By Stan Goodenough
Jul 04, 2007
A spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert Wednesday decried the alacrity with which the international media rushed to portray Hamas in a positive light after the group claimed credit for the release of BBC reporter Alan Johnston.
Miri Eisen told Sky News said the men being praised by commentators and politicians alike were members of “the same Hamas” that so brutally took control of the Gaza Strip a fortnight ago, killing their opponents in cold blood in images which will not soon be forgotten by those who saw them.
The men seen accepting accolades for “securing” Johnston’s freedom were “the same Hamas” that had kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Schalit more than a year ago, since then brutally depriving his family of even one photo of him.
Earlier, Sky’s foreign affairs commentator Tim Marshall had declared that “without a question Hamas knows where Schalit is.”
But the Sky News interviewer disputed Eisin, defending Hamas and demanding to know whether Israel did not agree that Hamas should be praised.