Spinning the Hamas truce call

Two days ago, I wrote this:

The spin will be that Israel doesn’t want the truce.

Toldja so.

Olmert Rules Out Truce Talks With Hamas
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Sunday ruled out cease-fire talks with the Gaza Strip’s Islamic Hamas rulers, vowing to press ahead with a “true war” against Palestinian militants who attack southern Israeli communities with rocket and mortar fire.

Let’s look at that quote from the Ynet article:

Despite much weekend talk of a possible “hudna” (ceasefire), Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting Sunday that “the events transpiring in southern Israel can only be described as full scale war between the IDF and Palestinian terror groups.”

The prime minister noted that “the operations in Gaza will continue, though with great care not to bring about a humanitarian crisis that would impact innocent civilians”. Olmert also pointed out that “this type of humanitarian policy requires a great deal of patience and resilience”.

Now the AP version:

The Israeli military has struck hard in recent weeks against Hamas and other armed groups in Gaza. With troops appearing to make substantial gains, Olmert told his Cabinet there were no plans to slow down.

“Operations against terrorists will continue as they have been conducted for many months,” Olmert said. “There is no other way to describe what is happening in the Gaza Strip except as a true war between the Israeli army and terror groups.”

He said Israel would continue to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza to protect the area’s civilians.

And one last look at Olmert’s words in Ynet:

Addressing weekend rumors of an impending ceasefire with Hamas, Olmert resolutely stated that “Israel will not negotiate with those (Palestinian groups) that do not except the basic ‘Quartet tenets’, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad,” and that “this governmental policy will not change”.

You see the difference? The AP spins it to make Olmert look like a bloodthirsty warmonger. They omit or bury the quotes where Olmert says he won’t have a truce with an organization that refuses to renounce terror. And they make it look like Hamas and the terrorists are the ones who want peace, but Israel refuses. It’s all spin, all backwards, all blaming the victim of terrorism for the acts of terror. And in the meantime, yet another kassam rocket landed yet again in Israel, yet again almost murdering civilians. Sorry, make that two rockets. Between the time I started writing this post, and the time I got this far into it, another kassam landed in Ashkelon. Time elapsed: Fifteen minutes.

And yet, the headline “Olmert Rules Out Truce Talks With Hamas” is the headline that will go around the world on the AP wires. It’s the headline that will show up on your local paper’s website, and in the World News section tomorrow. Not, “Terrorists launch rockets into Israel.” “Olmert Rules Out Truce Talks With Hamas.”

Because after all, why on earth would any sane human being refuse to talk truce with a terrorist organization that launches rockets into their country, and then says that launching rockets has nothing to do with keeping or breaking a truce?

You would think the AP would get tired of publishing the same crap over and over again. You would be wrong.

However, it’s obvious that the IDF tactics in Gaza are working, and working well. Hamas never sues for peace unless they’re on the run. Word is that the senior leadership has gone underground for fear of being targeted by Hellfire missiles. Again, we see this behavior only when Israel successfully hunts down and kills terrorist leaders. Another sign of Hamas’ discomfort: They’re claiming they uncovered a “network of collaborators.”

According to reports, the three suspects who were detained had a Hamas official directly involved in the kidnapping of IDF soldier Gilad Shalit under surveillance and assisted the Israeli army in the recent killing of eight senior Islamic Jihad and Hamas members in Gaza.

Hamas also suspects that the collaborators were involved in the death of a member of Hamas’ armed wing, the Izz al-Din el-Qassam Brigades, as well as that of six activists in the al-Quds Brigades, Islamic Jihad’s military division.

Watch for them to be murdered in the public square, after a kangaroo court trial. And no, I will never get tired of reprinting these words from the Hamas op-ed that made it into the Times:

“Palestinians want, on their terms, the same thing Western societies want: self-determination, modernity, access to markets and their own economic power, and freedom for civil society to evolve.”

[…] Our stated aim when we won the election was to effect reform, end corruption and bring economic prosperity to our people. Our sole focus is Palestinian rights and good governance. We now hope to create a climate of peace and tranquillity within our community.

I’m sure they’ll remember that when wondering how to deal with the “collaborators.”