June 2, 2013 14:54
by Pesach Benson
Angered by Hamas’ support for Syrian rebels, Iran cut funding — approximately £15 million a month — to the terror group. Here’s the Daily Telegraph‘s (pun intended) money quote:
Ghazi Hamad, Hamas’s deputy foreign minister, described relations with Iran frankly as “bad” before adding: “Diplomatically, I have to use other words.”
Hezbollah’s banner of resistance against the Zionists also took a hit. Palestinians in Lebanon’s Ain al-Hilweh refugee camp burnt Hezbollah’s humanitarian aid. The Daily Star described the protest:
“We don’t want assistance soaked in the blood of the Syrian people,” read one of the signs.
Hezbollah warned Hamas to leave Lebanon “immediately.” Israeli media picked up on Middle East Online, which explains that Hezbollah’s unhappy with Hamas training Syrian rebels:
Media sources close to the Palestinian national liberation movement Fatah in Lebanon said a Hezbollah senior security official informed Hamas representative in Lebanon, Ali Baraka, that all of those related to Hamas on the Lebanese territory became have become unwelcome . . .
A Palestinian source from Lebanon’s Ain al-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp reportedly said that Hamas’s aid to the rebels is common knowledge, however Hamas officials have denied any affiliation with Syrian rebels.
Pass the popcorn: Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi urged Sunnis to join the Syrian rebels. Note his harsh rhetoric against Alawites and Hezbollah, which the NY Times picked up on — this ain’t your daddy’s Great Satan!
A prominent Sunni Muslim cleric influential in the Syrian uprising has issued a fatwa, or religious decree, calling on Muslims around the world to help Syrian rebels in the embattled town of Qusayr and labeling Hezbollah and Iran, which support the Syrian government, enemies of Islam “more infidel than Jews and Christians.”
In an interview with Al Arabiya, a prominent Arab editor had harsh words for the state of Arab journalism:
Adel al-Toraifi, the editor-in-chief of the London-based Asharq al-Awsat, slammed media standards in the Arab world, claiming that many journalists let their personal views get in the way of the story.
“Journalists in the Middle East are political activists. They are not true journalists,” said al-Toraifi.
“Whenever you open a discussion, instead of it becoming a fact-checking debate about journalism, it somehow disintegrates into a political exchange. [It’s] the extreme siding, or the extreme manipulation . . . either victimization of one group or demonization of another.”
Source material can be found at this site.
