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Hamas Is Not ‘Militant’: The Media’s ‘Terrorist’ Cover-Up

Hamas terrorists in the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah in January 2017. Photo: Abed Rahim Khatib/ Flash90.

There’s a well-known quote that goes: “One man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter.”

Evidently, many media outlets subscribe to this relativistic worldview. Yet this line is from a novel — a work of fiction — and is of no relevance to the media’s responsibility to relay information to news consumers in an objective manner.

By incessantly referring to Hamas as a militant group (See herehereherehere, and here) the world’s premiere outlets are effectively burying the character, methods of operation, and true goals of the Gaza-based movement that has been officially designated as a terrorist organization by the United States and dozens of other countries around the world.

BBC’s and NYT’s “Terrorist” Blindside

To the casual reader, the issue of accurately describing Hamas could be perceived as a mere matter of semantics. But it became a hot-button topic following the October 7 attack by the terrorist group against Israel. So much so that Israeli President Isaac Herzog blasted the BBC – which refuses to term Hamas as terrorist even though the UK proscribes the group’s military wings as terror organizations.

In his meeting with then-British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, Herzog told the UK premier: “We feel that the way the BBC characterizes Hamas is a distortion of the facts. We are dealing with one of the worst terror organizations in the world…there has to be an outcry so that there will be a correction, and Hamas will be defined as a terror organization.”

The reluctance to call a spade a spade isn’t confined to the British press. The New York Times is another serial offender. A review by HonestReporting of a recent interview with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken found that the term Israel appeared 104 times in the transcripts, while Hamas made 34 appearances. The term terror (or terrorism or terrorist) shows up a grand total of zero times.

Indeed, the only time you’re likely to see the terms terror or terrorism in connection to Hamas is in quotation marks, since they’re almost invariably taken from an Israeli source — providing a way for journalists to distance themselves from supposedly biased Israeli officials.

“Terrorist” Vs. “Militant”: A Distinction With Major Differences

There is undoubtedly some overlap between militants and terrorists. For example, they both engage in violence in order to achieve their goals. But there are important distinctions. The motives and actions of a designated terrorist organization are unique.

While there is no international consensus on the definition of terrorism, it’s broadly understood to be the use of violence against non-combatants to achieve political or ideological aims. Every government has its own interpretation of terrorism. According to the United States State Department:

For the purpose of the Order, “terrorism” is defined to be an activity that (1) involves a violent act or an act dangerous to human life, property, or infrastructure; and (2) appears to be intended to intimidate or coerce a civilian population; to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, kidnapping, or hostage-taking.

By describing Hamas as a mere militant group, media outlets are downplaying the very acts that made the October 7 attack so horrific: The targeting of civilians and civilian infrastructure; the use of civilians as human shields; and the taking of non-combatants as hostages. It’s also worth noting that these crimes against humanity were all “…central aims of the planned attack, and not actions that occurred as an afterthought or as a plan gone awry or as isolated acts.”

Not calling out Hamas for the terrorist organization it is has had far-reaching consequences beyond a battle over terminology.

Because Hamas is widely depicted as a militant group, agenda-driven media personalities like Mehdi Hasan have found a way to perpetuate false analogies between Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Israel’s conflict with the Gaza-based terrorist organization.

Though the disparity between the two situations could not be more striking, Hamas gains support and legitimacy whenever it’s compared to a UN-member state that was invaded.

The whitewashing of Hamas can also be discerned in the way many prominent publications describe the group’s most powerful members. After Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh’s assassination, The Wall Street Journal called him a “leading advocate for a ceasefire,” while Reuters and The Guardian labeled him a “moderate.”

In fact, Haniyeh was designated a “global terrorist” by the US, and responsible for heinous acts against civilians.

And when Hamas’ true terrorist nature is covered up, burying their true aims becomes that much easier. The Wall Street Journal stated in October 2023 that the internationally-recognized terror organization is “dedicated to the creation of an independent Palestinian state” and that it has “indicated it is willing to accept a two-state solution….” The truth is, the group is openly committed to the destruction of Israel. This has been expressed in Hamas’ 1988 founding charter, as well as numerous statements by Hamas leaders such as Ismail Haniyeh and Saleh Al-Arouri.

Media Not Adjusting to New Realities After October 7

While media outlets don’t want to be accused of taking sides in the Israel-Hamas war, governments have. Switzerland in December 2024 officially declared that Hamas is a terrorist organization. Argentina became the first state in Latin America to designate Hamas as a terrorist organization, in a move announced by President Javier Milei in July 2024.

These and other governments adjusted their policies regarding Hamas in response to the horrors perpetrated by the terrorist outfit on October 7, 2023. There is a growing recognition that the threat Hamas represents is global, and must not be ignored any longer.

Yet far too many news organizations continue to treat Hamas with kid gloves. By not describing Hamas as a designated terrorist group, news publications have effectively normalized it.

Gidon Ben-Zvi, former Jerusalem Correspondent for The Algemeiner, is an accomplished writer who left Hollywood for Jerusalem in 2009. He and his wife are raising their four children to speak fluent English – with an Israeli accent. Ben-Zvi’s work has appeared in The Jerusalem Post, The Times of Israel, The Algemeiner, American Thinker, The Jewish Journal, Israel Hayom, and United with Israel. Ben-Zvi blogs at Jerusalem State of Mind (jsmstateofmind.com). The author is a contributor to HonestReporting, a Jerusalem-based media watchdog with a focus on antisemitism and anti-Israel bias — where a version of this article first appeared.

The post Hamas Is Not ‘Militant’: The Media’s ‘Terrorist’ Cover-Up first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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The Ballot Box Is the Key to Preserving — or Losing — Our Current System

The Reichstag in Berlin, Germany, c. 1941. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

In 1856, Abraham Lincoln, that master of the pithy aphorism, noted that “the ballot is stronger than the bullet.” So sharply observed, and it is one of those deceptively simple truths that history has confirmed time and again.

When Adolf Hitler burst into a Munich beer hall in 1923 with his ragtag band of brownshirts, he believed power in Germany could be seized at gunpoint. It was an utter fiasco. The so-called Beer Hall Putsch collapsed within hours, and Hitler found himself humiliated, imprisoned, and widely dismissed as a political clown. 

But prison became Hitler’s classroom. He studied, he reflected, and he came to the same conclusion as Lincoln — though with infinitely darker intent. The lesson was clear: brute force might win a battle, but ballots could win a nation. The real prize, Hitler realized, lay in working the system.

So Hitler traded the stormtrooper’s fist for the politician’s handshake. Over the next few years, he rebranded himself as a man of law and order, and the Nazis as a party of national revival and unbridled German pride. Critically, he played the parliamentary game with unnerving patience, slowly but surely building up popular support and parliamentary representation. 

By January 1933, the Nazi Party held only about a third of the seats in the Reichstag. But in a fractured political system, having the largest party in parliament was enough to be taken seriously. And once Hitler had that foothold, the unraveling was swift: the Reichstag Fire, the Enabling Act, the Night of the Long Knives, and finally, the death of President Hindenburg.

Within 18 months, Germany slid from democracy into dictatorship — and German democracy was no more. Lincoln was right. The ballot is stronger than the bullet. And Hitler proved it.

For centuries, the advance of Islamic power into Europe was checked on the battlefield. Charles Martel stopped the Muslim armies at Tours, France, in 732. Centuries later, Ferdinand and Isabella completed the Reconquista, driving the Moors out of Spain.

In 1683, the Ottomans were pushed back at the gates of Vienna, their imperial ambitions halted by a coalition of Christian armies. Each time, the clash was settled by soldiers, swords, and strategy. Whoever had the bigger, better army prevailed.

But today, the battlefield looks entirely different. In the twenty-first century, there are no cavalry charges across the plains of France or desperate last stands outside Vienna. The weapons have changed. The new battlefield is the ballot box, and the weapon of choice is demographics. 

Open immigration policies and an eagerness to celebrate multiculturalism in post-modern Europe and across the Western world have unwittingly created the conditions for a different kind of conquest. This is not a battle fought with sabers and cannons; instead, it is fought with voter registration and parliamentary seats. No longer is it the army with the most soldiers that wins — it is the community with the most ballots to cast.

And, as Hitler discovered, you don’t need an outright majority to shift the balance – you just need enough votes to be taken seriously. As long as there are enough voters to force the system to adapt around you, your agenda can no longer be ignored. 

The evidence is everywhere. In Britain’s recent election, a record-breaking 25 Muslim MPs were voted into the House of Commons — up from 19 in 2019. It may be a tiny fraction of seats overall, but it’s enough to mark a turning point. Most were Labour, although a handful came from across the political spectrum, including independents who campaigned almost exclusively on the issue of Gaza. 

The key thing is this — many don’t campaign as British patriots who happen to be Muslims, they campaign openly as Muslims first and everything else second. And with just 3.4 million Muslims in the UK — roughly six percent of the population — their representation in parliament is already beginning to punch above its weight.

In Canada, the 2025 federal election brought another milestone. Thirteen Muslim MPs entered parliament, up from eleven. The electoral success wasn’t accidental. Muslim advocacy groups coordinated nationally, launching websites and endorsements, rallying communities around a shared platform: “Free Palestine.”

In a Parliament of 343 seats, 13 members may sound like a rounding error. But in the Greater Toronto Area, where Muslims now comprise up to 14 percent of the population, the trend line is obvious. Bloc voting works, and the future is ominous.

In France, it’s the same story. Nineteen Muslim MPs were elected in 2024, mainly through alliances with left-wing parties determined to block Marine Le Pen’s far-right surge. France prides itself on strict secularism, but demography speaks louder than ideology — and particularly when Muslim candidates use their Islamic faith as their number one selling point. 

With Muslim voters already 10 percent of the French population, their influence is set to grow — and politics is re-calibrating to reflect that reality. It’s not for nothing that France, along with Canada and the UK, is set to recognize “Palestine” — the tail is wagging the national political dog.

The pattern is unmistakable. What once failed on the battlefield is now succeeding at the ballot box. A minority population, strategically mobilized, has become the kingmaker. You don’t need to conquer the palace gates with military might when you can simply walk through the front door with votes.

At the dawn of Jewish history, Moses warned the Jewish people to protect themselves from those who might use the system to undermine the moral conscience of national destiny. In Parshat Shoftim, he instructs them (Deut. 16:18): “Appoint for yourself judges and officers in all your gates…” 

The Torah’s vision of governance was never naïve. It is understood that no matter how inspired a nation may be, its ideals are only as strong as the safeguards that protect its core citizens. Every city gate needed gatekeepers. 

The medieval commentator Ramban notes that the verse places responsibility not just on leaders, but on the people themselves: it is “for yourself” — in the singular – meaning that every member of society has to be vigilant in ensuring that the values that matter are protected. 

Rav Hirsch goes even further, explaining that judges and officers are never meant to be mere bureaucrats. They must be guardians of the community’s moral center, ensuring that the law is not hijacked or twisted to serve destructive ends.

Moses knew what we so easily forget: freedom is fragile, and stability is a mirage. A nation can lose its way not only when enemies attack from outside, but when insiders exploit the system from within. That is why he delivered the crucial message that the system must be protected from enemies who might undermine it. Leave the city unguarded from these snakes in the grass, and sooner or later, everything you value will be gone — dismantled piece by piece.

Abraham Lincoln warned that the ballot is stronger than the bullet. He was right; Hitler proved it, and today’s Islamist movements are exploiting the same lesson. They no longer need to storm the gates with armies — they can stroll through them with votes. And once inside, all they need is enough useful idiots willing to go along with their twisted ideas.

Moses warned us long ago. He understood that the greatest danger to a nation is not necessarily foreign invasion, but the slow corrosion of values from within. That is why he insisted on vigilance. Judges and officers at every gate are not symbolic placeholders, but guardians against those who would manipulate the system to destructive ends. 

History’s harshest lesson is that freedom without awareness, and without the will to act, is always an invitation to tyranny. Hitler taught it in blood. The West seems to be in the midst of learning it again, the hard way. 

Which is why the Torah’s reminder — that unless we guard our gates, freedom itself can be dismantled — has never been more urgent.

The author is a rabbi in Beverly Hills, California. 

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Palestinian Authority: Pay Terrorists First! Then Teachers (If Anything Is Left)

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas holds a leadership meeting in Ramallah, in the West Bank, April 23, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mohammed Torokman

As the school year is about to start, the Palestinian Authority (PA) is again showing its priorities. While it continues paying monthly salaries to imprisoned terrorists and “Martyrs”‘ families, costing $30 million/month (the “Pay-for-Slay” program) — teachers are forced to manage on a fraction of their salaries.

Because of international cuts in funding and cuts in Israeli tax transfers — due to the PA’s paying terror rewards — the PA has not paid full salaries to its civil servants since March 2019. At times, salaries were not paid at all, and now the PA is almost two months late in paying salaries.

Now, Palestinian teachers have had enough and are threatening a full strike if the PA does not pay them.

The General Union of Palestinian Teachers warned the PA:

Posted text: “The Union of [Palestinian] Teachers:

If the teachers’ salaries are paid before the start of the school year, the schools will operate as usual.
If the salaries are not paid before the start of the school year, the opening of the [school] year will be postponed until further notice.
If 70% of the salary is paid, the school week will be from Sunday to Wednesday.
In the case of less than 70% [salary], the school week will be from Sunday to Tuesday.”

[“Salaries of the State of Palestine – Private,” Telegram channel, Aug. 18, 2025]

This is not the first time that the PA teachers are striking.

On Feb 5, 2023, the PA teachers started a long strike until the PA returned satisfactory pay.

The PA is still in a grave financial crisis, due to its “terrorists first” ideology.

PA leader Mahmoud and PA officials have stressed numerous times that the PA’s top priority is rewarding the imprisoned terrorists and the dead terrorist “Martyrs’” families.

In January of this year, desperate for international acceptance, the PA announced for the world to hear that terror rewards would cease, and prisoners would be paid like all social welfare cases.

But a month later, Abbas retracted that in a speech to Palestinian leaders:

Click to play

Abbas at a meeting of the Fatah Revolutionary Council: I stand by my word: Even if we have [only] one penny left, it is for the prisoners and Martyrs.

I will not agree, and you will not agree, to reduce any obligation, any interest, or any penny given to them. They must receive everything, as it was in the past, and they are more precious than all of us!” [emphasis added]

[PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, YouTube channel, Feb. 21, 2025]

Terrorist mass murderers are the PA’s most precious people. And this is the government some Western countries want to recognize as a state!

The author is the Founder and Director of Palestinian Media Watch, where a version of this article first appeared. 

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Proof That Hamas and Other Terrorists Were Operating from Nasser Hospital

Hamas terrorists carry grenade launchers at the funeral of Marwan Issa, a senior Hamas deputy military commander who was killed in an Israeli airstrike during the conflict between Israel and Hamas, amid a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, in the central Gaza Strip, Feb. 7, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ramadan Abed

The condemnations pouring in over Israel’s strike on Nasser Hospital this week are built on a false premise. The hospital is not a neutral medical facility. It has long since been hijacked by terrorists.

As previously reported by Palestinian Media Watch, Hamas turned Nasser Hospital into a center for interrogations and coercion.

In October 2024, as admitted by the Palestinian Authority itself on Facebook, Hamas was summoning Gazans to Nasser Hospital for interrogations by its military intelligence.

Shadi Subhi Al-Suweiti was ordered in the summons shown below “under the law of the State of Palestine and in accordance with our vested authority” to “report to Premises: Nasser Medical Center.”

In a Telegram post in April 2025 shown below, the hospital’s director of Nursing Services showed a note in which he was “threatened blatantly” by Palestinian Islamic Jihad for trying to prevent the organization from entrenching itself there: “Sweetie: You crossed the line – just wait! This is the first message. Al-Quds Brigades.”

While Israel’s Prime Minister’s Bureau issued a statement of regret over the incident — because of an accidental misfiring that took place — that just underscores how deeply Israel cares about avoiding civilian casualties.

Israel still tried to avoid civilian casualties, even though the hospital had served as a headquarters for terrorism. The real blame ultimately lies with the terrorists who deliberately embed themselves among civilians and inside the hospital.

Therefore, instead of libeling Israel, those who seek to protect Nasser Hospital should pressure the terrorists to stop using hospitals as a base of war.

Ephraim D. Tepler is a contributor to Palestinian Media Watch (PMW). Itamar Marcus is the Founder and Director of PMW, where a version of this article first appeared.

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