The reporting on Hamas' absurd ceasefire demands can only be described whitewashing a terror group.
As I reported yesterday, Arabic media described the offer in detail. It included bringing things back not only to how they were on October 6, but to improve the ability for Hamas to plan and stage further and deadlier attacks than October 7 even before the hostages are all released.
Their demands included:
- Hamas stays in full control of Gaza (so it can stage attacks in the future)
- No restrictions on imports to Gaza (including weapons) even during the first phase of the swap
- No restrictions on travel to and from Gaza (including terrorists) during the first phase of the swap
- Immediately banning Jews from visiting Judaism's most sacred spot
- 500 of the prisoners to be released would be those with life sentences or other very long terms - meaning, the worst murderers and terrorists must be allowed to go free.
All of these demands (except the release of the worst terrorist prisoners) were to be implemented immediately or during the first phase of the swap while most of the Israeli hostages would not be released until the second phase.
The news media reviewed the same document I did. Yet they ignored nearly everything Hamas demanded outside hostage-for-prisoner swap framework.
Many reports quoted Anthony Blinken as saying that some of Hamas' demands were clearly "non-starters" but no Western media I could find reported on what those non-starters were.
The New York Times characterized Israel's rejection of these terms as "Netanyahu Spurns Hamas Offer for Gaza Cease-Fire." It completely ignored the details I wrote above. And the only "experts" it quoted were a Hamas leader abroad and an Israeli expert who said this is the best Israel will get so it should take the offer.
Reuters wrote a specific article with what it said were the details of the plan - and didn't mention anything listed above.
BBC relied on Reuters to report on the demands, not bothering to use its many Arabic speaking employees to report on the plan directly.
AP didn't report on the details as far as I can tell, and characterized Netanyahu's rejection as a "snub" in its headline.
CNN read Hamas' absurd terms and didn't report on anything I mentioned.
Financial Times and others again ignored the details that shows Hamas' plan is absurd.
Al Jazeera gave a few more details, including the demand for the 500 of the worst terrorists to be released and the ban on Jews on the Temple Mount (" Israeli settlers stop attacking Al-Aqsa Mosque.")
There is clearly a mindset among the mainstream media to soften and whitewash Hamas' image. They are eager to report Netanyahu's demand that Hamas be utterly destroyed as evidence that he is the one who is delusional, but they actively hide Hamas' actual delusional demands.
Hamas' ides of a ceasefire is to make every day October 6, where it can choose to attack at any time for any reason. There is not one word in the Hamas proposal that contradicts Hamas' Ghazi Hamad's statement that Hamas intends to mount October 7-style attacks "again and again" in the future. Good luck finding any Western media outlet that mentions that.
