In the Huffington Post’s article entitled “Trump is Undermining The Fight Against Terrorism” contributor Hossein Askari says:
The US is the leading country that unilaterally brands entities around the world as terrorist.
Unilateral?
But the United States terror designations are not unilateral at all: Hamas and Hezbollah (along with its various wings) are officially recognized as terrorist organizations by: Australia, Canada, Egypt, the European Union, Israel, the United Kingdom and others. In short, Hamas and Hezbollah are “terrorists” according to almost all of Western civilization. Askari can’t even get past the first sentence of his article without stating “facts” that are simply untrue.
Among the organizations, Askari pays particular attention to Hamas and Hezbollah, terror organizations that target primarily Israel.
For example, contrary to the Huffington Post’s misleading suggestion, the issue of terror designations has nothing to do with Donald Trump: both Hamas and Hezbollah were put on the list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations in 1997 under President Clinton while the Bush administration is responsible for adding Islamic State to that same list back in 2004. Republicans and Democrats have consistently termed these groups as terrorist organizations in lockstep with other nations throughout the world.
Join the fight for Israel’s fair coverage in the news
How Muslims really feel
Askari claims that “to most of the world’s 1.7 billion Muslims, [Hamas and Hezbollah are] legitimate political organizations” but he will not tell you that as early as 2006 most of the Arab world was already “fed up” with Hezbollah, which is still seen unfavorably in almost every Middle Eastern country.
Muslims are keenly aware that Hezbollah has contributed towards the mounting death toll in Syria which is now just shy of half a million, and is attempting to prop up the brutal Assad regime. Which is why it should come as no surprise that 84 percent of Sunnis in Lebanon strongly oppose the terror organization while Hamas’s popularity has plummeted among residents of the Gaza, the territory that it rules.
Askari chooses to keep all of these facts from Huffington Post readers.
Jewish conspiracy…again
In echoes of age old conspiracy theories about Jews controlling the world, Askari would like you to believe that when placing these violent organizations on its terror list, “United States seems to be following Israeli wishes.”
Askari provides no foundation or evidence whatsoever.
To the contrary, we come right back to the fact that almost the entirety of the Western world has joined the US in branding these groups as terrorist organizations: yet another blatant distortion of the truth.
Askari provides no actual source of law for his vague claim that Israel’s “treatment of Palestinians” in Gaza violates international law, however, both respected legal scholars, as well as the International Criminal Court have determined that it does not.
On the contrary, Israel is engaged in life saving self-defense, whereas Gaza is ruled by a terrorist organization whose charter calls for the destruction of the Jewish state and the death of all Jews in the world, a goal Hamas tries to implement by firing thousands of rockets at Israel since their military takeover of the Gaza Strip in 2007.
The irrelevant connection to Donald Trump at the top of the article proves to be a transparent ploy by Askari to garner sympathetic support for his unfounded arguments from those who oppose Trump, as the rest of the article has no connection to the President himself, but rather treats US policy as a whole.
Perhaps Askari felt that in the absence of supportable facts and proper characterizations of reality, he might rely instead on drama and distraction.
How can the Huffington Post provide a platform for an article that is so blatantly untrue?
Share your considered comments with the Huffington Post at this link, for category select “report a correction or typo.” You can also contact the author directly at @HGAskari
Featured Image: Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90
