas, there is no misinterpretation possible of the map. The green map of Palestine is, of course, essentially the map of Israel. From earliest childhood, Palestinian children are taught that map of their country (pictured above right) is the place where Israel is now. Indeed, many of these maps have been designed by Hamas itself.

Our point is this: there is absolutely no way that Hamas can become anything other than it now is — an organization dedicated to the obliteration of Israel from the map — without ceasing to be Hamas. Yet we will surely see the MSM attempt to spin the unspinnable. Be forewarned.

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 29th, 2006 at 11:39 am and is filed under General, Left of Left, MSM, Religion, War. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.