Over at Hot Air on Tuesday night, Mary Katharine Ham pointed to a headline at the New York Times, present at its web home page as well as at the story itself, which equally blames Hamas and Israel for the end of their cease-fire: "Rockets From Gaza and Israeli Response Break Cease-Fire." Someone needs to tell Isabel Kershner and Jodi Rudoren that it's the "rockets from Gaza" which broke the cease-fire.
There's a bigger problem with the story, and with establishment press coverage of the conflict in general during the past 36 hours, namely that virtually everyone is ignoring a Monday blockbuster report at the Jerusalem Post presenting compelling evidence that Hamas intended to overthrow the Palestinian government and its President, Mahmoud Abbas, in conjunction with its attacks on Israel (Shin Bet is Israel's internal security service; bolds are mine):
Hamas in West Bank 'planned to topple Palestinian Authority'
Shin Bet, IDF say plot was orchestrated by Hamas overseas headquarters located in Turkey, and centered on a string of mass casualty terror attacks.
A large-scale Hamas terrorist formation in the West Bank and Jerusalem planned to destabilize the region through a series of deadly terrorist attacks in Israel and then topple the Fatah-ruled Palestinian Authority, the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) said Monday.
... The plot was orchestrated by overseas Hamas operatives headquartered in Turkey and centered on a string of mass-casualty terrorist attacks on Israeli targets, the Shin Bet added.
The end goal was to destabilize the Palestinian territories and use the instability to carry out a military coup, overthrowing the government of PA President Mahmoud Abbas.
The Hamas infrastructure relied on support from cells in neighboring Jordan and on couriers who delivered funding that totaled at least NIS 2 million.
This was used to purchase weapons and homes that were used as hideouts, according to the investigation.
There are 93 Hamas members in Israeli custody, of whom 46 have been questioned by the Shin Bet so far. Security forces plan to indict some 70 suspects.
... “This infrastructure stretched from Jenin in the North to Hebron in the South.
It is one of the biggest we’ve seen in Judea and Samaria since Hamas’s formation in 1987,” a senior Shin Bet source, responsible for securing the Jerusalem district, told reporters on Monday. “They planned to carry out a coup and topple the Palestinian Authority,” he added.
... Aruri’s plan intended to carry out a number of major terrorist attacks in Israel, to cause sufficient instability to facilitate a Hamas coup.
Kershner's and Rudoren's coverage at the Times acts as if news of the alleged plot doesn't exist:
Buoyed in the Palestinian public for having achieved more militarily than in previous violent exchanges with Israel, Hamas is nonetheless under extreme pressure to deliver a tangible change to daily life in Gaza. During the war, the rising death toll put pressure on Israel. But during the cease-fire Hamas finds itself with diminished leverage, and so has resorted to threatening and provoking Israel.
It sent a flurry of rockets that reached Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, and on Monday the group’s armed wing even invited a Reuters crew inside a tunnel like the ones through which it repeatedly attacked Israeli soldiers last month, showing off masked gunmen talking tough.
... The Palestinian delegation had called for a complete lifting of what it calls Israel’s siege on Gaza, the reopening of border crossings into Egypt and Israel and the building of a seaport and revival of an old airport in the crowded coastal territory. Israel demanded the demilitarization of Gaza with strict international controls to prevent the rebuilding of tunnels its troops just destroyed.
Of course, with Hamas maintaining tight control over media coverage, the Palestinian people will probably never know that the terrorists in their midst planned to create a state completely under their iron grip.
A search at 11:40 p.m. EDT at the Associated Press's national site on "Hamas coup" (not in quotes) returned no results. A now-dead link at the Buffalo News would seem to indicate that the AP had an earlier story on the topic (URL: http://www.buffalonews.com/associated-press/2014-14-08/Israel-says-Hamas-West-Bank-coup-attempt-thwarted), but that it's no longer on the wire service's feed. It should be obvious that such a story should have had far more staying power and presence.
A Google News search on "Hamas coup" (not in quotes; sorted by date) returned 86 results, including the dead Buffalo News link. Precious few are from U.S. establishment press outlets. One item at the Marietta, Georgia Daily Journal is from the AP. That story finally got around to mentioning the alleged coup in Paragraph 17. The story has little web presence.
Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.
