Sunday, January 24, 2010

Reuters parrots Arab euphemisms for murdering Jews

"resistance"
"armed struggle"
"liberate"

What do these terms have in common?  They're all euphemisms employed by the Arabs and dutifully parroted by Reuters to characterize the military and political goals of Fatah and Hamas:
Hamas will not recognise Israel despite new pressures on the group and will give priority to building resistance to the Jewish state, the Islamist group's leader Khaled Meshaal said on Friday.
Addressing a rally in the Syrian capital to mark the end of the Israeli attack on Gaza a year ago that killed 1,400 Palestinians, Meshaal said Hamas does not want another war with Israel but it will stick to armed struggle as a means to liberate occupied land.
Those excerpts from a story by Reuters' Khaled Yacoub Oweis on the latest affirmations by Hamas.  Note the absence of scare quotes around the terms, resistance, armed struggle, and liberate.  Scare quotes that Reuters scrupulously inserts when citing comments by Israeli leaders, as in this story:
Israel has complained to the United States, sponsor of the 2003 "road map" plan for Middle East peace, about both Fayyad and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, saying they had breached obligations under the plan to end such "incitement".
Thus does Reuters uncritically report (and adopt) the Arab lexicon while bringing journalistic skepticism to bear on characterizations and assertions made by Israel.

Of course, when Meshaal speaks of "liberation", what he actually means is this:
The Jihad for the Liberation of Palestine is an Individual Obligation
When our enemies usurp some Islamic lands, Jihad becomes a duty binding on all Muslims. In order to face the usurpation of Palestine by the Jews, we have no escape from raising the banner of Jihad. [Article 15, Hamas Charter]

And when Meshaal speaks of "struggle", what he actually means is this:
For our struggle against the Jews is extremely wide-ranging and grave, so much so that it will need all the loyal efforts we can wield, to be followed by further steps and reinforced by successive battalions from the multifarious Arab and Islamic world, until the enemies are defeated and Allah’s victory prevails. [Introduction, Hamas Charter]
But Reuters apparently feels those references are a bit too much for delicate Western ears and eyes so they go unreported.

No comments:

Post a Comment