In a NYT front page piece, above the fold, its Jerusalem bureau chief Steven Erlanger muses on how Hamas’s Insults to Jews Complicate Peace Effort.

With that headline one might expect some analysis on how peace is somewhat influenced by ‘insult’. Maybe starting with the reason of ‘insults’, a comparisson to insults from the other side and how this all stops both sides from talking with each other.

Not so – instead we get the most one sided view possible.

Its videos praise fighters and rocket-launching teams; its broadcasts insult the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas,
for talking to Israel and the United States; its children’s programs
praise “martyrdom,” teach what it calls the perfidy of the Jews and the
need to end Israeli occupation over Palestinian land, meaning any part
of the state of Israel.

Such incitement against Israel and Jews was supposed to be banned under the 1993 Oslo accords and the 2003 “road map” peace plan. While the Palestinian Authority under Fatah has made significant, if imperfect efforts to end incitement, Hamas, no party to those agreements, feels no such restraint.

Hamas broadcasts "insult the Palestinian president"? Is Abbas a jew? Anyway, there are certainly insults coming from Hamas biased media. But Erlanger list those at lenghth without ever looking at the other side.

He could for example have mentioned the recent message from Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu:

In the newsletter, which was distributed to synagogues around the country, Eliyahu proposes "hanging the children of the terrorist who carried out the attack in the Mercaz Harav yeshiva from a tree."

Is such language allowed under the Oslo accords and the "road map" peace plan?

Sourced from the Israeli Palestine Media Watch of Itamar
Marcus (unbiased?) Erlanger writes:

For example, in a column in the weekly Al Risalah, Sheik Yunus al-Astal, a Hamas legislator and imam, discussed a Koranic verse suggesting that “suffering by fire is the Jews’ destiny in this world and the next.”

“The reason for the punishment of burning is that it is fitting retribution for what they have done,” Mr. Astal wrote on March 13. “But the urgent question is, is it possible that they will have the punishment of burning in this world, before the great punishment” of hell? Many religious leaders believe so, he said, adding, “Therefore we are sure that the holocaust is still to come upon the Jews.”

Sure, it is disgusting to believe in another holocaust. Too bad Erlanger didn’t find the space to add the recent quote from Matan Vilnai:

Israel’s deputy defence minister yesterday warned his country was close to launching a huge military operation in Gaza and said Palestinians would bring on themselves a "bigger shoah," using the Hebrew word usually reserved for the Holocaust.

Indoctrination of children is also an issue Erlanger mentions:

Some Hamas videos, like one in March 2007, promote the participation of children in “resistance,” showing them training in uniform, holding rifles.

Again too bad his piece lacked the space to add a bit about the IDF’s Marva and Gadna programs:

British 16 and 17 year olds have been able to take part in Gadna, the week-long course taken by Israeli schoolchildren in preparation for military service and which has recently come under fire for becoming increasingly militaristic. "Shooting an M16 gun… physically lying on the land of Israel, learning how to defend it, gave me an immense sense of pride" writes a breathless Aimee Riese, a London schoolgirl and recent participant, in the Jewish Chronicle.

Erlanger digs deep to find his impecible sources:

Along with Mr. Marcus’s group, the Middle East Media Research Institute, or Memri, also monitors the Arabic media. But no one disputes their translations …

That would be no one but the Californian political science professor As’ad AbuKhalil, the CNN, ABC, Fox pundit and journalist Ali Alarabi or the Guardian journalist Brian Whitaker who, among others, have proven serious Memri mistranslations.

More Erlanger:

While the Palestinian Authority of Fatah also causes some concern — its textbooks, for example, rarely recognize the state of Israel — Yigal Carmon, who runs Memri, said Hamas and its media used “the kind of anti-Israeli and anti-Jewish language you don’t really hear any more from the Palestinian Authority, which hasn’t talked like that in a long time.”

Colonel Carmon spent 22 years in Israeli military intelligence and later served as counter-terrorism adviser to two Israeli prime ministers, Yitzhak Shamir and Yitzhak Rabin. Thanks to Erlanger for providing this very balanced voice.

And while we speak of school textbooks that don’t include some recognization of borders, lets not forget Israeli school text books:

Recently, Minister of Education Yuli Tamir came out with a bombastic announcement saying that she intends to mark the Green Line in the schoolbooks, from which it was removed almost 40 years ago. The Right reacted angrily, and nothing more was heard about it.

Two bad Erlanger missed the space to provide that factoid.

Indeed Erlanger also lacked the space to provide what the headline promises. An analysis on if and how hate speech complicates peace efforts.

All he does is listing some bit of this or that uttering of Hamas related persons and media, seemingly all sourced from Memri, the Israeli Palestinian Media Watch and an Olmert spokesperson.

That the other side of the conflict uses just the same hate speech is missing.

Also missing is any relation of this to peace efforts. Has any conference or meeting been aborted because of such language? Has it influenced the various truce offers Hamas has made towards Israel? Is it really such language that prevents peace talks or are there other reasons?

Is the bias in Hamas media influencing peace efforts more than the bias in Erlanger’s NYT reporting?

We’d like to know. Unfortunately Erlanger lacked the space or will to provide us with such knowledge.