RSS
Hamas ‘Tones the Theatrics Down,’ New York Times Claims From Gaza
Armed Palestinian carry one of the four coffins during the handover of the bodies of four Israeli hostages to the Red Cross in Khan Yunis. Photo: Abed Rahim Khatib/dpa via Reuters Connect
“Hamas tones the theatrics down a notch at the latest hostage release” is the online headline over an item published by the New York Times.
The headline appears over a photograph that renders the words ridiculous. The picture features five gun-brandishing fighters costumed in military vests, camouflage uniforms, black facemasks, red-and-white Italian-restaurant-tablecloth-style checked keffiyehs, and green Hamas headbands. Behind them is a tightly packed audience of mostly young and male spectators. There’s no need for such a show of force in connection with a hostage release; the point is for Hamas propaganda to make it appear that, rather than being nearly vanquished, the terrorist organization still exists as a strong, organized, well-equipped fighting force.
What kind of warped editorial mind surveys a scene that grotesque and makes the judgement that the news to be emphasized is that the theatrics have been toned down?
The item was a product of the Times “live” desk that provides continuously updated coverage of breaking news events for the Times website. It carries the bylines of Aaron Boxerman and Saher Alghorra. Alghorra is also credited with taking the photograph in Khan Younis, Gaza. Perhaps he has a reasonable fear that if the headline said, “Hamas turns hostage turnover into a cruel circus,” the gunmen from the terrorist organization would make him their next target. The Times itself has previously conceded that “Hamas restricts journalists in Gaza,” making it reasonable for readers to wonder what restrictions Alghorra was subject to in his photographing and reporting.
“Live” coverage gives readers more speed, but in this case, it seems to have come at the expense of thoughtful judgment and editorial standards. The real story isn’t that Hamas has “toned down” the theatrics from some previously absurd level. The real story is that the hostage releases are being accompanied by such violent public spectacles in the first place.
The media watchdog group Honest Reporting was having none of it. Honest Reporting posted to social media: “Actually, @nytimes, parading tortured, terrified hostages on stage isn’t ‘theatrics,’ and it sure wasn’t ‘toned down.’ It was even worse — Hamas doubled down on the humiliation with sick ‘personalized gifts’ like an hourglass taunting a hostage’s mother.”
It is a challenge when covering a horrible terrorist organization to maintain perspective. And I guess in some theoretical journalism class sort of way one can debate whether the proper bar of comparison is such a group’s previous atrocious behavior or normal, non-terrorist behavior. Yet a headline like “tones the theatrics down a notch,” is an example of what George W. Bush used to call the soft bigotry of low expectations. Rather than asking why Hamas took Israeli civilian hostages in the first place, and why it has taken so long for Hamas to release them, and why the releases are being accompanied by displays of military force, the Times headline-writer chooses to focus on the appearance of this hostage release being slightly less barbaric than the previous one.
It appears as if the Times headline is celebrating some sort of newfound praiseworthy civility or improved behavior by Hamas. That’s grossly inappropriate, under the circumstances.
I’ve been skeptical in the past of the practice of dunking on Times online headlines that are later revised for print, and in this case, the print editors had the better judgment to avoid using in print the headline that appeared to be almost praising Hamas for toning down the theatrics. Yet at a certain point, there have been enough bad online breaking news headlines that it’s become a pattern. If the Times placed a higher priority on its reputation and credibility, it’d tone its own carelessness down a notch.
Ira Stoll was managing editor of The Forward and North American editor of The Jerusalem Post. His media critique, a regular Algemeiner feature, can be found here.
The post Hamas ‘Tones the Theatrics Down,’ New York Times Claims From Gaza first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Iran, US Task Experts to Design Framework for a Nuclear Deal, Tehran Says
Atomic symbol and USA and Iranian flags are seen in this illustration taken, September 8, 2022. Photo: REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
Iran and the United States agreed on Saturday to task experts to start drawing up a framework for a potential nuclear deal, Iran’s foreign minister said, after a second round of talks following President Donald Trump’s threat of military action.
At their second indirect meeting in a week, Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi negotiated for almost four hours in Rome with Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, through an Omani official who shuttled messages between them.
Trump, who abandoned a 2015 nuclear pact between Tehran and world powers during his first term in 2018, has threatened to attack Iran unless it reaches a new deal swiftly that would prevent it from developing a nuclear weapon.
Iran, which says its nuclear program is peaceful, says it is willing to discuss limited curbs to its atomic work in return for lifting international sanctions.
Speaking on state TV after the talks, Araqchi described them as useful and conducted in a constructive atmosphere.
“We were able to make some progress on a number of principles and goals, and ultimately reached a better understanding,” he said.
“It was agreed that negotiations will continue and move into the next phase, in which expert-level meetings will begin on Wednesday in Oman. The experts will have the opportunity to start designing a framework for an agreement.”
The top negotiators would meet again in Oman next Saturday to “review the experts’ work and assess how closely it aligns with the principles of a potential agreement,” he added.
Echoing cautious comments last week from Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, he added: “We cannot say for certain that we are optimistic. We are acting very cautiously. There is no reason either to be overly pessimistic.”
There was no immediate comment from the US side following the talks. Trump told reporters on Friday: “I’m for stopping Iran, very simply, from having a nuclear weapon. They can’t have a nuclear weapon. I want Iran to be great and prosperous and terrific.”
Washington’s ally Israel, which opposed the 2015 agreement with Iran that Trump abandoned in 2018, has not ruled out an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities in the coming months, according to an Israeli official and two other people familiar with the matter.
Since 2019, Iran has breached and far surpassed the 2015 deal’s limits on its uranium enrichment, producing stocks far above what the West says is necessary for a civilian energy program.
A senior Iranian official, who described Iran’s negotiating position on condition of anonymity on Friday, listed its red lines as never agreeing to dismantle its uranium enriching centrifuges, halt enrichment altogether or reduce its enriched uranium stockpile below levels agreed in the 2015 deal.
The post Iran, US Task Experts to Design Framework for a Nuclear Deal, Tehran Says first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Hamas Says Fate of US-Israeli Hostage Unknown After Guard Killed in Israel Strike
Varda Ben Baruch, the grandmother of Edan Alexander, 19, an Israeli army volunteer kidnapped by Hamas, attends a special Kabbalat Shabbat ceremony with families of other hostages, in Herzliya, Israel October 27, 2023 REUTERS/Kuba Stezycki
Hamas said on Saturday the fate of an Israeli dual national soldier believed to be the last US citizen held alive in Gaza was unknown, after the body of one of the guards who had been holding him was found killed by an Israeli strike.
A month after Israel abandoned the ceasefire with the resumption of intensive strikes across the breadth of Gaza, Israel was intensifying its attacks.
President Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff said in March that freeing Edan Alexander, a 21-year-old New Jersey native who was serving in the Israeli army when he was captured during the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks that precipitated the war, was a “top priority.” His release was at the center of talks held between Hamas leaders and US negotiator Adam Boehler last month.
Hamas had said on Tuesday that it had lost contact with the militants holding Alexander after their location was hit in an Israeli attack. On Saturday it said the body of one of the guards had been recovered.
“The fate of the prisoner and the rest of the captors remains unknown,” said Hamas armed wing Al-Qassam Brigades’ spokesperson Abu Ubaida.
“We are trying to protect all the hostages and preserve their lives … but their lives are in danger because of the criminal bombings by the enemy’s army,” Abu Ubaida said.
The Israeli military did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Hamas released 38 hostages under the ceasefire that began on January 19. Fifty-nine are still believed to be held in Gaza, fewer than half of them still alive.
Israel put Gaza under a total blockade in March and restarted its assault on March 18 after talks failed to extend the ceasefire. Hamas says it will free remaining hostages only under an agreement that permanently ends the war; Israel says it will agree only to a temporary pause.
On Friday, the Israeli military said it hit about 40 targets across the enclave over the past day. The military on Saturday announced that a 35-year-old soldier had died in combat in Gaza.
NETANYAHU STATEMENT
Late on Thursday Khalil Al-Hayya, Hamas’ Gaza chief, said the movement was willing to swap all remaining 59 hostages for Palestinians jailed in Israel in return for an end to the war and reconstruction of Gaza.
He dismissed an Israeli offer, which includes a demand that Hamas lay down its arms, as imposing “impossible conditions.”
Israel has not responded formally to Al-Hayya’s comments, but ministers have said repeatedly that Hamas must be disarmed completely and can play no role in the future governance of Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to give a statement later on Saturday.
Hamas on Saturday also released an undated and edited video of Israeli hostage Elkana Bohbot. Hamas has released several videos over the course of the war of hostages begging to be released. Israeli officials have dismissed past videos as propaganda.
After the video was released, Bohbot’s family said in a statement that they were “deeply shocked and devastated,” and expressed concern for his mental and physical condition.
“How much longer will he be expected to wait and ‘stay strong’?” the family asked, urging for all of the 59 hostages who are still held in Gaza to be brought home.
The post Hamas Says Fate of US-Israeli Hostage Unknown After Guard Killed in Israel Strike first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Oman’s Sultan to Meet Putin in Moscow After Iran-US Talks
FILE PHOTO: Sultan Haitham bin Tariq al-Said gives a speech after being sworn in before the royal family council in Muscat, Oman January 11, 2020. Photo: REUTERS/Sultan Al Hasani/File Photo
Oman’s Sultan Haitham bin Tariq al-Said is set to visit Moscow on Monday, days after the start of a round of Muscat-mediated nuclear talks between the US and Iran.
The sultan will hold talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday, the Kremlin said.
Iran and the US started a new round of nuclear talks in Rome on Saturday to resolve their decades-long standoff over Tehran’s atomic aims, under the shadow of President Donald Trump’s threat to unleash military action if diplomacy fails.
Ahead of Saturday’s talks, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi met his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Moscow. Following the meeting, Lavrov said Russia was “ready to assist, mediate and play any role that will be beneficial to Iran and the USA.”
Moscow has played a role in Iran’s nuclear negotiations in the past as a veto-wielding U.N. Security Council member and signatory to an earlier deal that Trump abandoned during his first term in 2018.
The sultan’s meetings in Moscow visit will focus on cooperation on regional and global issues, the Omani state news agency and the Kremlin said, without providing further detail.
The two leaders are also expected to discuss trade and economic ties, the Kremlin added.
The post Oman’s Sultan to Meet Putin in Moscow After Iran-US Talks first appeared on Algemeiner.com.