Two articles today gave very strong evidence on the perfidy of Hamas in the recent so called protests. One was in the Wall Street Journal by General Ronen Manelis of the Israel Defense Force. Lest one think that his report is just special pleading, it is confirmed by Professor Gil Troy, Professor of North American History at McGill University in Toronto, Canada in an article in today’s New York Post.
Both argue that the western media is simply duped. The first article notes that the media simply does not look deeply into the situation and see what is really happening. Many who were killed were Hamas military who donned civilian clothes from which to direct the protests, with the certainty that people would be killed. They even duped the people into charging the fence under the cover of smoke saing the Israelis had fled. In the last days, Hamas admitted that 50 of the 60 killed where Hamas operatives. So called protestors, really would be invaders, were given free bus service to the fences, plus $14.00 per person, $100 per family and $500 for any who got wounded. Bringing families into the violent protest was a strategy, and the western media would be duped by this. The burning tires, of course, were to prevent the ability to see what was happening by the fence so it could be cut, and so there could be a massive breakthrough. Maps were provided to show the shortest way to Israel moshavs (cooperative villages) so they could quickly kill civilians. And of course there are those shooting from behind the civilians, throwing Molotov cocktail bombs, and seeking to plant bombs at the fence to destroy the border barrier. This is an internationally recognized border and Hamas was seeking infiltration and terror attacks.
Gil Troy adds perspective to this and shows how the Israelis fit into what he calls the western sensationalist New Nihilism. It is based in a reversal of the post World War II attitudes that perceived that all that is right is with the West to the new “what’s-wrong-with-us- ism.” In this view the sins are all with white Westerners, and Israelis are the white western oppressors. The the Palestinians are the indigenous people of color being oppressed. It does not matter that many Israelis are darker skinned, even black Ethiopian Jews, and many Arabs are quite white. (This is a nationalistic struggle not a racial one, Troy points out). So what fits this narrative conditions the response, almost predictably and automatically like a knee jerk. One needs not to search out more information and context. The reporter can continue to feel rightous though the reporter is a low information reporter.
The Israel press has had other interesting articles on the fact that Israel seems strangely challenged in breaking through the fog. They could get their films out soon at the same time as Hamas,but their military system causes delay for days and the conclusions by then have already been drawn. They could have embedded reporters who could see, photograph and immediately report. One writer said that Israel could prevent the protests. They could disable the busses, or they could spread human excrement and animal excrement by the fence so they would not go there. They can have a peaceful protest 100 yards from the fence.
I sill believe that the primary issue of the outlandish reporting in the West is a spiritual matter; influence