The media coverage of the major escalation of violence resulting from the well over 1,ooo rockets fired by terrorists in the Gaza Strip at Israeli civilians has been undeniably skewed, if not outright antisemitic. This is made stark when considering that the Jewish state is being held to a double standard: namely, that no other country in the world would be expected to tolerate war crime after war crime — and then be blamed for defending its citizens.
But there is another glaring blind spot in the media’s reporting: that is, most, if not all, major outlets have failed to note the intimate connection of the Islamic Republic of Iran to both Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ).
Hamas stands at the core of Palestine’s movement, just as Palestine stands at the core of the World of Islam’s movement. pic.twitter.com/n77ggAsrNX
— Khamenei.ir (@khamenei_ir) July 22, 2019
In fact, virtually no foreign news organizations connected the dots when on May 7 the security situation in Israel deteriorated significantly as Palestinians marked Quds [Arabic for Jerusalem] Day. Held yearly on the last Friday of Ramadan, it was initiated in 1979 by then-Iranian supreme leader Ruhollah Khomeini.
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Media Miss: Iran’s Obsession With ‘Palestine’
The Palestinian issue is a pillar of Tehran’s Middle East policy. Hence, the country supports Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, providing them with funding and arms with a view to expanding its regional influence, while at the same time acting on its ideological view of Israel as a usurper of Muslim lands and a threat to Islam that must be destroyed.
Funding for these organizations varies depending on how much they are in line with Tehran’s regional interests, though PIJ more often acts directly in accordance with the Islamic Republic’s positions.
While Iran’s relations with Hamas have at times been strained, according to Yahya Sinwar, the head of Hamas in Gaza, Tehran is today the largest provider of money and arms to the terror organization’s so-called military wing, the Izz ad-Din al Qassam Brigades.
We will support and assist any nation or any group anywhere who opposes and fights the Zionist regime, and we do not hesitate to say this.#FlyTheFlag
— Khamenei.ir (@khamenei_ir) May 20, 2020
At a 2019 meeting in Tehran between nine senior Hamas officials and current Iranian leader Ali Khamenei, Saleh al-Arouri, the deputy chief of the Hamas politburo, said:
We are on the same path as the Islamic Republic — the path of battling the Zionist entity and the arrogant ones.”
During this same visit, Iran reportedly agreed to massively increase its payments to Hamas in exchange for intelligence on Israel’s advanced missile programs.
Hamas officials just left Tehran with reportedly an increase to $30 million/month in support. Despite lacking food or medicine, Iran/Hamas evidently have plenty of money for terror. Israel is determined to act against all branches of Iran’s terror operations. pic.twitter.com/myZouPMKvT
— Ambassador Danny Danon | דני דנון (@dannydanon) August 5, 2019
With regards to PIJ, the Islamic Republic has helped the group to greatly expand its military capabilities. Iran reportedly pays Palestinian Islamic Jihad millions of dollars for each successful attack against Israel. According to Ramadan Shalah, leader of PIJ from 1995 and 2018, “the Palestinian Islamic Jihad is another fruit of the Ayatollah Khomeini’s fructuous tree.”
In 2018, Gadi Eizenkot, the Israel Defense Forces’ former chief of staff, said: “In recent months, [Iranian] investment in the Palestinian arena has also been growing out of a desire to influence it.”
It is worth noting that Hamas and PIJ are part of a wider group of Iran-funded terrorist organizations that includes Hezbollah, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and Shiite militias in Iraq, Syria and Yemen. Support for them enables Iran to orchestrate missile attacks against Israel.
Israel Vs. Nuclear Iran
The Islamic Republic’s regional interventionism is also seemingly being used as a cover to advance its nuclear program. On May 12, it was reported that Iran had enriched uranium to 63 percent purity — a short technical step away from weapons-grade 90 percent — and way beyond the 3.67 percent threshold permitted under the 2015 nuclear deal.
The development comes as world powers have been holding high-level talks aimed at bringing the United States back into the nuclear accord.
Jerusalem is adamantly opposed to a White House rapprochement with Tehran that would lead the United States to rejoin the Iran Deal. The Israeli government is instead seeking to convince Washington to negotiate an improved pact.
Related Reading: The Iran Regime’s Incitement to Destroy Israel
Tensions between Jerusalem and Tehran have been high since a US drone strike killed former Quds Force chief Qasem Soleimani, and further increased after the assasination of top Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh in an alleged Israeli operation.
Attending Soleimani’s funeral, Hamas head Ismail Haniyeh said that Palestinian terror groups owed him a debt: “I say that the martyr leader Soleimani, who spent his life supporting the resistance as the head of the Quds Force in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard…is the martyr of Jerusalem.”
Media Allowing Iran to Hide in Plain Sight
While journalists have chosen to ignore, or are perhaps ignorant of, the links between Palestinian terror groups and Iran, facts are stubborn things. Point blank: Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad are proxies of the world’s biggest state funder of terrorism.
But reporting on the matter would make it difficult – if not impossible – for agenda-driven newsrooms to push the simplistic narrative of Israel as “aggressor” and the Palestinians as “victims”, as well as the notion that Iran’s behavior and genocidal ambitions can somehow be curbed.
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