The Western media eats up Khaled Meshal's lies to them

Khaled Meshaal, Hamas' "political" leader in Damascus, was on the Charlie Rose show where he put on a moderate face for his credulous inteviewer:

"We don't have a problem whatsoever with the United States or with American interests," Khaled Meshaal told PBS television in an interview.

"America is a great state, a superpower," he continued.

"But its interest should not be at the expense of the interests of others and the peoples of in the region."

Rose, apparently, did not challenge Meshal on his newfound love of America. If he would have, he could have asked Meshal about something else he said a few years ago, in Arabic, that slightly contradicts his smiling statements to Americans:

AL-YARMOUK CAMP, Syria (Reuters) - Hamas political leader Khaled Meshaal on Monday called for an Arab and Muslim alliance to defeat the United States and Israel.

"Our battle is with two sides, one of them is the strongest power in the world, the United States, and the second is the strongest power in the region (Israel)," he told hundreds of people at the al-Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp near Damascus.

"That is the caliber of the battle. We will not be victorious unless the other side of the battle is Arab and Muslim. All of the Arabs and Muslims," he said at a memorial ceremony for Abdel-Aziz al-Rantissi, the group's Gaza leader assassinated by Israel on Saturday.

The Hamas politburo chief vowed Palestinians would "turn Earth on their heads, God willing."

The Israelis live "in horror...ahead of our response, during it and after it," he said. "Do not worry, there will be a response and resistance will continue, God willing."

"The problem is in us and not in the balance of power...if the (Islamic) nation would fight the same way (Palestinians and Iraqis) are fighting in Rafah, Jenin and Falluja then by God we will defeat both the United States and Israel," he said.

Arab and Muslim people "have a great duty and I do not want to tell them what to do... God will ask Arabs and Muslims what are they doing while the sons of Palestine are doing their duties," he said.

In the same Charlie Rose interview,

The Hamas leader said he did not support violence against civilians and said attacks on Israel would stop once it withdrew to the 1967 borders.

Again, Rose did not challenge Meshal on the obvious contradiction between Meshal's words and Hamas' history of targeting Jewish women and children with suicide bombs, or even between what he told Rose and what he tells others in Arabic:

"We talk to the world in a language it understands, but we won't pretend to be something we're not. Yes, suicide operations in the Green Line anger international public opinion, but you must observe the Palestinian popular mood. We live under occupation and we don't have the traditional tools of warfare.

So which should we believe?

That's a real tough one.

Especially considering that Hamas sent text messages warning Israeli civilians that they have no protection from the Qassams aimed at them, and that Hamas calls all Israeli towns in rocket range "military bases" even when there are no military bases there, and that Hamas loves to release posters showing specifically the civilian houses they are targeting with their rockets.