Vowing to destroy Israel, Hamas paraded some 2,000 of its armed fighters and truck-mounted rockets through Gaza on Sunday, marking its 27th anniversary with its biggest show of force since the end of the Gaza war this summer.

Reuters managed to make that the lede. And they found room to put this information pretty high up:

At the parade, a senior Hamas leader reaffirmed the Islamist movement’s founding charter’s pledge to destroy Israel.

“This illusion called Israel will be removed. It will be removed at the hands of the Qassam Brigades,” said Khalil al-Hayya, a top Hamas leader, referring to the movement’s armed wing.

The AP didn’t so much as mention the calls for Israel’s destruction. Its lede was quite different from Reuters.

The Islamic militant group Hamas displayed rockets and other heavy weapons Sunday during a rally marking the 27th anniversary of its founding.

This is the most they could muster, eight paragraphs down:

With Sunday’s weapons display, Hamas appeared to be sending a message to both Israel and the residents of Gaza that another round of fighting is an option.

And then, in the very last paragraph, the AP decided it might mention something about the calls to destroy Israel. Maybe.

The man in the recording identified as Deif said, “We will return to them (Israelis) with fighters that they cannot fight and will drive them out … God willing.”

The AP continues to deny that it whitewashes the news for the Palestinians. I think we can judge for ourselves whether or not that is true.

The McClatchy article is particularly heinous. Gee, the poor Palestinian terrorists. They go and kidnap three teenagers, and they might have to suffer for it.

The bodies of three Israeli teenagers missing for more than two weeks in the West Bank were found Monday, setting off a massive manhunt for the kidnappers.

The discovery raised immediate fears of retaliation by Jewish settlers and a tough response by the Israeli military. The Israeli security cabinet was called into urgent session to discuss possible reactions.

A tour of the Reuters article shows many weasel words. Reuters is still going with the pretense that there’s no proof it was Hamas, even after Israel released the proof that Hamas members abducted the boys.

Israeli forces found the bodies of three missing teenagers in the occupied West Bank on Monday after a nearly three-week-long search and a sweep against the Islamist Hamas group that Israel says abducted them.

There are also slams at Bibi.

Netanyahu seized on the abduction to demand Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas abrogate a reconciliation deal he reached with Hamas, his long-time rival, in April that led to a unity Palestinian government on June 2.

Because, gee, partnering with Hamas, which has been declared a terrorist group by the U.S. and the EU, should be ignored.

And of course, Reuters must end with its boilerplate “they’re not really that bad” bullshit:

Hamas, which has maintained security control of the Gaza Strip since the unity deal, is shunned by the West over its refusal to renounce violence. The group has called for Israel’s destruction, although various officials have at times indicated a willingness to negotiate a long-term ceasefire.

Right.

Last, but not least, we have ABC backing up Hamas denials.

Hamas, the Palestinian militant group accused by Israel of taking the boys, has denied kidnapping the teens, though senior Israeli and Palestinian officials agree that the abductors were likely tied to — or part of — Hamas but operating without orders from the organization’s leadership.

Your unbiased media in action.

Meantime, Israel is clamping down on Hamas prisoners’ amenties. Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch said that Hamas must understand that kidnapping doesn’t pay. 51 Hamas prisoners released in the Gilad Shalit deal were re-arrested and will be imprisoned.

Reuters is noticing the clampdown, but of course, it must insert weasel words questioning anything the IDF does.

Israel showed photographs of what it said were hundreds of weapons, including guns, seized at some of the detainees’ homes.

Even as Mahmoud Abbas’ wife receives surgery in Israel, Palestinians are teaching their children to celebrate the kidnapping of Israeli children by giving a three-fingered salute and posting pictures on social media. Despicable. This is why there will never be peace. Israel teaches her children that they must treat everyone with dignity. The Palestinians teach their children to hate Jews.

Keep up the pressure, Israel.

“As long as our boys remain abducted, Hamas will feel pursued, paralyzed and threatened,” said Lieutenant Peter Lerner, a senior IDF spokesman.

Don’t give in again. The Gilad Shalit deal, and the many deals before it, made this kidnapping possible.

Israel is targeting terrorists in Gaza because they’re using the current crisis to lob more rockets at southern Israel.

Benjamin Netanyahu spoke to Mahmoud Abbas, telling him he expects his help in bringing back the kidnapped teens. Yeah, good luck with that. The only thing that will get the boys back is strong-arming Hamas.

And of course, no story like this would be complete without the AP anti-Israel bias.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has alleged that Hamas carried out the kidnappings, but provided no evidence. He has also held Abbas responsible for the fate of the teens and alleged the unity government created the atmosphere for the kidnappings.

The AP constantly treats Palestinian allegations as etched in stone, and constantly demands evidence from Israel over the obvious. See above.

I pray for the safe return of the boys. But I’m not very hopeful that they will be found, instead of traded for.

The result? The new Palestinian partner kidnapped three Israeli boys. Why? Because they got over 1,000 terrorists released for Gilad Shalit–and many of those terrorists were convicted murderers.

The IDF has surrounded Hebron and arrested over 80 Palestinians. They’ve called in more military to help find the boys. And they’re working with Egypt to shut down the Sinai so the boys can’t be transferred to Gaza–like Gilad Shalit. The IDF is pretty sure they’re still in the West Bank.

Here’s hoping this is Egypt’s Lebanon moment, without the war that followed the deaths of Israeli soldiers. And without the deaths. I think it’s likely the boys are still alive. They’re worth more to Hamas that way.

The media, of course, is skeptical that it’s Hamas, doing what only the anti-Israel media can do. Palestinian teenagers are always “youths”, remember, if not flat-out “children“. Reuters goes out of its way to call one of the Israelis an adult.

The two 16-year-olds and a third man aged 19 disappeared on Thursday night in the West Bank, where they were seminary students in a Jewish settlement.

Well, at least Bloomberg has a fairly balanced report.

Pray for the safe return of the boys. And the firing of the idiot police officer who did not take action until hours after one of the fathers came to tell him his son had disappeared.

Well, yes: Israeli Cabinent ministers are saying that the Hamas-Fatah unity deal shows that the Palestinians don’t want peace. Gee, what gave it away? Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal saying that “resistance” (read: Terror attacks) will continue even after the unity deal?

That’s gotta hurt: It wasn’t a World Cup match, but the U.S. beat Turkey in a friendly game. Oh, the shame, the shame!

Fighting back: Nigerian Christians had about as much as they could take. They went after a group of Boko Haram attackers and killed 37 of them. More, please.

You won’t read this in the MSM: Say, you know those regular riots on the Temple Mount? Apparently, it’s a career choice for Palestinians.

Hamas uses the Islamic Movement to transfer money to projects in Jerusalem, such as paying for Arab youths to remain constantly on the Temple Mount in the guise of religious students in order to prevent Jewish pilgrimage to the holy site, Toama told the Shin Bet.

Hamas pays the youths a permanent salary of NIS 4,000-5,000 each month. Toama added that Hamas keeps its ties with the Islamic Movement secret in order to prevent the movement from entanglements with Israeli authorities.

The Islamic Movement’s leader is Sheikh Raed Salah, who recently got out of jail. Send him back.

Of course they are: The Palestinians were quick to jump on John Kerry’s new pet word–apartheid–to describe Israel. But then, Saeb Erekat is a master propagandist and liar. (Ha’aretz link, so if you’re not a subscriber you’ll only get the first paragraph. I am not a subscriber and never will be.)

The truth is out there: Even though Reuters is publishing the truth, the media will still lie about the Palestinian unity deal. It’s a sham, and terror leader Mahmoud al-Zahar is happy to tell us. Because he knows that the U.S., the EU, the UN, and the Western media will all ignore the inconvenient facts.

A Palestinian unity deal will not lead Islamist group Hamas to recognize Israel’s right to exist and will not result in any Gaza militants coming under President Mahmoud Abbas’s control, a senior Hamas official said on Tuesday.

They could photograph the Hamas leadership dancing on top of murdered Israeli civilians, and the world would still insist that the Israelis talk to them.

Let’s see what the author has to say.

Israel’s approach rests on two assumptions: that Mr. Abbas, who is also leader of Fatah, could enforce a peace deal without reconciling with Hamas; and that Hamas would never give up its stated intention to destroy Israel. Both may need rethinking.

Really? Israel needs to rethink its stance on Hamas? Why is that, because Hamas is going to give up its stated goal of the destruction of Israel?

Hamas, also known as the Islamic Resistance Movement, still adheres to its founding charter, which declares itself a link in the long chain of jihad against the “Zionist occupation.” It states that liberating Palestine is a religious obligation for every Muslim, and that giving up any part of Palestine would be tantamount to giving up their faith.

Oh, so it’s not going to give up trying to destroy Israel? Wait, I sense a “but” coming on.

But the organization has evolved considerably since its founding in 1987. Today it includes factions which are considerably more pragmatic.

While some remain committed to violence, other factions have moderated, especially since winning elections in 2006 and finding themselves facing the challenge of governance, not just resistance. After two devastating conflicts with Israel in 2009 and 2012, Hamas has tried to keep a lid on other militant groups sending rockets into Israel.

Note the lack of context here. Why is Hamas keeping a lid on terrorists rocketing Israel? Because Israel has told Hamas flat-out that if the rockets don’t stop, Israel will go back into Gaza and make them stop. Also, that supposed lid? Not working so much.

Now we go back to the historic “moderating” statements, where the reporter takes years-old statements by Hamas that indicated they might be willing to settle for a truce with Israel–statements which always, always were negated by Hamas the very same day–and pretend they’re still valid, and proof of moderation. Note also that they’re passing along the lie of the Palestinians only receiving 22 percent of what the UN had laid out for the Palestinian state. Jordan was part of the state. It did not exist as a nation until quite recently. But the Brits had to have somewhere to settle the Hashemite kings after they gave Arabia to the Sauds. (And thank you, Britain, for what is now the Wahabbi scourge of the world.)

And in 2009 and 2010, leaders indicated a willingness to settle for a Palestinian state within 1967 lines – only 22 percent of the territory framed by the Lebanon border, the Jordan river, the Egyptian border, and the Mediterranean Sea.

Note that the reporter utterly ignores the many statements by Hamas since 2010 where they insist they will never recognize Israel. Some are quite recent. From January of this year, in fact. One would think that reporters of Israeli events might, you know, keep an eye on the Israeli papers for news like this.

Hamas announced on Tuesday that it would never accept the two-state solution or give up “one inch of the land of Palestine.”

Its announcement came in response to statements attributed to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to the effect that the Islamist movement had “authorized” him to agree to the establishment of a Palestinian state along the pre-1967 lines.

The CSM reporter is being disingenuous, cherry-picking statements that support her argument and ignoring those that do not. Because the second half of Hamas agreeing to settle for a Palestinian state within the 1949 Armistice lines is always this:

The Islamist group said that in 2006, all Palestinian factions agreed to the establishment of Palestinian state on the pre- 1967 lines and the return of Palestinian refugees to their homes inside Israel “without recognizing the Zionist entity or its legitimacy on the land of Palestine.”

It added that “resistance in all shapes, first and foremost armed struggle, will remain the only effective way to achieve the goals of the Palestinian people and liberate their land.”

Israel doesn’t need to rethink its strategy on Hamas at all. Reporters need to stop cherry-picking the facts that don’t support the narrative they constantly push–that a terrorist group is willing to renounce terrorism and suddenly get along with the state and people it has sworn to destroy. Let’s not forget the group’s charter, which is anti-Semitic and swears to destroy Israel:

“Israel will exist, and will continue to exist, until Islam abolishes it, as it abolished that which was before it.”

But hey, I’m sure the CSM reporter can find a way to spin that. It’s not like Hamas is serious about its religion or anything.

Shyeah.

Benjamin Netanyahu is telling Mahmoud Abbas to pick his peace partner: Israel or Hamas. Oh, come on. We all know that Abbas is going to pick Hamas. And the world is going to blame Israel for not wanting to deal with the PA while they’re cozying up to the Islamists who want to destroy them.

On the serious side, of course this brings any chance of peace talks to a screeching halt. Hamas wants only the destruction of Israel. (Fatah does too, but they pretend that they don’t, and the West buys it.) But hey, it’s time to play the game again. We really should create a Peace Talks Bingo card. What say you, Elder?

Shorter George R.R. Martin: Hey, I didn’t write the rape scene, I only wrote the incest scene. (eriously, I gave up on Game of Thrones after the third book. Brutal, depressing, overwordy and needlessly violent. Pass. But it amuses me no end that George is distancing himself from the miniseries rewriting of his scene. He didn’t write it as a rape. It was just an incestuous coupling of a brother and sister who hadn’t seen each other in a while–and decided to have sex in the same room where their murdered oldest son lay in his coffin. Because that’s not as bad as writing it as a rape. [insert multiple eye rolls here] Look, he can write what he wants, and people can watch what they want, but I’m going to call them out on the hypocrisy.

“Though the time and place is wildly inappropriate and Cersei is fearful of discovery, she is as hungry for him as he is for her,” Martin wrote on his blog to a reader’s question.

Oh, that’s okay then.