PrintAugust 24, 2007
A Palestinian Star is Born
Why humanize someone with murder in her heart?
Why take a child who helps inspire untold numbers of kids to kill innocent other kids and try to make her seem like the girl next door?
Just how evil is a society that could raise such children? And why aren't the nations of the supposedly enlightened West and the people of the alleged "religion of peace" doing their utmost to put a stop to this mindset - or at minimum, loudly condemning it?
These were some of the questions I had as I shook my head from side-to-side while reading a recent, widely circulated feature story by Dion Nissenbaum of McClatchy Newspapers.
The focus of Nissenbaum's article is Saraa Barhoum, the young star of an Arab children's show whose former co-star, a costumed-character closely resembling Mickey Mouse, has gotten most of the spotlight.
But for me, the article was more about an American media that has largely spun out of control in its warped determination to make the bad guys and gals of the world seem as if they are just like us - with just a little different outlook, that's all. Also, I was reminded yet again of the media's efforts to sweep under the rug the true intentions of the Muslim terrorists who threaten the U.S. and our allies.
Take the case of Saraa.
Here is how Nissenbaum chose to depict her: wearing
"pink bellbottom jeans ... [t]he afternoon light bounced off the sparkly outlines of butterflies on her frilly top ... ."
The writer goes on to note her "11-year-old face" and later adds that it is a "sweet face."
We are told that she "wants to be a doctor" and exudes an "innocent charm."
Sure, she has not murdered anyone (as best we know), but how many future murders has she motivated, when she should instead be discussing topics that most little girls think about: clothes, music or boys?
Thanks to Nissenbaum, Saraa is almost as famous in America as she is in Gaza and Ramallah. Will she be on the Disney Channel next thanks to his exposure?
Saraa has no-doubt been a prominent cog in the Palestinian-Arab machine that churns out waves of young homicidal maniacs - ticking time-bombs that only they and their handlers know exactly when and where they will detonate.
To be fair, Nissenbaum notes in his piece that the show Saraa stars in, "Tomorrow's Pioneers," is produced by the group Hamas (though he neglects to call them terrorists, even though that is the label our government gives them); that much of her dialogue is "militant rhetoric" and that "she hopes to die for her cause, be it suicide bombing, fighting the Israeli military or some other way."
Nissenbaum adds that the girl would be "proud to be a martyr" but he never describes fully what that means: that to do so would entail taking another's life with a bomb, gun, knife or other means, by, say, detonating oneself aboard a bus, in a mall or at a pizza parlor.
The writer states that Hamas uses shows like "Tomorrow's Pioneers" to "promote its agenda and challenge its rivals" as if it was advocating good dental hygiene while its "rivals" are in favor of rotting teeth.
When Nissenbaum brings in an academic to offer analysis, he merely reports that "Hamas is fighting a political war" to become more popular among Palestinian-Arabs than Fatah - as if they were akin to Democratic and Republican challenges.
But Hamas is a far cry from our "red-state" "blue-state" clashes.
Nissenbaum never informs readers that on a daily basis Hamas dispatches rockets into Israeli city's civilian areas or that it is constantly either planning or carrying out homicide bombings that also target Jewish civilians.
This is the group that the majority of Palestinian-Arabs voted for in their most recent elections, and whom in polls most Palestinian-Arabs say they continue to support. This is also the group that the allegedly "moderate" Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas worked with in a coalition government rather than shun and who America's "friends", the Egyptians, are reportedly trying to again make a part of the Palestinian-Arab government.
As an example of supposedly typical Hamas TV fare, Nissenbaum offers:
"During its decisive June military showdown with Fatah in Gaza, Hamas used its television station to broadcast footage of Fatah leaders joking with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and other Bush administration officials."
He conveniently leaves out the anti-American, anti-Israel and anti-Jewish videos and diatribes.
According to Nissenbaum, only
"...the Israeli government and activists who monitor Palestinian programming accused Hamas of poisoning the minds of young children with the show."
Why he does not seek an academic to affirm this, or point it out himself, only Nissenbaum and his editor know.
What we who follow the unfolding situation know is that there is something very wrong when the mainstream media portrays Hamas and its ilk as mere politicians or takes a real girl as demented as the character Regan in "The Exorcist" and instead likens her to Pippi Longstockings.
It is time for the fiction and fairytales to end. There is no doubt that, with money being fungible, somehow, someway, our tax dollars are funding this poison. Dishonest or misdirecting articles such as Nissenbaum's prevent Americans from learning what our enemies are up to and making sure our leaders combat them.
Steve Feldman is executive director of the Zionist Organization of America's Greater Philadelphia District and hosts "The ZOA Middle East Report" radio show on WNWR Radio in Philadelphia.
