Our friend David Rutz at the Washington Free Beacon found a frustrating/fascinating Tuesday report by NPR Morning Edition anchor Steve Inskeep in Gaza. He softly interviewed a 19-year-old Palestinian with a swastika kite. Inskeep said "they use it to discredit you," and the man responds "We want to burn them" (the Jews). If Inskeep were interviewing a 19-year-old neo-Nazi in Charlottesville with a swastika kite, it would probably be a slightly meaner interview than this gentle exchange:
STEVE INSKEEP: We've also encountered Ahmed al-Bordani (ph), who is 19 years old, and when we saw him, was holding a homemade white kite. Would you describe what that is?
AHMED AL-BORDANI: (Through interpreter) This is a kite that's going to go to the Jews.
INSKEEP: He said it's designed to float over the Israelis and catch fire. It was decorated with writing claiming Jerusalem for Palestinians and also with swastikas. What does this thing mean to you? Why do you put that on there?
AL-BORDANI: (Through interpreter) The Jews go crazy for Hitler when they see it.
INSKEEP: The Israelis know that people are flying kites with swastikas. They know this, and they use it to discredit you, to say this shows you're bad people. What do you think about that?
AL-BORDANI: (Foreign language spoken).
INSKEEP: "This is actually what we want them to know," he says, "that we want to burn them." That is one of many views we've heard in the last few days in Gaza, where at least 60 people were killed yesterday in protests.
On taxpayer-supported NPR, the anchors furrow their brows with concern that anti-Semitic Muslim radicals that want to “burn” the Jews might be “discredited” as “bad people” by the Israelis. Inskeep would never stoop to commiserating with a white supremacist in Indiana that they might be miscast as terrible with their use of swastikas.
Inskeep didn't examine the hatred at the middle of Hamas. He turned it right around to objectionable Israel, asking his NPR translator: "How has the Israeli military defended its use of force here, Daniel Estrin? We're talking about the deadliest day at the end of six weeks of very deadly protests."
Inskeep interviewed the Israeli side, but peppered them with Hamas talking points. He didn't hammer the Hamas teenager with Israeli talking points. On Tuesday's All Things Considered, he asked David Friedman, America's ambassador to Israel: "Has Israel used an appropriate amount of force? Dozens of people have been killed."
On Wednesday morning, it was an Israeli Defense Forces spokesman:
I'd like to read you a quote from Doctors Without Borders, put out after yesterday's violence. The quote is, "it is unbearable to watch such a massive number of unarmed people being shot." Why have so many people who appear to have been unarmed been shot?
Inskeep knows what Hamas believes, and why it makes peace with Israel impossible. He asked a Hamas spokesman about it:
INSKEEP: They say, we must use strong measures against Hamas because Hamas wishes to eliminate Israel. When Israel says that, is it a lie?
ISMAIL RADWAN, HAMAS: (Foreign language spoken).
INSKEEP: He said, that's just anti-Palestinian propaganda but later added it was essentially true.
RADWAN: (Through interpreter) Now, to go to the recognition, Hamas does not recognize the Zionist entity because it's an occupation.
INSKEEP: This view has given Israel reason not to deal with Hamas, instead cracking down on Gaza. Now thousands of Gazans were preparing to push back.
