The disappearing line between fantasy and reality

Reuters correspondent and propagandist Douglas Hamilton lives in a fantasy world.

In this world, a reporter can write absolutely anything, no matter how mendacious or utterly absurd, and the public will buy it, unreservedly.  Moreover, there will never be any consequences for the reporter arising from his or her assiduous use of propaganda because the reporter's employer assumes the roles of accomplice and alibi in the string of lies and distortions perpetrated by the reporter.

Regrettably, we erred in our first sentence.

Reuters correspondent and propagandist Douglas Hamilton lives in the real world.

But there are major obstacles to overcome, chiefly that Hamas is still formally pledged to the destruction of Israel whereas the Palestine Liberation Organisation, Fatah and the Palestinian Authority - all headed by Abbas - recognise the Jewish state and have interim "roadmap" accords with it.

None of the Palestine Liberation Organisation, Fatah or the Palestinian Authority recognize the Jewish state.  Indeed, notwithstanding the fact that these groups demand a Palestinian Muslim state, ethnically cleansed of Jews, they adamantly refuse to ever accept a Jewish sovereign in their midst.

This is the lie of the "two-state solution".  This is the lie of peace and reconciliation with a deeply racist and totalitarian Arab regime.

And this is the lie that Reuters is an independent news agency with its reporters committed to holding accuracy sacrosanct, guarding against putting their opinion in a news story, and striving for balance and freedom from bias.

A fantasy world that has become all-too real.

Reuters censors, rationalizes Jordanian treatment of Palestinians

The Kingdom of Jordan was birthed from 78 percent of the original Palestine Mandate.  Well over half of its population is Palestinian.  Despite this, the country is ruled by a Hashemite Arab King and over 300,000 Palestinians are forced to live in squalid refugee camps.  Moreover, the Jordanian government has, in recent years, stripped about 3,000 Palestinians of their Jordanian residency.

One would never know any of this reading Reuters, whose correspondents carefully conceal the historical, demographic, and political realities of the situation in an effort to absolve the Jordanian King and his ruling class from any responsibility to provide equal or national rights for their Palestinian population.  These are the same correspondents who with shrillness and hypocrisy call for Israel, which has one-third the land mass, to surrender territory to a hostile Palestinian state.

Reuters correspondents Ali Sawafta and Douglas Hamilton continue in that vein today with a story about Jordanian King Abdullah meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah:

Abdullah, a critic of the deadlock in the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians, flew the short distance from his capital, Amman, by helicopter and went directly into talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
It was his first visit to the West Bank since 2000, when Abbas's predecessor the late Yasser Arafat was the undisputed Palestinian leader. Abbas, by contrast, faces a challenge from the Islamist movement Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip.
"The visit comes in the context of Jordan's support for the Palestinian Authority and the Palestinian people to achieve Palestinian national rights and an independent state," a Jordanian palace official told Reuters Sunday.

And for its maltreatment of the Palestinians, which is never mentioned in the story, here is Reuters generous pretext on behalf of the Jordanian monarchy: 

The Jordanian government fears further instability will lead to a new influx of Palestinians which could stretch already scant resources and raise tension with Jordanians.

Reuters: Arab apologists to the end.

Douglas Hamilton lies on behalf of Palestinians

In a story on the release by Hamas of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit and the anger of Israelis who have seen the killers of their loved ones go free in the swap, Reuters correspondent Douglas Hamilton attempts to justify Palestinian terrorism by blatantly lying about its raison d'etre:

But Gaza militants, claiming triumph over the Zionists, say their "victory" will spur them on to seize more Jewish hostages, in order to liberate all Palestinians imprisoned over the years in the cause of ending Israeli occupation in lands the Jewish state took in a 1967 war.

Did those Gaza "militants", aka Hamas terrorists and their operatives, actually say this?

No.

In fact, Hamas is not driven by a commitment to end Israeli "occupation in the lands the Jewish state took in a 1967 war", but by a clear commitment, conveyed consistently in word and deed, to liquidate the Jewish state and kill or ethnically cleanse the land of its Jewish inhabitants.

Since Hamilton has apparently missed this message, here are a few choice quotes from Hamas officials:

"We have liberated Gaza, but have we recognized Israel? Have we given up our lands occupied in 1948? We demand the liberation of the West Bank, and the establishment of a state in the West Bank and Gaza, with Jerusalem as its capital – but without recognizing [Israel]. This is the key – without recognizing the Israeli enemy on a single inch of land. ...
"Our plan for this stage is to liberate any inch of Palestinian land, and to establish a state on it. Our ultimate plan is [to have] Palestine in its entirety. I say this loud and clear so that nobody will accuse me of employing political tactics. We will not recognize the Israeli enemy. " -- Mahmoud Al-Zahhar

"Hamas "must lay the foundation for a tomorrow without Zionists." -- Mahmoud a-Zahar

"Israel is based only on blood and murder in order to exist, and it will disappear, with Allah's will, through blood and Shahids [martyrs]." -- Yussuf Al-Sharafi

"This is Islam, that was ahead of its time with regards to human rights in the treatment of prisoners, but our nation was tested by the cancerous lump, that is the Jews, in the heart of the Arab nation... Be certain that America is on its way to utter destruction, America is wallowing [in blood] today in Iraq and Afghanistan, America is defeated and Israel is defeated, and was defeated in Lebanon and Palestine... Make us victorious over the community of infidels... Allah, take the Jews and their allies, Allah, take the Americans and their allies... Allah, annihilate them completely and do not leave anyone of them." -- Sheikh Dr. Ahmad Bahar

"We will not betray promises we made to God to continue the path of Jihad and resistance until the liberation of Palestine, all of Palestine. . . So be assured doctor Ayman, and all those who love Palestine like yourself, that Hamas is still the group you knew when it was founded and it will never abandon its path." -- Official Hamas Statement

"[Hamas will] never recognize the legitimacy of the Zionist state that was founded on our land." -- Khaled Mashaal

There isn't a field mouse in Dubrovnik that doesn't recognize the Hamas Mission.  Only liars and propagandists who work for the largest media company in the world have the arrogance and stupidity to believe they can deceive the public into believing that Palestinian terrorists are interested merely in "ending Israeli occupation in lands the Jewish state took in a 1967 war".

Count Douglas Hamilton in that group.

Netanyahu a hit; Douglas Hamilton depressed

One can almost see Reuters correspondent Douglas Hamilton reaching for his antidepressant medication following Benjamin Netanyahu's speech before Congress yesterday.  Hamilton writes:

Invited by the Republican opponents of President Barack Obama, Netanyahu won standing ovations as he extolled Israel's democracy and military self-reliance while rejecting any Palestinian state based on Israel's pre-1967 borders. 

Hamilton alludes to the notion that it was only Republican opponents of President Obama who cheered Netanyahu but of course, it was nearly everyone in the house:



The fact is, the American people and their representatives in Congress, both Republican and Democrat, support Israel in its quest and formula for peace which, notwithstanding Jeffrey Heller's false assertion, reflect significant concessions to the Palestinian Arabs.

Douglas Hamilton and the anti-Israel crowd at Reuters may have nothing to offer but raspberries for Netanyahu but at the end of the day, media propaganda will not end this ancient conflict.  Only Arab acceptance of a Jewish national presence in the Middle East can achieve that.

English lesson for Reuters

De facto: in reality; actually
-- Merriam Webster

In a story on an exchange of fire between Hamas and the Israel Defense Forces following a Palestinian direct hit on an Israeli school bus with an anti-tank missile which seriously wounded a teenage boy, Reuters correspondents Nidal al-Mughrabi and Douglas Hamilton write:

Israel and Hamas had signaled readiness to return to a de facto ceasefire which has kept the border relatively quiet since the end of the December 2008-January 2009 Gaza war.

As we have previously noted, there have been over five-hundred rockets and mortars fired into Israel by Palestinian terrorists since the end of the Gaza war, an attack on average two out of every three days.

Here's another definition for Reuters:

Fabrication: a product of fabrication; especially lie, falsehood

UPDATE APRIL 8th: In the most recent generation of this story, a "de facto ceasefire" has become:

Two years of low-level skirmishing on the border escalated suddenly last month when Hamas, which rules Gaza, fired a barrage of rockets at Israel, triggering a surge of fighting in which 18 Palestinians were killed.

An example of that renowned Reuters "transparency" Dean Wright was so excited about.

UPDATE APRIL 9th: In the latest iteration of the story, Reuters' al-Mughrabi and Allyn Fisher-Ilan obfuscate and regress to their previous fabrication:

Two years of periodic, low-level skirmishing on the border escalated suddenly last month when Hamas showered rockets on Israel. Hamas had largely withheld fire since a Gaza war in late 2008 in which 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis were killed.

Tip for Reuters correspondents: reporting the facts requires much less energy (and fewer revisions).

Douglas Hamilton downplays effect of Palestinian rockets; reader sets him straight

In an op-ed masquerading as "Analysis" and laden with fatuous assertions, Reuters correspondent Douglas Hamilton, who should have been terminated long ago for material breaches of the Reuters Trust Principles, suggests that:

Most Gaza rockets inflict no more than material damage [on Israeli communities]

A commenter on the Reuters website sets Hamilton straight:

I take issue with the statement: “Most Gaza rockets inflict no more than material damage.” There are hundreds of thousands of residents who are being traumatized many times every day by the threat of these missiles. And this has been going on, on and off, for years! Children are growing up under this constant threat, always having to be aware of where the nearest shelter is in case of a siren. And there have been injuries and death from these rockets in the past.
And please don’t tell me that the Gazans have it worse. All they have to do is STOP launching rockets and mortars, stop tunneling under the fence in order to attack and the Israeli army will have no reason to attack them!

Hear, hear.

Reuters misrepresents Obama

In our post just below, we noted the way Reuters correspondents regularly fabricate so as to advance their personal, and perhaps as well, corporate political agenda.  Central to the media giant's efforts to assign ownership of Judea and Samaria (the "West Bank") and Jerusalem to the Arabs has been to deliberately and regularly mischaracterize Jewish settlements there as "illegal".  Consistent with international law as resolved by both the League of Nations and United Nations, Jewish settlements anywhere west of the Jordan River are in fact, fully legal.

Reuters correspondents clearly believe however, that by repeatedly drumming into the minds of their readers, in story after story, and in various incantations, an utterly false message, i.e., Jewish settlements are "illegal", they will win the day in the forum of public opinion.

Mohammed Assadi, Louis Charbonneau, Crispian Balmer, Douglas Hamilton and editor Peter Graff have another go on the fabrication carousel with this false citation:

Obama, who has said Israeli settlements in territories it captured in a 1967 war are illegal and unhelpful to the peace process, is opposed to a U.N. move that in Washington's view could shatter hopes of reviving the stalled talks.

So, has President Obama ever publicly asserted that the settlements are "illegal"?  No.  And of course, this is deliberately the case because Obama, advised by scores of international lawyers and State Department officials, knows very well that the settlements are, as noted above, entirely legal.  To assert otherwise, in a speech or other public forum, would be to contravene international law.

If only Reuters correspondents had as much respect for their own code.

Irony is honesty with the volume cranked up

Historical fabricator and Reuters correspondent Douglas Hamilton informs us that the Palestinian Arabs are planning to apply to UNESCO for the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem to be added to its list of World Heritage sites:

"This step is part and parcel of our plan to end the (Israeli) occupation and establish a state," said Palestinian Authority Minister of Tourism and Antiquities, Khouloud Daibes, presenting a formal submission to the UNESCO heritage committee.
"This is a message of our determination," she told a news conference marking the first Palestinian bid for a place on UNESCO's list, which over the past 40 years has denoted more than 900 sites of "outstanding universal value to humanity."
The bid was discussed at UNESCO headquarters in Paris last week by Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, who since 2009 has driven a campaign to establish all the attributes and institutions of Palestinian statehood by September this year.

And here is an excerpt from the UNESCO website explaining the importance of protecting significant cultural sites:

Considering that the existing international conventions, recommendations and resolutions concerning cultural and natural property demonstrate the importance, for all the peoples of the world, of safeguarding this unique and irreplaceable property, to whatever people it may belong,
Considering that parts of the cultural or natural heritage are of outstanding interest and therefore need to be preserved as part of the world heritage of mankind as a whole,
Considering that, in view of the magnitude and gravity of the new dangers threatening them, it is incumbent on the international community as a whole to participate in the protection of the cultural and natural heritage of outstanding universal value, by the granting of collective assistance which, although not taking the place of action by the State concerned, will serve as an efficient complement thereto,

Hamilton offers a cursory mention of the violent confrontation in 2002 between Israeli troops and armed Palestinian militants who had forcibly seized and occupied the Church for a month in an effort to escape arrest.  Yet, Hamilton's story fails to convey the irony reflected by the Palestinian Arabs applying for protection and preservation of the sacred and historically significant site in which 250 wanted Palestinian terrorists held 100 people hostage, stole food and gold from the monks, urinated and defected on the church floor, and used Bibles for toilet paper.

Somehow, we get the feeling that irony is lost on Hamilton.

Reuters fabricates history to protect the Muslim Brotherhood

Yesterday, we noted that Reuters has a tradition of publishing stories which fawn over former IAEA Chief Mohamed ElBaradei and seek to conceal the true nature and agenda of the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood.  We also wondered whether this pattern would continue should Elbaradei and the Brotherhood come to power in Egypt.

We won't have to wait that long for an answer.  In a story on Israeli concerns over the Obama administration's apparent willingness to sacrifice its 30-year relationship with President Hosni Mubarak due to the unrest in Egypt, Reuters correspondent Douglas Hamilton literally invents history to absolve the Muslim Brotherhood of its record of ultra-violence:

Egypt, Israel's most powerful neighbor, was the first Arab country to make peace with the Jewish state, in 1979. Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, who signed the treaty, was assassinated two years later by an Egyptian fanatic.

It took another 13 years before King Hussein of Jordan broke Arab ranks to made a second peace with the Israelis. That treaty was signed by Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, who was assassinated one year later, in 1995, by an Israeli fanatic.

Anwar Sadat was assassinated not by a lone and nebulous "fanatic" but by a team of Egyptian military personnel associated with the Muslim Brotherhood:

The attackers included four enlisted men, an army major and a lieutenant. The major and two enlisted men were killed in the swarm around the reviewing stand, once other members of the military realized what was taking place. The rest were arrested. The attackers would eventually come to be identified as Islamist nationalists associated with the Muslim Brotherhood under the name of Islamic Jihad.

The group was subsequently found to have hatched the assassination plot with Al Gamaa al-Islamiyya, a Brotherhood offshoot that would, in the mid-1990s, develop ties with al-Qaeda and be chiefly responsible for the 1997 terrorist attack in Luxor on Nov. 17, 1997, when six men dressed in black attacked tourists visiting the famous site in Upper Egypt. Sixty-two men, women and children were killed.

So the Brotherhood group which organized the Sadat assassination was also linked to al-Qaeda and responsible for the subsequent terrorist attack in Luxor Egypt which killed sixty-two tourists.

A history Douglas Hamilton and Reuters would apparently much rather we forget.

Douglas Hamilton refers readers to boycott Israel website

In a story that attempts to conflate Israel with apartheid South Africa while feigning impartial news reporting, Reuters correspondent Douglas Hamilton suggests that those boycotting Israel in an effort to delegitimize the country are doing so with "increasing effect".  Hamilton's evidence for the success of the movement?

Carlos Santana, Gil Scott Heron, Elvis Costello, Gorillaz Sound System, the Klaxons, the Pixies, Faithless, Leftfield, Tindersticks, Meg Ryan and film director Mike Leigh have all decided not to go to Israel in recent months.

While Israel can probably survive absent the "Sneaky Feelings" Costello, Hamilton decides to lend a hand to the boycott effort by using his platform as a reporter for the largest news agency in the world to refer readers to one of the boycott advocacy websites.  We kid you not.  If this isn't enough to get Hamilton terminated for a material breach of the Reuters Trust Principles, we don't know what will.

Hamilton suggests that Israelis believe the world is biased against them, and that this belief is irrational, and to "prove" his point, he cites an Israeli television show which parodies Israeli claims of global antisemitism.  Gee, we have no idea where Jews would get the impression that antisemitism is endemic or that this manifests today in irrational hatred of Israel.

All of this is reminiscient of an exchange we had with Hamilton back in July of 2009 after he wrote a nearly hysterical piece accusing Benjamin Netanyahu of "disingenuousness" in a speech which took to task, the hypocrisy and antisemitism of those (like Hamilton) who would prevent Jews from living in Jerusalem.  We noted in an email reply to Hamilton that whereas Reuters apparently doesn't have a problem with British pensioners building condominiums in Gibraltar or the Turkish government providing housing for its citizens in Cyprus, his outrage over Jews living in their 3,500-year-old capital, supported by international law, does smack of double-standards.

Unfortunately for the increasingly erratic Hamilton, the "BDS" (boycott, divestment, sanctions) campaign against Israel is not going particularly well.  However, the movement does have the potential to damage the country and as there is no comparable BDS campaign against Turkey, China, Russia, Morocco, Saudi Arabia or many other countries which, unlike Israel, are actually engaged in gross human rights violations, political and religious oppression, and illegal occupations of neighboring states, one has to admire Hamilton's towering chutzpah in mocking Israelis who feel that boycott efforts singling out the one Jewish state do indeed reflect antisemitism.

Douglas Hamilton goes off his meds

Demonstrating once again why Reuters is the object of so much criticism and the butt of so many jokes about "unbiased" reporting, correspondent Douglas Hamilton opens up with his feelings about Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman.  A few choice excerpts from Hamilton's "news" story:

Some leaders would have fired him months ago for insubordination. But Avigdor Lieberman, denounced by critics as the Jewish Joe McCarthy, just wraps himself tighter in the flag...

... the abrasive scourge of "bleeding heart" peaceniks on Friday explained his lengthening enemies list...

Analysts say this explains a flagrantly maverick act, which has included telling the United Nations that Middle East peace is a distant dream, whatever [Israeli Prime Minister] Netanyahu may say, and promoting a "loyalty oath" as a test to flush out the unpatriotic...

Critics say Netanyahu tolerates Lieberman -- who lives in a settlement in the occupied West Bank -- at a cost to Israel's image, issuing limp responses to his verbal offensives that fall short of political disavowal...

Likud is "not the dictatorship of one opinion", he told the minister publicly, in a jibe at the democractic credentials of Lieberman's party, which critics say enjoys the unthinking support of one million of his fellow Russian-speaking Israelis...

Pundits suspect Lieberman's real aim is to prove to Netanyahu he can outflank him among an electorate that has moved steadily to the right, and so must be kept in the fold, or else.

Along with insults spewed at Lieberman, the Israeli Prime Minister, and the "unthinking" one million Russian-speaking Israelis, note how Hamilton deflects responsibility for his own hyperbolic editorializing to anonymous "analysts", "critics" and "pundits", a clear violation of the Reuters Handbook.

Apparently, Douglas Hamilton is mad as hell and not going to take it any more.  We feel for ya, Doug.

The new year, same as the old year

Of one thing we can be certain: Reuters correspondents have not made any New Year's resolutions giving up their addiction to injecting anti-Israel propaganda into their stories.  In a piece on Russian President Dmitry Medvedev canceling his visit to Israel, Douglas Hamilton tosses in this bit of vintage 2010 boilerplate:

Direct talks began in September between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and [Palestinian President] Abbas. But the process foundered in a matter of weeks over Israel's refusal to extend its freeze on building at Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank.

Like his colleagues at Reuters, Hamilton blames Israel, and only Israel, for the collapse of negotiations.  There is no mention of the fact that Abbas tarried for nine and a half months of the original ten-month building moratorium, trying to extract further unilateral concessions from Netanyahu before agreeing to talk.  No mention of the fact that Abbas told his party that he would not make a single concession in negotiations with Israel.  And no mention of Abbas' adamant refusal to recognize Israel as a Jewish state, as did the United Nations 63 years-ago, in exchange for a Jewish construction freeze in the territory.  These are glaring omissions clearly intended to mislead and manipulate readers into adopting Hamilton's personal pro-Palestinian political views and as such, they represent an egregious violation of the Reuters Handbook of Journalism and the company's Trust Principles.

Hamilton also adds to the three-year running total of 1,130 Reuters stories (over one per day) employing the propaganda mantra, "occupied West Bank", so named in part, following Israel's liberation of the territory from Jordanian occupation in 1967 and in part, following Arab ethnic cleansing of Jewish communities from the territory in the previous Arab-Israeli war.  Hamilton sycophantically serves Arab interests in this regard, refusing to balance the "West Bank" designation with Israel's appellation for the territory, Judea and Samaria.  This, a violation of Reuters social responsibility commitment:

We must be on alert for language that could imply support for one side of a conflict, sympathy for a point of view, or an ethnocentric vantage point. We should, for example, provide the dual names of disputed territories. We must not parrot any loaded expressions used by our sources, except in quotes and official titles. Generic references to a specific country as “the homeland” for example, are unwelcome.

In 2009 and 2010, Douglas Hamilton repeatedly demonstrated his contempt for the Thomson Reuters Trust Principles and professional standards of conduct for a purportedly unbiased news agency.  The question at hand, is whether Reuters will enable him to continue to display that contempt through 2011.

Obfuscation

As we have previously noted, Reuters documents the Middle East conflict as if it were a one-sided tennis match.  The Palestinian Arabs launch a rocket or mortar attack on an Israeli village and Reuters frequently fails to cover the story unless and until Israeli forces retaliate.  When the latter occurs, you can be sure that Reuters will be the first wire service out of the gate with full coverage and an unambiguous headline akin to:

Israel bombs Gaza tunnel near Egypt

Now compare the above with the following headline appearing in a story written by Reuters correspondent Douglas Hamilton about a Palestinian rocket exploding within 30 feet of an Israeli kindergarten and nursery schools causing injury to a teenage girl:

Kindergarten near-miss highlights Gaza risks

Note how Hamilton willfully obfuscates the facts, failing to cite either the nature of the incident (a rocket attack) or the perpetrator (Palestinians).  It's not until the 8th paragraph down in his story that Hamilton finally gets around to informing readers that the attack was claimed by the Palestinian group Army of Islam, although even here, Hamilton refuses to use the word "Palestinian".  Indeed, Hamilton immediately follows this apparently inconsequential piece of information identifying the perpetrator with the unsupported and ridiculous assertion that:

Hamas leaders have tried to curb rocket fire at Israel from Gaza in recent years, but smaller groups continue to carry out attacks.

Hamilton has been conducting PR on behalf of the Palestinians for years and here he does the same for the genocidal Hamas.

Finally, note the embedded photo which depicts not the subject of the story, the Palestinian rocket attack on an Israeli kindergarten, but the damage resulting from the retaliatory Israeli strike in Gaza.

All in a day's work for the propagandists at Reuters.

Is the Nazi calling the kettle black?

Formulated by Mike Godwin in 1990 following his observation that all online discussions inevitably degenerate into comparisons with the Nazis, Godwin's Law has become a popular adage in the internet age.  Simply stated, the rule suggests that as an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one.

The same may be said of Reuters online reporting of the Middle East conflict.

The news agency is so maniacally obsessed with demonizing Israel and their correspondents pen so many patently anti-Zionist stories every month, it was inevitable that something off their wire would ultimately draw an explicit comparison between the Jewish state and Nazi Germany.

In a story on Israel's decision to establish a facility to house some of the more than 35,000 mainly-African migrants that have entered the country illegally in the last few years, Reuters bows to Godwin:

In a country sensitive to comparisons with Nazi concentration camps where Jews were killed, officials insisted the camp would be open. But they did not say how often the migrants assigned there would be allowed to come and go.

Unbelievable.  There is of course, absolutely no rational parallel between the holding facility Israel is contemplating and the Nazi concentration camps where Jews were systematically exterminated but Reuters editors Douglas Hamilton and Mark Heinrich nevertheless implant an odious suggestion linking the two.

Interestingly, Hamilton, who is of German extract and has previously demonstrated his singular contempt for Jews, reacted to a comment critical of one of his stories for Reuters in 2009 by wildly accusing the commenter of claiming he (Hamilton) was antisemitic.  Hamilton's accusation was false but the rabid hostility to Jewish nationalism on display in his stories over the last 16 months suggests that he is indeed antisemitic and his knee-jerk reaction to criticism, a reflection that he knows it.

Card stacking and parroting reign at Reuters

Card stacking, or selective omission, is a propaganda technique which involves presenting only information that supports the propagandist's view and omitting information contrary to it.  Reuters continues to write the book on this technique.

In a story on Israel's decision to withdraw from the northern part of the village of Ghajar and the unhappy response by villagers to seeing their town divided, Reuters correspondent Douglas Hamilton adopts and parrots Arab rhetoric to "explain" to readers why the Lebanese terror group Hezbollah has refused to disarm:

Hezbollah, an ally of Syria and Iran, holds sway in southern Lebanon and has ministers in the Lebanese government. Resisting calls to disarm, it has cited Israel's troops in Ghajar as continued occupation of Lebanese soil that must be fought.

Those passive and anonymous "calls" to disarm actually come from the United Nations which in UNSC Resolutions 1559, 1680, and 1701 specifically require Hezbollah and all other extra-governmental groups in Lebanon to disarm.  The UN has also definitively demarcated the Israel-Lebanon border and declared the southern part of Ghajar as non-Lebanese.  So Israel is not occupying "Lebanese soil".

Reuters propagandist Hamilton will have none of these facts and refuses to disclose them to readers.

Palestinians intransigent; Reuters cheerleading

The Palestinian Arabs are now reported to be refusing to return to peace talks even if Israel were to agree to extend its previous unilateral and unprecedented concession to freeze Jewish building in Judea and Samaria (the "West Bank").  This, following months of stalling by Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas during which time there were no negotiations and no progress on a possible settlement of the conflict.

Notwithstanding, Reuters correspondent Douglas Hamilton continues to apologize and cheer for his home team:

U.S. President Barack Obama invested substantial political capital in persuading the Palestinians to resume direct talks with Israel in early September, after months of mediation.  

The Obama administration has now offered Israel diplomatic and defense inducements to renew the freeze for 90 days and give talks a chance, hoping [Israeli Prime Minister] Netanyahu will tell Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas what size and shape of state he can agree to. 

But, true to their warnings, they [the Palestinians] halted negotiations when Netanyahu refused to extend the 10-month partial construction moratorium on Jewish settlements in the West Bank after it expired at the end of that month.

The Palestinians suspect they may be presented with plans for a shrunken, fragmented territory studded with Israeli settlements and without East Jerusalem as its capital.

Much of what appears above, comes straight out of Hamilton's tired Palestinian public relations playbook.  Netanyahu has already made perfectly clear the "size and shape of state he can agree to".  As has been widely acknowledged on both sides, Jewish communities straddling the 1949 Armistice Lines like Betar Illit, Maale Adumim, and Modi'in Illit will remain a part of Israel in any peace deal; the current Israeli government will not surrender Jerusalem to the Palestinian Arabs; and Netanyahu has called for a multi-year Israeli security presence in the Jordan Valley.  90 days of further negotiations will not change these realities after nearly 20 years of Palestinian intransigence and terror.  Israel knows this; the Palestinians know it; and the Obama administration is quickly losing any illusions it may have had otherwise.

Only Douglas Hamilton and the other cheerleaders at Reuters continue to rattle their Palestinian pom-poms.

Omissions and distortions

On Wednesday of this week, there was a non-violent demonstration by a small group of Israeli Jews in the predominantly Israeli Arab community of Umm El-Fahm to protest against the Islamist movement in the country led by cleric Raad Salah.  As we've noted many times, Reuters regularly distorts or withholds information from its readers which, while contextually vital to an understanding of the story, reflects poorly on the Palestinian Arabs.  Douglas Hamilton's piece on the demonstration in Umm El-Fahm and associated violence by local Arabs represents another such example of Reuters skewed reporting.

Hamilton refers to the Jewish marchers with the pejorative label "ultranationalist" while sanitizing Salah and his activities by writing merely that he was:

jailed by an Israeli court for disorderly conduct and assault after scuffles with police who confronted protesters during engineering work near at Jerusalem's al-Aqsa mosque, Islam's third holiest site in 2007.

There is no mention of Salah's extraordinarily vile history of incitement against Jews and the state of Israel.  In a sermon in 2007 for example, Salah told his Palestinian worshipers:

"They [the Jews] want to build their temple at a time when our blood is on their clothes, on their doorsteps, in their food and in their drinks. Our blood has passed from one 'general terrorist' to another 'general terrorist'... We are not those who ate bread dipped in children's blood."

Furnished with a more forthcoming account of the historical record, readers would have substantially greater insight into the rationale for the protest against Salah.

Hamilton also plays down Arab violence that accompanied the Jewish demonstration:

Israeli police on Wednesday fired tear gas and stun grenades to disperse Arabs who were protesting against a rally by ultranationalist Jews in an Israeli-Arab town. 

Riot police, some on horseback, charged about 200 Arabs who threw stones at them before retreating, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said. Ten masked Arabs were arrested.

Note how Hamilton obfuscates cause and effect, leading readers to believe that Israeli police initially assaulted Arab "protesters" who only then responded with stone-throwing.  This is not merely an inversion of reality, it is a willful perversion of the statement by Micky Rosenfeld who actually said:

“As soon as stones were thrown and policemen were attacked, officers responded, firing stun grenades and tear gas at the rioters. We can confirm that 10 masked suspects were arrested,” Rosenfeld said.

Along the way, Hamilton quotes Israeli Arab residents and MPs rationalizing Arab violence:

Ahmed Tibi, an Arab legislator in Israel's parliament, said the anger displayed by Umm el-Fahm residents was understandable. 

"The unified position of the people of Umm al-Fahm was to repel those (ultranationalists) and the reaction was a natural one to this incursion by the security forces," Tibi said.

While failing to mention that, as a reflection of Israeli democracy, the demonstration by the Jewish group was formally approved by the leftist High Court of Israel.

The one-armed bandit strikes again

In a story of suspected vandalism to a mosque in Judea and Samaria (the "West Bank"), Reuters correspondent Douglas Hamilton flashes lights and rings bells when Jews are alleged to have engaged in activities deemed threatening to the peace process:

BEIT FAJJAR, West Bank (Reuters) - Palestinians accused Jewish settlers of setting fire to a West Bank mosque on Monday, an incident that coincided with U.S. efforts to rescue peace talks halted by a dispute over settlement building...

It was the fourth time since December that a mosque in the occupied West Bank had been vandalised in attacks Palestinians blamed on settlers.

An increase in violence could complicate U.S.-led efforts to prevent the collapse of peace efforts which Washington hopes will resolve all major issues in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict within a year.

The peace drive was plunged into crisis last week when a 10-month Israeli moratorium on housing starts in West Bank settlements expired and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu resisted U.S. and international pressure to extend it.

The Palestinian leadership said Saturday the negotiations, which began on September 2, could not resume until Israel halted settlement construction completely...

Commenting on the mosque fire, Mohammad Hussein, the Palestinian mufti of Jerusalem, said settlers aimed to increase tension and "push matters to the edge of the precipice."...

Organizations that monitor human rights in the West Bank say attacks by settlers on Palestinians and their property tend to increase when there is a perceived risk to the settlements...

In April, settlers were accused of spraying graffiti on the walls of a mosque in Hawara and, in December, carpets and Korans were burnt in Yasuf. No charges were brought in the incidents.

While we don't apologize for violence or incitement committed by either of the two belligerents in this conflict, we note that whereas Hamilton and Reuters see fit to expend much line space on Jewish transgressions and obduracy, he and his agency are apparently blind, deaf and dumb to the same on the Palestinian side.  Thus:

In the first week of September, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas asserted that he would not make a single concession in negotiations with Israel.  No report by Reuters.

In a documentary broadcast on Palestinian television during the religious holiday of Rosh Hashanah, Jewish worship at the Western Wall in Jerusalem was labeled "sin and filth".  No report by Reuters. 

On September 15th 2010, Palestinians fired nine mortars into Israel, two of which contained phosphorus.  No report by Reuters.

On September 19th 2010, the Palestinian Authority affirmed the death penalty for any Palestinian selling land to a Jew.  No report by Reuters.

On September 22nd 2010, Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad rejected the concept of "two states for two peoples".  No report by Reuters.

On September 25th 2010, Arab rioters attacked Jewish residents with a Molotov cocktail, burned down a house, and attempted to set fire to a nearby forest.  No report by Reuters.

Blatant one-sided reporting is a powerful propaganda technique known as card stacking.  It also represents a violation of the Reuters Trust Principles and Handbook of Journalism.

Something to think about the next time the one-armed bandit takes your quarter.

The one-armed bandit

In a story on the latest attempt to break the blockade at sea, Reuters correspondent Douglas Hamilton embraces and disseminates as fact, the notion that the Palestinian population in Gaza is suffering and seeks to associate that suffering with Israel's blockade.  On the other hand, Hamilton conveys his skepticism that Israel maintains a naval blockade to prevent Hamas from rearming.  Note the distinct rhetorical handling:

The group of nine activists -- from Israel, Britain, Germany and the United States -- set sail from Cyprus on Sunday, intent on defying the Israeli blockade of Gaza and highlighting the suffering of Palestinians who live in the territory...

But Israel maintains the naval blockade in what it says is an effort to stop arms being smuggled to the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, which has controlled the Gaza Strip since 2007.

For Hamilton, the state of affairs in Gaza (wholesale suffering), the agent responsible for that state of affairs (Israel), and the good intentions of the protagonist (activists) are a given.

Conversely, the state of affairs in Israel (thousands of residents suffering more than 8,000 Palestinian rockets and mortars fired into the country from Gaza), and Israel's intention to protect its people from these attacks, do not merit mention.

Douglas Hamilton dons his Sherlock Holmes cap

Arabs are killing Jews again and Reuters correspondent Douglas Hamilton is simply shocked that Hamas would enable the attacks:

Hamas's armed wing, Izz el-Deen al-Qassam, said in a statement it took "full responsibility for the heroic operation in Hebron."

Its claim confounded recent Hamas signals that it would deter militants from resuming attacks on Israel of the sort that triggered the Jewish state's military assault of the winter of 2008-09 in which 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis were killed.

We noted yesterday that Hamas had promised a new war against Israel so today's terror attack should come as no surprise to anyone.  Notwithstanding, Hamilton does his level best to confuse readers on culpability for the attack with this tortured bit of circular reasoning from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas:

Abbas said the Highway 60 attack "cannot be considered an act of resistance after Hamas itself has stopped resistance from the Gaza Strip and gone after those who carry it out."

Following which, Hamilton plays Holmes and chases the red herring:

This opened the question of who authorised the killings, and whether Hamas was united behind the attack or was now divided.

Because there is always another front group in an endless stream of front groups for Reuters to blame rather than hold the Palestinians to account for their open hostility to coexistence with the Jews.

Hamilton then repeats the same bit of rhetorical legerdemain deployed by his colleague Tom Perry yesterday:

Tuesday's attack was the most lethal in the West Bank in four years, the army said. In a Palestinian uprising from 2000 to 2007, some 540 Israelis were killed in suicide bomb attacks and more than 4,000 Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces.

As we noted, more than double that number of Israelis were killed when all means of terror attacks are included.  Hamilton is clearly more Shyster than Sherlock.