Tues. 3 May 2011 @ 10.39 - Widespread coverage of comments by Hamas leader condemning US action and lauding 9/11 mastermind. Ismail Haniyeh, head of the Hamas government in Gaza, responded angrily to news that Osama bin Laden has been assassinated in Pakistan. According to the initial Reuters report, Haniyeh stated at a press conference that bin Laden's death represented: 'a continuation of the American policy based on oppression and the shedding of Muslim and Arab blood.' Furthermore, while he 'noted doctrinal differences' between Hamas and al Qaeda, he nonetheless praised bin Laden as a 'holy warrior': 'We condemn the assassination and the killing of an Arab holy warrior. We ask God to offer him mercy with the true believers and the martyrs.' On Friday a number of editorials appeared across the British press in reaction to the reconciliation deal announced by Fatah and Hamas on 27 April. While the exact details of the agreement have yet to be released, a number of newspapers provided comment on this surprising move by the two main Palestinian rivals. Both The Guardian and The Independent welcomed the deal, and were particularly critical of the Israeli response to the announcement. In contrast, The Times and the Financial Times reacted much more cautiously, demonstrating sensitivity to Israel's security concerns and explaining how the reconciliation will be fraught with problems. The Guardian's 'Fatah and Hamas: Tectonic plates start to shift' demonstrated clearly that despite the revolutions and unrest that have swept the Middle East in recent months, the publication still views the Israel-Palestine conflict as 'the core issue of the region'. The editorial quickly strove to give The Guardian credit for the newly announced deal. It stated that the first of the 'chief reasons' why Fatah 'acceded to all of Hamas's political conditions' was the release of the Palestine papers - leaked by al-Jazeera and The Guardian in January - after which 'the Palestinian Authority found itself haemorrhaging what little authority it had left'. The actual impact of this leak has been questioned in many quarters, including by Just Journalism. Tues. 3 May 2011 @ 15.24 - Print edition of the broadsheet includes comment piece by Hamas-affiliated academic who supports suicide-attacks against Israel. Monday's edition of The Guardian carried an opinion piece by Dr Azzam Tamimi on the implications of revolts across the Middle East for the Palestinians. The article references his cordial relationships with top figures in Hamas, and welcomes the prospect of future Arab democracies being invariably 'anti-Israel'. 'Our freedom is now closer' argues that 'the Arab revolutions are the best news the Palestinians have had for decades', with Tamimi opening with an account of a recent meeting with his 'old friend', Hamas leader Khaled Meshal: 'Soon after the fall of Hosni Mubarak I visited my old friend, the Hamas leader Khalid Mish'al, in Damascus. He told me he was sure the change in Egypt, which he expected would be followed by similar changes in other Arab countries, meant that it would not be too long before Palestine was free.' Just Journalism spokesperson Michael Weiss writes in The Daily Telegraph on the death of Osama bin Laden and the relationship between the US and P May 2 2011 Look at this map. Osama bin Laden was found just a drill sergeant's bark away from the Pakistan Military Academy. His hideout is at point (A); the PMA - Pakistan's equivalent of Sandhurst or West Point - is marked by the red dot in the bottom corner. The fact that bin Laden was killed in Abbottabad by a joint Navy SEAL-CIA operation should be cause for global joy, but also for American concern. The unlamented corpse of this would-be Caliph was dragged not out of some fortified cave in Waziristan, but out of a mansion in a city that's home to one of Pakistan's largest garrisons.
May 3, 2011 The Wire Hamas in Gaza: Osama bin Laden was a 'holy warrior'
Media Analysis Editorials split over meaning behind Fatah-Hamas deal
The Wire Guardian offers platform to Hamas spokesperson who believes Israel is a 'cancer'
Op-eds and features Osama bin Laden is dead, but how should America deal with Pakistan?
akistan.
Tuesday, 3 May 2011
Posts
