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06 Jan 2009 09:34 pm

The Reality Of War, Ctd.

Jeffrey Goldberg makes an important point:

One story the media isn't telling, because it's impossible to get this story in these circumstances (especially because Israel stupidly won't allow foreign reporters into Gaza) is how much resentment the Hamas policy of using Palestinians as human shields causes among Gaza civilians. Early reports indicate that Hamas mortar teams were firing from the UN School. This shouldn't surprise anyone.

One more thing, speaking of pornography -- we've all seen endless pictures of dead Palestinian children now. It's a terrible, ghastly, horrible thing, the deaths of children, and for the parents it doesn't matter if they were killed by accident or by mistake. But ask yourselves this: Why are these pictures so omnipresent? 

I'll tell you why, again from firsthand, and repeated, experience: Hamas (and the Aksa Brigades, and Islamic Jihad, the whole bunch) prevents the burial, or even preparation of the bodies for burial, until the bodies are used as props in the Palestinian Passion Play. Once, in Khan Younis, I actually saw gunmen unwrap a shrouded body, carry it a hundred yards and position it atop a pile of rubble -- and then wait a half-hour until photographers showed. It was one of the more horrible things I've seen in my life. And it's typical of Hamas. If reporters would probe deeper, they'd learn the awful truth of Hamas. But Palestinian moral failings are not of great interest to many people.

I cite Jeffrey with the photograph above because a) the abuse of dead bodies by Hamas is another variant of their disgusting radicalism, b) Hamas does stage photographs, c) given their military inferiority, these photographs are also in some ways a weapon. The photograph was taken by Thair Hasani. Hasani is a Getty photographer and it is part of a series that certainly looks legit. But I cannot vouch for its authenticity, and I doubt that's possible given the restrictions on reporting from Gaza. Nonetheless, this girl is dead and buried. She is a human being.

(Photo: Palestinians evacuate the dead body of a child from in the rubble of a four story house that collapsed when struck by an Israeli air strike on January. 6, 2009 in Gaza City, Gaza Strip. By Thair Hasani/Getty.)

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