Yesterday, the Israeli press carried Hassan Nasrallah’s recorded speech released on Mohammed’s birthday. It’s a pretty important speech, you would think, since Britain has recently announced that it is seeking to establish ties to Hizbullah. And it’s a very important speech in light of that fact, since the head of Hizbullah had this to say:
“I’m telling you that today, tomorrow, even in 1,000 years, we, our children and our offspring will never be able to recognize Israel. We are capable of defeating this entity (Israel) and can make it disappear, if we join forces and work together.”
This quote, doubtless, will not find its way into the next AP article about how the U.K. is seeking to talk with Hizbullah’s “political wing.” Because I can’t find it anywhere in any current AP article. Here’s what the AP finds more important in Israel news:
American wounded by Israeli troops has surgery
An American activist struck in the head by a tear gas canister fired by Israeli troops in the West Bank was in serious condition Saturday after undergoing surgery, hospital officials said.
And this:
Israeli police fatally shoot Palestinian
Israeli police say an officer in Jerusalem has fatally shot a Palestinian man who allegedly tried to harm police with his car.The fatal shooting occurred during a botched robbery. But it comes after a string of attacks against Israelis by Palestinians who have used bulldozers to try to run them over.
Clearly, the AP has its priorities over what gets reported regarding Israel. And the fact that the leader of a group that is set to take an even bigger role in the Lebanese government stated explicitly that it will never recognize the Jewish State is not as high a priority as reporting on the latest ISM tool to get hurt at an anti-barrier protest, or an internal police matter that would otherwise not require any mention.
The BBC reported Nasrallah’s speech. The Canadian press had it (because the AFP had it). An Australian paper had the BBC clip. Sturdy, anti-Israel Xinhua had it. Reuters didn’t. Except for the AFP, no major wire service felt that this statement by the leader of Hizbullah was important enough to send out on the wires.
Now, you might say that the news services have a ton of things to consider before deciding what is newsworthy and what is not. But let me repeat that Hizbullah is setting itself up to increase its presence in the Lebanese government this spring. The U.K. is currently initiating “low-level” contacts with Hizbullah’s “political wing.” And there have been many who think that talking to Hizbullah is a good idea—that it could move the terrorist organization towards a more moderate viewpoint. (These are the same people who think that Hamas will moderate as well.)
Let me put paid to those theories with the words of Hizbullah’s leader:
“The U.S. condition of acknowledging Israel to open dialogue with us is rejected,” Nasrallah told crowds of Shiite Moslems gathered in the southern suburbs of Beirut this evening to mark the birthday of Prophet Mohammed.
“As long as Hezbollah exists, the generations of our people could never acknowledge the state of Israel which is a hostile terrorist entity,” Nasrallah vowed.
He said that the U.S. set two conditions to start talks with Hezbollah, “acknowledging Israel and abandoning violence,” and what they meant by abandoning violence is giving up the resistance.
“The resistance is our dignity, our honor and our existence,” he stressed.
Gordon Brown needs to read the translation of the speech. Hizbullah will never accept Israel. It will never moderate. Britain’s low-level talks are a waste of time and effort.
And so I wonder—why is this speech not important enough to be broadcast around the world by the world’s major wire services?
Wouldn’t matter if Brown read it. The Brits are convinced that appeasement of Muslim terrorists is the way to peace at home, lest some of the more excitable Muslim chaps in Luton or Bradford decide to blow up more subways or cause other mayhem. If that means empowering swine who seek to finish the job Hitler started, well that’s just the way the biscuit crumbles. “In hoc modo millis frangitur,” as Sir Humphrey Appleby, with his classical education, might say. Now that the IRA is getting started again the Brits have got two sets of terrorists (if not more) to appease.
One thing I suspect nobody in dear old Blighty considered is that their jelly-spined responses to Muslim terrorists and their threatening pals, who cooperate as the nice man to the terrorists’ mean man, have emboldened the IRA types to imagine that they can use the same tactics to boot the Brits out of The Auld Sod of the Six Counties. Giving Teddy Kennedy a knighthood for his decades of support and encouragement of the IRA and NORAID is icing on that particular cake.
“And so I wonder—why is this speech not important enough to be broadcast around the world by the world’s major wire services?”
Surely you jest? (Is it OK to call you Shirley?) It’s simple, really. Anything the world’s major wire services can do to either obfuscate the real issues or demonize Israel and those pesky Zionists, they will. It’s all about the Jooos, isn’t it?
Well, maybe they never go the memo. Turns out that the Elders are retiring anyway: http://forward.com/articles/103587/ Things should be different soon.