All the major news agencies, AP Reuters, CNN, and even the New York Times, are busy issuing damage control denials following the revelations that they were using unsubstantiated material from Hamas controlled reporters. It’s a fake. CNN is still just as biased, and still prominently features doctored (pun intended) reports from the Hamas controlled Gaza Health Ministry. Someone needs to tell them that attributing a report to a known biased source may give them protection from legal action, but it’s still the same biased, not independently verified material. You cannot get uncensored material from inside Hamas controlled Gaza.
Another big item in the news this morning was that the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (junior partner to Hamas) has declared it will release two of the Israeli civilians it captured as a “humanitarian gesture”. The hostages mentioned are a 77 year old grandmother and a 13 year old boy with severe allergies. No date was given for when this will take place. Discerning readers will recognize this as a transparent maneuver to gain media attention. What is not likely to be mentioned is that the individuals involved should never have been kidnapped in the first place. In addition, under the provisions of The Hague Conventions governing war civilians that have been temporarily taken prisoner are to be released immediately and unconditionally.
Finally, the IDF occupied a school building in Gaza City. Inside the classrooms were large stocks of munitions, some of which appear to have been assembled there. I knew that Hamas taught school children hatred of Jews (and other non-Muslims) but I did not know that bomb and rocket assembly was part of their approved curriculum.
France 24 has a “Truth or Fake” program” to expose false reporting. On November first it featured a video showing the body of a dead Hamas terrorist being dragged off the beach at Zikkim. The video was real, but a lot of the descriptive language used by the presenters was not. The Hamas terrorist was part of an infiltration team that was intercepted at sea and all member were killed. The idea that some might have been shot while trying to surrender seems a total fabrication and the language used by the moderator is, in my view, both biased and highly unprofessional. France 24 doesn’t talk about Hamas atrocities in the same manner. Why do they have this attitude toward Israeli soldiers recovering a dead enemy body from the beach?
Wetherhorn 