IN THE MEDIA

1. Saturday's NYT featured a front-page story from Gaza by Steven Erlanger, "Palestinian Ballot Presents Quandary for Hamas." It described the origins of the late Yasir Arafat's terrorist group Fatah: "Fatah was founded by Mr. Arafat. The name means 'conquest,' and is a reverse acronym for the Movement for the National Liberation of Palestine. It has a nationalist rather than Islamist foundation, with the stated goal of an end to Israeli occupation of the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, leading to Israeli and Palestinian states side by side."

Erlanger should have pointed out that the Israeli "occupation" was not the catalyst for the forming of Fatah, as that paragraph may imply. It couldn't have been, since Arafat founded Fatah back in 1959 and it committed its first terrorist attack on New Years Day, 1965, two years before the 1967 War and the resulting "occupation."

Maybe if Erlanger had read Fatah's Constitution he wouldn't have been so quick to state that their goal is "Israeli and Palestinan states side by side." Articles 12 and 19 are especially pertinent:

Article (12) Complete liberation of Palestine, and eradication of Zionist economic, political, military and cultural existence.
...
Article (19) Armed struggle is a strategy and not a tactic, and the Palestinian Arab People’s armed revolution is a decisive factor in the liberation fight and in uprooting the Zionist existence, and this struggle will not cease unless the Zionist state is demolished and Palestine is completely liberated.

For the rest of Erlanger's story, click here.

2. Bay-area pro-Israel activists BlueStarPR published a poster recognizing the fact that Israel, unlike most Arab nations, grants the vote to Arab women. They received a harsh response from one Arlene Eisen, published as the lead story ('This Poster Lies') in the San Francisco Bayview, the city's award-winning African American paper. BlueStarPR responds with talking points.

3. The Chicago Daily Herald apologized for botching a look back at people who died in 2004, after they lumped Hamas founder Ahmed Yassin and Achille Lauro mastermind Abu Abbas together with others under the headline, “Enriched Our Lives.”

4. Newsday wished “Rest in Peace” to Yasser Arafat.

5. CNN featured a list by Reuters of world contributions to tsunami victims. Once again, Israeli aid to Southeast Asia was omitted.

6. According to IMRA the Saudi news service reported the truth, while the Palestinian news service simply lied, regarding the death of a young Palestinian girl last weekend:

Saudi Press Agency: 'Palestinian Girl Killed in Gaza Explosion'
A ten-year-old Palestinian girl was killed Saturday when an explosion ripped through her home in Jebaliya in northern Gaza. Residents said Ibtihal Abu Daher was killed when a Palestinian rocket inadvertently hit her house.

PA Information Service: 'Palestinian Girl Killed by Israeli Troops'
Ibtihal Abu Daher, a 10-year-old girl from Jebaliya, was killed this morning by Israeli troops.

7. If you're keeping track of Palestinian media intimidation, AP reported that the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade kidnapped two Spanish reporters in Gaza, holding them for 90 minutes before PA security officials negotiated their freedom. The speedy release--on the day before the Palestinian presidential elections--should come as no surprise though. The Brigades was created by the Fatah movement, which is the largest faction in the PLO, whose chairman is none other than Mahmoud Abbas.