The Washington Post likes to say “democracy dies in darkness,” but after a Monday article written by Jerusalem Bureau Chief Steve Hendrix they may want to update their slogan to "democracy dies in terrorism" or “terrorism lives in the World section.”
The main subject of the profile is a man referred only to a Zoufi, “the commander of the [Nablus’s Balata refugee camp] camp’s branch of al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade. which is listed as a terrorist group by Israel and the United States. He founded the armed militant cell just over a year ago as Israeli military raids spiked across the West Bank.”
It is listed as a terrorist organization because it is. The wider organization is responsible for suicide bombings at Israeli bus stops and sandwich shops, but you would never know that if you only read the Washington Post profile.
The piece comes amid “the worst violence to grip the West Bank in decades.” After recalling “more than 150 Palestinians have killed since January,” that “at least 22 Israelis have died in shootings, stabbings, car rammings and other attacks by Palestinians,” and the Israeli “show of force” in Jenin, Hendrix continued to refer to terrorist organizations as simple cells:
Israel says the raids are essential for breaking up terrorist cells and protecting Israeli citizens. As the mayhem has spread, though, hundreds of Palestinians like Zoufi have jumped into the fight. Some are aligned with organized cells — al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, Hamas, the Iran-backed Islamic Jihad. Others act alone or with loosely organized groups such as the Lions’ Den in Nablus.
The man worthy of a Washington Post profile, “was active in the second intifada as a teenager and served more than six years in Israel’s Megiddo Prison for shooting and wounding a Jewish settler. He was released in 2008 and joined a branch of the Palestinian Authority security services for several years.”
In more context-free promotion for this terrorist, Hendrix writes, “He and five friends began offering logistical support to fighters at the end of 2022 as IDF raids heated up. They started wielding their own weapons as a formal unit after a major Israeli incursion into Nablus in February that killed 11, including someone close to Zoufi.”
Readers have to click on a link to find out the “incursion” was a preemptive raid to thwart a terrorist attack. However, subtle hints that Nablus wasn’t just a random bit of IDF violence were include in the story of Ammar, who “as shot multiple times during a shootout with Israeli soldiers outside the Elon Moreh settlement near Nablus in April but managed to escape. Two of his fellow gunmen were killed.”
While the Post goes after the “far-right” Israeli government led by Prime Minister Benjamin in the harshest possible terms, terrorists get much softer treatment, “Most of the fighters said they are focused on defense, shooting back at Israeli forces that enter the camps. But several said Jewish settlers in the West Bank also are considered fair targets.”
Outside of the West Bank, “They spoke admiringly of gunmen who ambushed Israeli civilians, including an attack last year outside a Tel Aviv pub that killed three Israelis and a mass shooting at a West Bank gas station that left four Israelis dead in June.”
A nameless terrorist added, “There are no innocent Israelis,” said a Jenin-based fighter who knew the Tel Aviv shooter. “They kill our women and children. We will do the same.” The piece concludes with a final quote from somebody known as Goblin “we are tomorrow’s martyrs.”
And the Washington Post will somehow still manage to blame Israel for why there’s no peace.
