Coming Soon? Hamas' Media Massacre

This morning I received an email from Honest Reporting that was headed "Coming Soon? Hamas' Media Massacre". It predicted that:

"The media is a potent weapon in the hands of terrorists and Israel has been on the receiving end many times. As HonestReporting has documented in its interactive Big Lies resource ...Palestinians have scored PR victories in the cases of Mohammed al-Dura, the Jenin "massacre", the Gaza Beach incident, staged photos from the 2006 Lebanon War and many other Pallywood productions.

With Israeli troops operating on the ground in Gaza and Hamas increasingly backed into a corner, Professor Richard Landes warns of what may be around the corner:

Whether by Israeli accident or Hamas engineering, expect a spectacular civilian massacre in the coming days, followed by an orgy of Pallywood photography, amplified by a compliant Western media, and even greater fury in the streets of the Muslim and Western world. It's in the Hamas playbook… and will be until the media gets sober."

Work meant that I couldn't blog this until I got home and of course in the meantime it has happened, the BBC delight in reporting that:

"At least 30 people are killed and 55 injured as Israeli artillery shells land by a United Nations-run school in Gaza, UN officials say."

The BBC did give about 30 seconds amidst their anti-Israel bile to broadcast the Israeli "claim" that there had been firing coming from within the UN school. This appears not to be worth a mention any more, so for some information I turned to Eye on the World who have been an invaluable resource thyese past few weeks. Eye on the World reports AP that:

"GAZA CITY, Gaza (AP) — Palestinian medics said 34 people were killed in an Israeli strike outside a U.N. school in the northern Gaza town of Jebaliya. The United Nations confirmed 30 were killed and 55 injured.

An Israeli official says Palestinian militants fired on Israeli soldiers from the courtyard of a U.N. school where dozens of people died in fiery explosions.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he said the army is still drafting the country's official response to the incident.

The Israeli official said "hostile fire" was directed at the soldiers from within the school. He said soldiers returned fire and multiple explosions went off, presumably emanating from munitions stored there.

John Ging, head of Gaza operations for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, said most of the casualties at the U.N. school in Jebaliya, where some 350 people had taken refuge, were outside the building. He did not say whether the artillery came from Israeli forces."

And that (IsraelNN.com) are reporting that

"The IDF said Tuesday evening that mortars were fired from the school which was hit by IDF fire Tuesday and collapsed killing 30 Arabs. The IDF also said that most probably a secondary explosion from explosives within the building added to the destruction.

The school in question was operated by the UNRWA and served as a shelter for many Gazans. The UNRWA has asked for an investigation of the incident."

So the bland UN that the BBC mention as if the UN was always unbiased and pure is in fact UNWRA that organisation dedicated to the cause of the Palestinian refugees since 1948, or as many believe to keeping the Palestinian as refugees for as long as possible so as to have a stick to beat Israel with. As the UNWRA website says:

"UNRWA is unique in terms of its long-standing commitment to one group of refugees and its contributions to the welfare and human development of four generations of Palestine refugees. Originally envisaged as a temporary organization, the Agency has gradually adjusted its programmes to meet the changing needs of the refugees. Today, UNRWA is the main provider of basic services - education, health, relief and social services - to over 4.6 million registered Palestine refugees in the Middle East."

Why unique, why are the Palestinians the only people to be permanent refugees? Every other group of refugees is absorbed into a host country but that couldn't be allowed to happen in the Middle East as there is an interloper amongst the good Muslim lands, a Jewish interloper, an interloper who has no right to be there and who must be expelled or destroyed.

UNWRA update: I am informed that

"The last UNWRA Commissioner General Peter Hanson once said: "Oh I am sure that there are Hamas members on the UNRWA payroll and I don't see that as a crime." The current Commissioner General Karen AbuZayd is a former lecturer in political science and Islamic studies."