by John Stevenson
The
U.S. Department of State maintains a list of foreign terrorist organizations. Among the criteria, it states that the
organization “must threaten the security of U.S. nationals or the national
security (national defense, foreign relations, or the economic interest) of the
United States.”
The
Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) is on the list. This is not a concoction of the Trump
administration, or even the Bush-43 administration. Hamas has been on the list since Oct. 8, 1997---during
the Clinton administration. (Incidentally,
Hamas is also on the European Union’s comparable list.)
Hamas,
from its territory in Gaza, regularly attempts to launch attacks into Israel,
whether by breaching the border fence, tunneling under it, firing rockets
toward Israeli towns, deploying kite bombs, throwing Molotov cocktails, and so
on. In addition, Hamas pays substantial
blood money to the families of suicide bombers and others for killing Israelis.
On
May 14, the U.S. consummated the relocation of its embassy from Tel Aviv to
Jerusalem. This was of course met with
renewed riots and attacks from across the Israel-Gaza border. The Israelis responded with gunfire, leaving
62 Palestinians dead on that day.
Naturally,
the best bet for Hamas would be to declare this to be a slaughter of innocents
by the wicked Israelis. So of course
that was the picture Hamas painted for consumption in the West. But for the local Palestinian populace, Hamas
gave a different story. On the
Palestinian news outlet Baladna TV, Hamas official Salah al-Bardawil declared
that almost all of the slain were heroic Hamas fighters. Translation: we terrorists led the charge and
we terrorists suffered the casualties.
The
United Nations Security Council weighed in by holding a moment of silence on
May 15 for the Hamas dead. Fortunately,
our ambassador Nikki Haley avoided this travesty by purposely arriving late to
the Security Council meeting.
The
U.N.’s action was no surprise. It would
have been a shock if they had missed an opportunity to take an anti-Israel
position. The surprise came from an
American high school.
Beacon
School is an elite public high school in New York City and is known for taking
lefty positions. For example, students
held a faculty-approved walkout to protest the election of President Donald
Trump.
Even
so, it came as a shock to many students on May 15 when the school’s public
address system announced a moment of silence for those killed in the Gaza
clash. Parents were furious. Here are examples: “Mourning Hamas terrorists? It’s
disgraceful.” “I am extremely upset
because I did not send my child to a New York City public school to pray for
Hamas operatives.” “I just don’t think any school should be promoting a moment
of silence for terrorists.”
The
moment of silence was announced on the public address system by a
student---almost certainly with faculty approval. Parents and the New York Post say school
principal Ruth Lacey has been unresponsive to their attempts to contact her. Perhaps she is taking an extended moment of
silence which is preventing her from speaking with the press and with the incensed
parents of her students.
“What
if it was terrorists in ISIS,” one parent wondered. “No school would be having
that over the loudspeaker.”
Don’t
bet on it.
Update: On June 2, nypost.com reported that the principal had sent a letter to parents saying: “I regret that the announcement offended anyone in our school community….I will take every care to ensure school-wide announcements are carefully reviewed.”
Update: On June 2, nypost.com reported that the principal had sent a letter to parents saying: “I regret that the announcement offended anyone in our school community….I will take every care to ensure school-wide announcements are carefully reviewed.”
