Recent controversies over coverage of Gaza suggest that reporters can get into trouble over appearing too sympathetic to Palestinians (NBC‘s Ayman Mohyeldin) or too critical of some Israelis (CNN‘s Diana Magnay).
But some opinions are perfectly acceptable. On his July 27 show, CBS Face the Nation host Bob Schieffer went on a rant about Palestinians:
In the Middle East, the Palestinian people find themselves in the grip of a terrorist group that has embarked on a strategy to get its own children killed in order to build sympathy for its cause, a strategy that might actually be working, at least in some quarters.
Last week, I found a quote of many years ago by Golda Meir, one of Israel’s early leaders, which might have been said yesterday. “We can forgive the Arabs for killing our children,” she said, “but we can never forgive them for forcing us to kill their children.”
When he uttered these words, Israeli attacks on Gaza had killed over 1,000 people, the vast majority of them civilians, including several hundred children.
To suggest that Hamas desires that Palestinian children be murdered is offensive and irresponsible in the extreme. It’s the basic mistake of worldviews like antisemitism and Islamophobia: assuming that the people you hate lack basic human motives and instead are driven by their inhuman, alien perspective.
When Schieffer notes that this Hamas scheme “might actually be working, at least in some quarters,” he clearly means to exclude himself. As we noted earlier (FAIR Blog, 7/15/14), Schieffer expressed serious concern for Israelis who feel threatened by Hamas rockets—but no similar concern for the Palestinians who were dying due to Israeli attacks.
Perhaps Schieffer does not exhibit any concern for Palestinian lives because to do so, in his mind, would be to help Hamas win sympathy. Instead he refers back to Israeli icon Golda Meir’s callous assertion that Israel is forced to kill Palestinian children—a comment that would be only cited, one would hope, to demonstrate how political leaders should not react to the killing of children.
This is not the first time that Schieffer has exhibited this kind of attitude towards Palestinians. Back in 2006 (FAIR Action Alert, 7/19/06), Schieffer likened the conflict to an old fable:
Finally today, when the war broke out in the Middle East, the first thing I thought about was the old story of the frog and the scorpion who were trying to cross a river there. The scorpion couldn’t swim, the frog was lost. So the scorpion proposed a deal, “Give me a ride on your back, and I’ll show you the way.” The frog agreed, and the trip went fine until they got to the middle of the river, and then suddenly the scorpion just stung the frog. As they were sinking, the frog asked, in his dying breath, “Why would you do that?” To which the scorpion replied, “Because this is the Middle East.”
In Schieffer’s scenario, Palestinians are the scorpion, stinging the helpful Israelis. As he explained, Israel had withdrawn from Gaza, just like the Palestinians had demanded, and yet decided to start a war anyway: “Why would fundamentalists in Gaza and Lebanon choose to provoke this war at this time? There is no real answer except this is the Middle East.”
As FAIR pointed out, Schieffer’s sketch of that history was totally misleading: Israeli did not withdraw from Gaza, but simply redeployed its forces around its border, controlling access via air, sea and land to maintain a devastating blockade.
But to him the history clearly doesn’t matter. What matters is that CBS viewers know that Palestinians want their children to be killed—because this is the Middle East.
From the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation:
“Congress has introduced H. Con. Res. 107 condemning the use of human shields by Hamas. The resolution of course fails to mention Israel’s well-documented use of Palestinians as human shields. The Israeli military has used Palestinian children to open bags it believed to be bomb-laden, held children in front of soldiers to prevent youth from throwing rocks, and forced children to enter homes believed to be rigged with explosives.”
I’m certain Schieffer is deeply chagrined that they’re forced to do so.
CBS Host:” Palestinians Force Israel to Kill Kids”, when this theocracy and blind obedience to the true ” God ” Israel is going to stop in the news business. Is it fear, or ignorance or just stupidity from news media people who tell lies ? to impress Israelis or keeping their job. It is sad host Bob Schieffer at this age in his life can”t brake the the mold.
What would you say if 9/11 terrorists had said the same: USA forced us to kill such a great number of innocent human beings?
If these “claims” by Netanyahoo that Hamas “rejoices in the numbers of Gaza deaths”, than why does Israel continue to allow the numbers to heap up?
straight from Palestine!! Hamas to kids: Shoot all the Jews https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ORAM-usqhQ
stop lying to the world about Islam being peaceful!! its a different peace
a different definition of the word…Wake up and do your research before its too late..!!
Schieffer’s comments reflect the corporate mentality that controls US news in most of its forms. If you want a more unbiased or in-corporate look at the news, check out Amy Goodman and other non-corporate types.
End The Siege!
Can we get an action alert on Scheiffer? This type of comment should not be allowed and we need to respond to all of these propaganda shows that are taking the place of news!
Phone to Face The Nation is 202-457-4481, ftn@cbsnews.com
I called FTN and told them how I feel about Bob Schieffer’s support of Israel’s genocidal campaign against Palestinians. I also mentioned that I think Schieffer is an embarrassment to the profession of journalism, and that watching and listening to FTN peddle Israeli propaganda is very difficult. I was calm and polite, because that makes it more difficult for the fellow on the other end of the line to dismiss the criticism. He thanked me for my call.
Your voice matters. The call takes only a few moments.
Look for the root cause of all the violence in the middle east : it id Israeli occupation. First occupation is ended ,,, then life will go back to be normal. No one can judge results and forget the main reason of all this gloomy life all people live .
I am disgusted!!! What kind of an evil person would quote someone who says the Palestinians are forcing them to kill their children…even more importantly who believes the crap that comes out of his mouth. Any parent who has half a brain would know that can NOT be true. How is he still allowed to be on the air…I thought the news was based on hard facts, not biased, racist, ignorant opinion, with an impossible agenda of making Israel look like a victim. Shame on everyone who allowed this to go on the air.
I am disgusted by your report that is critical of Bob Schieffer and his opinion piece, but I am more disgusted by the comment thread that has brought out the hoards of hate-mongers. Schieffer’s comments are right on the money. He is one of the few journalists with the courage to criticize the true evil in this conflict, Hamas, and not fall victim to their manipulation nor to the sensational journalism practiced by NBC, ABC, BBC, and especially CNN, who love to show pictures of dead children and report bogus casualty statistics provided by palestinian authorities who are notorious for lying. In fact, it’s gotten to the point where the ONLY place you can go to find news you can trust is CBS or FoxNews.
I find it a shame that you choose to blame Israel for this disaster, when truly 100% of the culpability rests with Hamas. Hamas started this war. THEY are the ones using human shields. THEY are the ones firing rockets from hospitals, schools, and mosques. And as to your flawed analysis about Israel’s pull-out from Gaza not being legitimate because of the blockade, how about the fact that a blockade wouldn’t be needed if the palestinians could be trusted not to arm themselves to attack Israel? Remember, Hamas’ sworn goal is to destroy Israel. What would you do?
Finally, are you now going to write something critical of Charlie Rose? After all, he just got Hamas’ head man to clearly display to the world that the palestinians will NEVER accept a Jewish state of Israel. Until they are ready to do that, then ISRAEL HAS EVERY RIGHT TO DEFEND ITSELF. And you are slime for ignoring everything she does to try to minimize the casualties FORCED BY THE ACTIONS OF HAMAS!
Schieffer’s comments are right on the money, as Corey wisely points out.
When Palestinian kids are killed, their families scream, cry and tear their hair, just as families around the world do when tragedy strikes. But don’t be deceived: in Schiefferworld, at least, that’s how Palestinians express joy. Anyone who tries to convince you otherwise is a Hamas operative or a self-hating Jew who thinks Palestinians are human.
Shakespeare got it all wrong in this speech:
“I am a Palestinian. Hath not a Palestinian eyes? Hath not a Palestinian hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions; fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, heal’d by the same means, warm’d and cool’d by the same winter and summer, as an Israeli is? If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, do we not revenge? If we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you in that.”
Who is forcing Russia or pro Russians to kill innocent people? A plane (MH17) blown up by group of people and still there is no action. When airline owner, Malaysian Airlines, declared it is terrorist attack, it US that replaced it with conflict. UN is no saying Israel has right to defend as Hamas is attacking. How about killers who are responsible for MH17? Also, I think Isreal is getting more advantage of this situation and doing its best to eradicated innocent people from its land. It is just to get more power.
Simple example: A person came to a house as a guest. Slowly he called his friends and family members, and occupied a room..later kitchen, later others rooms…and when house owner stand up and defend, occupier start quoting i can give your servant room….later he start demanding servant room as well. This is what israel is doing from many years and there is no support to people. There may be business benefits to others but I am sure it will increase more violence around the world because no international laws or human rights is supporting it. We all know why it is not supported when attack is on islamic group.
What a stupid ignorant man…the US media has children’s blood on their hands….horrible people#GazaUnderAttack
“We can forgive the Palestinians for killing our children,” the Israeli settler said (ALL Israelis are early or late settlers), “but we can never forgive them for forcing us to kill their children by making them drink gasoline and burning them alive.”
The whole American Jewish media is pathetic. The world wouldn’t believe in Ur ‘smoking gun’ idea again.
GUIDE TO ARAB-JEWISH RELATIONS FOR DUMMIES (BONUS – FAIR INSIGHTS!):
1. AGE OF CONQUEST: Arabs/Muslims conquer vast swaths of Middle East, Africa and Europe. (FAIR says this is O.K. as long as it’s not Jews doing the conquering.) Jews accepted by Arabs as second-class dhimmis, except when periodically massacred.
2. EARLY 20TH CENTURY: Jews facing persecution migrate to Palestine and purchase swampland at exorbitant prices. Arabs target Jews with bloody pogroms. (FAIR says it loves immigrants, unless they’re Jewish.)
3. WORLD WAR II: Palestinian Grand Mufti al-Husseini allied with Hitler, plans Final Solution for Middle East. (FAIR claims this is all a big misunderstanding.)
4. 1947-1948: Arabs flout U.N. partition plan and launch war of extermination against Israel a few years after the Holocaust. (FAIR inexplicably labels this “the Naqba.”)
5. 1948-1967: Egypt controls Gaza, and Jordan controls West Bank. World-wide protests erupt over these occupations. (Just kidding – actually, no one cares about the Palestinians at this point, least of all FAIR.)
6. 1967: Arabs fail again to destroy Israel. Israel seizes Gaza and West Bank – therefore, Palestinian issue becomes cause celebre. (FAIR says parties must return to pre-1967 “borders,” which proved so effective in preventing war.)
7. 1967- 2007: Palestinians repeatedly reject two-state solution, on bizarre ground that they should be able to live in the state (i.e., Israel) adjoining their own state. Palestinian terrorists content themselves by throwing Jewish man in wheelchair off ship, slaughtering Israeli Olympic athletes, butchering a Holocaust survivor with an ax, murdering a baby girl (and then celebrating by handing out sweets), and otherwise killing as many Jews as possible. (FAIR says the guy in the wheelchair must have had it coming.)
8. 2007: Hamas seizes Gaza from Fatah in bloody coup. Hamas eschews hobbies like stamp-collecting in favor of incessantly lobbing missiles at Israel’s civilian population. (FAIR labels Hamas an amiable band of peace-loving Mahatma Gandhis.)
9. 2014: Hamas precipitates another war with Israel, kidnapping and murdering three Israeli teenagers. (FAIR weighs in: “The kidnappers may not have been a Hamas cell reporting directly to Hamas leadership. They may have been a Hamas cell not reporting directly to Hamas leadership. And so…that is to say…oh, never mind…we no like Israel! Israel bad! Israel bad!”)
Please retire!!! Ee’re afraid we’ll make you kill our children. You’ve become a veritable “old coot”.
Days of Rage, anger, hate, celebrations by handing out sweets when other civilians are murdered, building military and rocket launching facilities near and among civilians are cowardly actions of terrorists. When Hamas uses people as shields, what is a nation to do? When one looks at how utterly brutally Sunni and Shiites murder each other, bomb each other, insult each other, they prove themselves good children of a violent religion and a founder who used violence. And it is alright to kill civilians in Israel with NO prior notice? All Hamas has to do is become nonviolent, and in asymmetrical war where actually getting something built is a goal, nonviolence is the only way. Once they finish with Israel, they will happily kill each other. Seek NONviolence. No more days of rage.
To be fair, Bob Schieffer is an idiot!
Just like those stubborn Poles “forced” Hitler to kill kids. Just like Israel, the Nazi’s were only “defending” themselves.
Bob Schieffer has been listening to his own media-hype… Simply being a reporter /anchorfor 40+years doesn’t guarantee wisdom or even intelligence but does mean he has a good agent!!! Terrible judgment and ill-informed harrangues do not make for responsible journalism. His arrogance is appalling!!!!
Bulshit…
Mr. Bob is a disgusting pawn of his propaganda outlet. The bias against Gaza is unbelievable. It is not only dishonorable, it is also frightening for what forebodes for the U.S.
#IsraeliTerrorist
I think the Israelis are not looking for peace. Just full of excuses! The Palestinian people cannot have a cease fire because they don’t want to continue living in dire straits. The Israelis don’t want peace they are just good at public speaking and hiding the truth. It takes a certain nation to have the guts to being able to cause the disgust and brutality they do such children and elderly people. If the tables were turned it would be a entire different story.
Well, why don’t the Palestinians have bomb shelters at least for their people? They take all the money and buy hateful weapons and build rat tunnels and give the people nothing but death! They put them out there to die? The Israelis care about their people and have bomb shelters, etc. for them, thats why thousands of them DON’T get killed!
shame on some one his age and been around long enoygh to side with occupation and racism
Mike Edwards, I’ll try to educate you. If a wife physically assaults her husband, he has the right to defend himself, and would not be considered an abuser. Now do you get it?
Wow! What a crap! Worthiness does not commence from revenging insults, especially from vehemence that is irrational. The man has lost him mind.
I love Moses; I do not like racist Israeli leaders and any bigoted TV persona. His Israelites are utterly different from my Moses.
Injustice will never survive. The Day of Reckoning is not afar for aggressors in any nation or faith. It is the law of nature, Physics shows.
The Blood Toll in Gaza and Israel, Latest totals updated July 30.
1,328
Palestinian deaths
59
Israeli deaths
The distinction between this TV “great start” and me is one. I value the life of a Palestinians in the same way I prize the life of an Israeli. There is no difference between all beings.
He dares to blame the victims, not aggressors.
Hi,I have read all your comments and I want yo ask some questions. I am a mother of three and I live in Melbourne Australia. I am a Barrister and Solicitor, In your world I may be called an Advocate.
I have no particular view on the situation of Israel and Gaza. What I don’t understand is why even is Israel suspects a UN school of housing Hamas weapons why would they bomb a facility where they know children are sleeping. Even if this is true surely you would not condemn innocent children to death, there must be some other way of dealing with this situation. If Hamas are putting their people in danger then the Palestian people must reconsider how much they really care about them or are they just using them as collateral damage. Every life no matter where you are from, your back ground, your religion ,we are all children of God. We may seek God in a different way, but it is all the same God. If we realised that then maybe we would stop killing people who are of different tribes. In my Country all religions are free to worship, we have freedom to express our views. Never would we consider harming any one who worships in a different way to our selves, we are a tolerant Country.
I would like to her your views on what is going on between Israel and the Gaza Strip
Veronica
“To suggest that Hamas desires that Palestinian children be murdered is offensive and irresponsible in the extreme.”
That Hamas actually does this, should be more offensive to you, Pete.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yu54aSM6QOE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcrWy3PT6zc
“We can forgive the Arabs for killing our children,” she said, “but we can never forgive them for forcing us to kill their children.”
So, the Nazi Germany can never forgive the German Jewry for “forcing” Josef Mengele to carry out medical experiments on Jewish children.
Schieffer’s rehash of Golda Meir’s line (now repeated nightly on mainstream media TV) is very disturbing.
The remark, that Palestinians are responsible for the deaths of their children (though Israeli arms seems to have something to do with it!) is classic perpetrator blaming the victim. Prisons are full of people who were forced to do their criminal deeds by others, usually by the victims. The rapist was seduced by his victim, the murderer who “had no choice,” the thief who has been screwed by everyone is entitled to their goods, etc. It is sociopathology, psychopathology big time!
So think on this: How does it happen that media are complicit in repeating a psychopathologic excuse? How does this happen?
I won’t leave you guessing: It happens because the media are heavily controlled and directed by interests that prefer psychopathology to good health, interests that prefer the theft of land and rights by certain entitled people who have been wronged by others somewhere else in the world. That’s why.
Bob Schieffer “found” the wrong quote. What Golda Meir actually said is:
“When peace comes, we will perhaps in time be able to forgive the Arabs for killing our sons, but it will be harder for us to forgive them for having forced us to kill their sons.”
It’s in her autobiography, see: http://www.subir.com/2014/07/quoting-golda-meir/
For those of you who aren’t as well-informed as Bob Schaffer, the Israelis are meticulously targeting only tunnels and weapons stashes and the heads of Hamas. Usually, when they bomb a place where there are civilians (which is exactly Hamas’s twisted plan in order to up the toll and gain PR support), Israel informs the people who live there that they will be bombing it, by cellphones, leaflets, etc., and Hamas orders the people to stay there and even often to stand on their roofs. That is why Schaffer says Hamas uses human shields. The people are told to evacuate, and they don’t. If fact, Hamas sometimes has those Palestinians who protest staying there killed. This is a sad truth. Israel does not rejoice in death or teach their children to hate, despite also having been victimized. They have many Arabs living peacefully within their borders, and would be happy to allow for looser borders if they did not fear for their lives.
Two days ago I sent this email to Dr. Victor J Boschini, Chancellor of Texas Christian University:
Dr. Boschini,
Earlier this year I had occasion to write to you expressing surprise and disgust upon learning that Texas Christian University had disgraced itself and its College of Communications by naming it after one of the most opinionated, ill-informed, bigoted and mendacious “newsmen” currently infesting commercial infotainment channels.
Receiving no ply from you, a gentleman in a noble calling, I naturally presume you did not see my message, so I repeat a portion of it here.
“The Bob Schieffer College of Communications! What’s next, TCU, the Pontius Pilate School of Theology?”
As if to emphasize my point, on Sunday Schieffer outdid himself in hyperbole and bigotry with a manic outburst regarding the plight of Palestinian children killed and maimed by Israeli “Defense Forces.” His insane rant did not go unnoticed by people still in possession of their mental faculties. This for example:
http://www.alternet.org/media/cbs-host-bob-schieffers-absurd-claims-gaza
There are many other commentaries in a similar vein authored by men and women of good will and excellent mental health, if you care to look for them. So far, none of them have tarred you with the Bob Schieffer brush, but I think that is just a matter of time.
In due course, Dr. Boschini, your chickens . . . change, that . . . your vultures will most certainly come home to roost.
Doesn’t that sound dreafully familiar! Quote from 2011:
“In a closed door meeting aimed at explaining why they had killed so many civilians, Gen. Petraeus actually accused parents in the region of burning their own children in an attempt to raise the death count and make the US look bad.” Or:
“The US has a long history of making up ridiculous hypotheticals that might explain away massive civilian death tolls, including the May 2009 Farah Province massacre, in which the US initially claimed the Taliban had “pre-killed” a large number of civilians and stored them in buildings before tricking the US into bombing them, scattering the bodies. They later admitted the claim was entirely made up.”
http://news.antiwar.com/2011/02/21/petraeus-accuses-afghan-parents-of-burning-kids-to-make-us-look-bad/
Gaza is a very crowded place. Hamas has no choice but to put their rocket batteries in hospitals and schools and in their neighbors’ houses. They have no choice. It is not their fault if the neighborhood children share the same space.
The corruption at the head of Hamas By GLOBES/ REUTERS
07/20/2014 15:00
As Gazans suffer poverty and war, Khaled Mashaal and Ismail Haniyeh build their wealth.
Khaled Mashaal Photo: REUTERS 1.8 million people live in the Gaza Strip, most of them refugees. They endure an unemployment rate that reaches 40%, shameful poverty, rock bottom wages, and, to top it all, an apparently corrupt regime, with an extreme political ideology, that finds it convenient to perpetuate poverty.
In the Arab press, particularly in Egypt, there are countless stories about the corruption in Hamas. The Egyptians are no fans of Hamas, and their own regime is corrupt enough, but we present here a few excerpts from the welter of stories about Hamas’s financial criminality.
According to Palestinian news agency WAFA, the Hamas movement is in the throes of an economic crisis in its political, military and social institutions, after a number of corruption affairs within it were exposed. Public anger has forced the movement to bring many activists accused of corruption to justice, to avoid a revolution in the Gaza Strip. Some of the cases involved bribery in the justice system itself.
According to one report, the Hamas political bureau held several meetings to discuss the many corruption affairs connected to the financing of the movement’s institutions in the Gaza Strip, the financing of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, and especially payments of activists’ wages. Moreover, the movement’s financial statements show that bad investments were made in real estate in Saudi Arabia, in Syria, and in Dubai, leading to the loss of tens of millions of dollars that had been earmarked for rehabilitating the Gaza Strip.
Sources cited in these reports said the money was raised in Europe and the Gulf states through the “Charity Coalition” and the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, which transferred money to Hamas in exchange for attacks on Israeli targets.
The most prominent corruption affair was the one involving Ayman Taha, a senior figure in Hamas. Hamas has confirmed that Taha was disloyal and that he had abused his authority to make money. He is still under investigation, a matter which is under a veil of secrecy, and there have been reports that he has been severely tortured. It emerges from the reports that Taha allowed people close to him to engage in illegal trading at the expense of hundreds of citizens who paid money for projects, mostly in connection with smuggling tunnels.
Other people who have been involved in corruption affairs connected to taxation of goods passing through the tunnels are Hamas government spokesman Taher al-Nunu, and senior Hamas figure Mahmoud al-Zahar. Al-Zahar confirmed in a recent interview that he took part in illegal trading via the tunnels, which are also used to smuggle weapons, and that his wealth amounted to some six billion Egyptian pounds (hundreds of millions of dollars).
Another corruption affair was that of a senior Hamas figure who was exiled to Qatar in the prisoner release deal for the release of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, Zaher Jabarin. Jabarin is responsible for the payment of wages to families of Hamas prisoners and former prisoners.
But the cherry on the cake is the conduct attributed to Hamas’s foremost leaders: Khaled Mashaal, head of the organization’s political bureau, and Ismail Haniyeh, head of the organization in Gaza. It was reported recently that Mashaal smuggled $12 million from Syria to Turkey under cover of the civil war in Syria. Mashaal reportedly appointed someone by the name of Jibril Janid to transfer the money to Turkey in October 2012 from Mashaal’s borther-in-law. It was also reported that the money belonged to Hamas, but Mashal said it had “disappeared” in the civil war.
Furthermore, a Qatari real estate company has unveiled a seven-acre project in Qatar that includes four towers and a 2.5 acre commercial center owned by Mashaal, his wife and son. According to the company’s engineer, the towers will be among the most prominent in Doha, with 250 luxury apartments, a private club, a kindergarten, a library, and tourist attractions.
As for Ismail Haniyeh, he reportedly owns 2,500 square meters of land in Amar Almatar street in the Al-Ramal area of the Gaza Strip. The land is estimated to be worth about $4 million, and is registered in the name of his son-in-law. And while the talk is of the failure to pay wages in the Gaza Strip, Haniyeh has bought several houses in the names of his sons. According to press reports, Haniyeh’s wealth has risen in line with his popularity, thanks to his involvement in the tunnels trade. It is also reported that Haniyeh’s son, who is also active in Hamas, was caught at the Rafah crossing with millions of dollars in his possession. It turns out that the tunnels are not just a pipeline for weapons, but also for the proceeds of corruption.
There’s a great deal of money, then, and so it’s no surprise that corruption is correspondingly great. One newspaper published a Qatari document concerning a check for $250 million sent to the Hamas government in the Gaza Strip in return for support for the regime of former Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi. The beneficiary of the check is Khaled Mashaal.
It’s no wonder therefore that an Egyptian television presenter mocked Mashaal the other day. “Khaled Mashaal sits and eats in restaurants in Qatar. He runs his jihad from Qatar. My dear sir, Khaled Mashaal, the jihad is in Gaza. Mr. Khaled and all his brave warriors in Gaza people don’t have enough to eat, children are suffering and buildings are destroyed with their inhabitants. And all this time he resides in the most luxurious hotel in the most beautiful district, in a room that overlooks the office that the Israelis opened there.” (The screen shows pictures of Mashaal eating and in a fitness room).
“Where is the courage? Where is the heroism? If you have real spirit in you, go back tomorrow. Get on the first plane and come back to Egypt. Don’t worry, we’ll open the Rafah crossing for you, and make sure you get to the other side safely, and reach your family whole and healthy. Our brothers the Palestinians will greet you and you will meet your brother there, what’s his name? Ismail Haniyeh… sit in one of the hiding places underground and manage operations. At least you’ll stand at the head of your people. Every shepherd leads his flock, and you, sir, are responsible for your people. A leader doesn’t run away. A leader is not afraid. A leader does not run things by telephone…
“Khaled Mashaal, before the revolution in Syria against President Assad, bought a house there for $4 million. A house for $4 million! When his people in Gaza have nothing to eat. That’s what the great jihad warriors do, Sheikh Haniyeh and Sheikh Mashaal…”
There are orientalists who think that Hamas’s corrupt behavior will in the end provoke social protest in the Gaza Strip. If only this is so.
To understand the roots of this conflict, one might want to liste carefully to the late Um Nidal who is practically a patron saint of Hamas. Nidal’s definition of “peace” is a most important gloss to understand Hamas’ meaning of the term (See the following interview of Nidal, at 10:22-) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8urUsGv0O1M It’s worth watching the whole thing- especially at 7:50 onwards, which is particularly chilling. The interviewer asks all the right questions. Such fundamentalist thinking is not an aberration, but the dominant mode in Hamas’ thinking. One might also want to look at Hamas’ Charter. http://fas.org/irp/world/para/docs/880818.htm Of the 13 references to the word “peace” in the document – almost all of them are in the phrase regarding Muhammed “peace be upon him” Look at what Hamas says when using the term _operationally_- like in Article 13 -Here’s the first sentence: “[Peace] initiatives, the so-called peaceful solutions, and the international conferences to resolve the Palestinian problem, are all contrary to the beliefs of the Islamic Resistance Movement.” Fundamentalism, of course, did not originate with Hamas – or ISIS… They are just the latest manifestations.
Shame on CBS
“I can forgive you Nicole for you hitting me. What I cannot forgive is you making me hit you and kill you.”
Peace,
O.J.
“I can forgive you Nicole for you hitting me. I cannot forgive you for making me hit you and kill you.”
Peace,
O.J.
Your comments reflect a severe lack of professionalism on your part. To suggest that Palestinians intentionally put their kids in harms way is pure bigotry and racism. It will do Mr. Schieffer to note Gaza is the mot densely populated open prison in the world. Demonizing and dehumanizing people in order to make a point suggests your calling as a journalist needs serious self-reflection. It is a shame that at the end of your career you will be noted for superficial reporting.