Countering Hamas propaganda

Bookmark this post, people, and use it when you are defending Israel’s actions in Gaza.

The Hamas police officers were just police officers: No, they weren’t. They were members of the Hamas military wing.

Rashid Thabet, who writes regularly for a website identified with Hamas, has praised the policemen killed in Gaza, stating that they were no mere regular cops who flunked out of school and were recruited to oppress the residents on behalf of a tyrannical regime, but policemen who were the elite of Palestinian soceity.

He said that nearly all of them were ‘Izz Al-Din Al-Qassam members, who by day carried out security missions and by night engaged in jihad and attacks.

Palestinian rockets are “crude, homemade rockets” that almost never kill: Aside from the fact that no other nation in the world is expected to accept the daily bombardment of its citizens, there are these facts (French link):

Hundreds of Hamas members were sent for training in Damascus and Tehran to learn to launch Katyusha and Grad 2 rockets, a former head of security in the Palestinian Authority in Gaza told Le Figaro.

The Gaza operation will unify Palestinians against Israel: Hamas is far too busy executing Fatah members to think about Palestinian solidarity. But I think not.

Fatah officials in Ramallah told The Jerusalem Post that Hamas militiamen had been assaulting many Fatah activists since the beginning of the operation last Saturday. They said at least 75 activists were shot in the legs while others had their hands broken.

Wisam Abu Jalhoum, a Fatah activist from the Jabalya refugee camp, was shot in the legs by Hamas militiamen for allegedly expressing joy over the IDF air strikes on Hamas targets.

The Palestinians voted for Hamas because they wanted a less corrupt government, not more terrorism: Really? I don’t think that’s going to happen..

Back then, Hamas ran in the parliamentary election under the banner of Change and Reform. Its leaders promised the Palestinians good government and an end to financial corruption. But Hamas also promised the Palestinians that it would “pursue the resistance against the Israeli enemy.” It also pledged never to recognize Israel’s right to exist in this part of the world.

To its credit, Hamas did not hide its agenda. Its leaders were very clear in the messages they sent to the Palestinian public and the international community. Hamas’s message was the same in Arabic and English.

When Hamas talked about pursuing the “resistance” against Israel, it was referring to the firing of rockets and the launching of suicide bombings.

Hamas will moderate, and can be negotiated with: No, Hamas will never moderate.

Hamas is dead set against a two-state solution, whether it joins a unity government or remains in the opposition. Indeed, Hamas deploys suicide bombers specifically aimed at derailing progress toward peace. Engaging Hamas will not help the peace process, but it will legitimize the group most violently opposed to such progress.

Muslim and Arab states will rise up as one against Israel: They haven’t even managed to agree on a special meeting of the OIC.

A senior aide to President Ahmadinejad says only eight Islamic states had voiced their readiness to attend an emergency meeting on Gaza.

Arab nations know that Iran’s hand is behind Hamas. They fear Iranian hegemony in the Middle East.

The myth of disproportionate response: I could go into all the technicalities of international law here, but as I’m not a lawyer, I’ll simply pass along Alex Bensky’s comment on that:

I have discerned that the people claiming Israel is making a disproportionate response aren’t liars or hypocrites, they have just given “disproportionate” a new meaning–it’s now synonymous with “effective.” They don’t mind Israel doing something, just as long as it’s quiet and useless.