Puppet child on Hamas TV "kills" US President Bush in revenge

[Scurrilous]

<snip>

"In a Hamas TV production for Palestinian children, a puppet stabs U.S. President George Bush to death in revenge for American and Israeli actions.

The children's puppet aired Sunday, part of series called "Exceptionals."

In the episode, Bush, a hand-held puppet dressed in a green uniform and wearing boxing gloves, is shown talking to a Palestinian child.

The child, with tears in his voice, accuses Bush of killing his father in Iraq, his mother in Lebanon and his brothers and sisters in Gaza with the assistance of the Israelis."

<snip>

"The unnamed child tells Bush: "Your are a criminal. You deprived me of everything."

The child says, "I have to take my revenge with this sword of Islam."

Bush, in a panic, pleads for his life. "I repent. Don't kill me."

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/03/31/africa/ME-GEN-Palestinians-Bush.php

[leftofcool]

1. Keeeeeeeeeerist! Teach a kid hate, they will hate!

[kirby]

2. Disgusting...

People who teach their children hatred surely have a special place waiting for them one day...

[msmcghee]

3. Not quite the same as Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood, is it? n/t

[Turbineguy]

4. Not being satisfied

with being a failed nation now, it must be extended into the future.

[polichick]

5. Just a fantasy - Bush would never "repent."

[angrycarpenter]

6. GWB will never say "I repent"

He is not the least bit sorry for anything he has ever done. This story is meant to inflame anti-muslim sentiment. I have seen a lot of them lately.

[Shaktimaan]

15. huh?

Wait, so the news story is meant to inflame anti-muslim sentiment, but the actual story being reported itself is... what? I don't get it. You are saying that the story is made up? Or that reporting on it is somehow anti-Muslim, that it otherwise wouldn't warrant a news story?

Now I've seen everything. A children's program inciting hate and murder under the guise of religious fanaticism is OK, but reporting on it is hateful?

And need I point out how the Iraqis and Lebanese treat the Palestinians themselves? Worse, by any measure, than the Israelis do. There are less and less Palestinians left in Iraq anymore, so far half of them have been unceremoniously tossed into the desert by their "brothers and sisters," where they sit on the border of Syria, who naturally refuses them entry. And total Lebanese deaths during the 1996 war with Israel pales in comparison to the amount of Palestinians that the Lebanese have killed themselves.

[angrycarpenter]

16. Taken by itself it is what it seems to be

But there have been a lot of stories lately about Islamic extremists. I feel that they are there to stir up fear of muslims and build support for the Iran attack. Most Americans make no distinctions between any of the ethnic or tribal groups in the middle east. To many it is Islam=evil therefore we should bomb Iran. It does not add up but they are looking for knee-jerk reactions here.

[Shaktimaan]

18. Do you honestly think that the IHT is involved in a

conspiracy to demonize Muslims in an attempt at drumming up support for a future American attack on Iran?

And it is because of such a conspiracy that they chose to run this article, rather than because of the obvious importance that its content has for the I/P conflict, particularly with regards to Israeli accusations that Hamas has been continuously camouflaging anti-semitic, extremist and violent propaganda into children's programming?

The problem with conspiracy theories is that they are always backed up by reverse-evidence. Instead of gathering evidence and using all the data to formulate a conclusion, conspiracy theories begin with a presupposed idea, which then benefits from any data that COULD possibly support it automatically getting used as evidence to that effect. Reversing the process strips any event of its many possible logical causes and effects. Since one has already been chosen, other, often more likely scenarios, are never considered. Likewise, any data that suggests the theory is untrue is systematically ignored, as the process has no method for discovering or analyzing them. In this way all conspiracy theories end up being self-proving... ironically here, the case for war in Iraq serves as a prime example of how conspiracy theories work.

The really stupid thing about all this being, IMO, that Iran poses a real and definite threat as opposed to Iraq, which never did. However the war there has hobbled our ability to have any real influence on the Iran situation. Our credibility has been shot to hell, both in terms of intelligence as well as the limitations of our military. By going to war in Iraq we inadvertently made it possible for Iran to even pose the kind of threat it now does. In trying to solve an imaginary problem we managed to create a real one. Two if you count Iraq itself.

[angrycarpenter]

24. Dropping thousands of bombs will help nothing.

There are many people here that would be happy if we just Mass exterminated the entire Muslim world. We need calm heads to get through this, Stories like this and puppet shows like that feed the fire.Is this really a news worthy story or is it just a tool to piss people off?

[Shaktimaan]

26. It's a pretty big deal.

I don't know how much you follow the I/P conflict or anything but one of the recurring criticisms against Hamas, (used to demonstrate their animosity towards ever making peace), has been that they've been using some pretty frightening indoctrination techniques, both in their schools and in their television programming. This is one particularly weird instance in a practice of using kids' programming to fill their heads with anti-semitic and often extremely radical propaganda. We're talking about using puppets to lionize suicide attacks, martyrdom and other hardcore Islamic fundie prop of the kind we actually have reason to criticize.

I understand why you would cringe at news reports of Muslim kids' shows where they teach their kids to embrace a culture of violence and death, it sounds like the worst kind of prejudiced anti-Muslim propaganda that couldn't have any use except to scare us. Except in this case it happens to be true. I mean, Joe Camel marketing cigarettes to kids is real news, isn't it? Can you imagine if we actually had children's cartoons on Saturday morning teaching our 5 year olds that Arabs deserve death and that dying while fighting them makes you a hero?

And it does make a pretty succinct statement regarding Hamas' views on making peace with the Jews when they are using cartoon characters to indoctrinate their kids like this. The thing to remember is that this is a negative news story about Hamas, NOT Muslims or even Arabs or even Palestinians in general. If this news report incites negative feelings towards Hamas then I think that's OK. Hamas is a terrorist organization and they should catch flak for brainwashing Palestinian children like this.

Don't worry about Americans not being able to discern between Hamas and any other Muslim. If they're reading the IHT to begin with, (where this story was printed), then they're likely up to speed on who Hamas is and how they differ from the Persians. Saying that we shouldn't report on this stuff because it might make people mad at Muslims reminds me of how some right wingers get PO'd at the NY Times for writing stories about Guantonamo Bay or Marines gunning down civilians because they think it will put our troops in danger. They think that the NY Times is doing it because they hate America. I think that's about as likely as the IHT writing stories to fan anti-muslim sentiment. Especially since the IHT is officially a mashup of the Times and the Post anyway.

[LeftishBrit]

20. I don't quite see your point here...

Do you think that reports on Islamic extremists anywhere should be censored, just in case someone thinks it's an excuse for bombing Iran?

'Americans make no distinctions between any of the ethnic or tribal groups in the middle east. To many it is Islam=evil therefore we should bomb Iran.'

If that is true (I'm not American), then surely the solution is to have more information in the media about the distinctions between the different ethnic groups in the Middle East, and about what Islam actually is, rather than to censor reports such as these?

Or is your point that you think that some other types of information *are* being censored?

[azurnoir]

21. Unfortunately the statement is pretty much true

Americans make no distinctions between any of the ethnic or tribal groups in the middle east. To many it is Islam=evil therefore we should bomb Iran.

Add to that positive images of Islam are all absent from our media, and don't hold your breathe for that to change either, to much capital of a few kinds in presenting that picture. Add to that gas prices and the economic ripples from that and "it's all the Arabs fault" mentality becomes rampant.

Note a good deal of Americans do not realize that Islam extends outside of the ME and that there are many Muslim's in SE Asia let alone India.

[LeftishBrit]

22. That last part is different here...

because there are many Asian immigrants and their descendants in the UK. Most Muslims here are Pakistani, Bangladeshi or Indian - not Arab.

[azurnoir]

23. Same here

it is just most people do not "realize" that they are Muslim, especially if they're women-no veil=not Muslim, an example during the weeks following 9/11 I witnessed 3 separate public physical attacks on Somali women because "they" being recognizably Muslin according to stereotype were easy targets as "responsible" for terrorism.

[jgraz]

7. The Feel Good Hit of the Summer!

[subsuelo]

8. In other news, American children told on TV that Iraq had something to do with 9/11

And therefore we must invade

next story please

[Shaktimaan]

14. Really?

When the heck have you seen anything remotely resembling this on American television?

[subsuelo]

25. It's been an ongoing campaign of propaganda in major media outlets

to tie Saddam and Iraq to the events of Sept 11th.

People are catching on to it more recently (within the past year) so there's much less of it. Even outright questioning. But in late 2001 and 2002 it was quite extensive

[Shaktimaan]

27. I know that.

But what kids' shows were making that message a part of their shows?

5 year olds don't watch Tucker Carlson.

[subsuelo]

28. because telling it to adults makes it less a problem?

edited to add:

As a kid I was exposed to nightly news, therefore I make an assumption that some children are in fact receiving the propaganda

[Shaktimaan]

29. So are you equating

the misinformation spread in the US media that led to the Iraq war with the content of the children's show discussed in the OP? Are they morally equivalent in your view, or even very similar?

[LeftishBrit]

32. Very dissimilar in my view, but...

it has to be said that books, songs, games and media images that encourage children to hate the 'enemy' *are* and have been horribly common through the ages in many places. (The history of children's literature is one of my interests.) As for many things, the most extreme and horrific examples are from Nazi Germany; but there are many other examples.

I have seen a 19th century English rhyming geographical alphabet for children which included under 'K' a crude picture of some stereotypically 'savage' Africans above the rhyme:

"K is Kaffirland, Land of Good Hope,
With the natives of which we have oft had to cope,
And here is a group of them, cruel and fierce,
With ....spears that will pearce."

Popular British books for boys in the 19th and early 20th centuries were full of tales of 'justified' violence against enemies (especially Germans during and after WW1) and stereotyped untrustworthy and violent 'Natives' of India and Africa, who needed to be kept in order by the imperialist rulers. A WW1 English girls' book, "A Patriotic Schoolgirl" by Angela Brazil includes an episode where the heroine asks her headmistress, "Is it ever right to forgive the enemies of our country?" and receives the reply, "When they are dead!"

American children's books and, once it became available, television often portrayed Native Americans as violent and dangerous savages, whom the 'cowboys' and others were justified in fighting and killing.

During the Cold War, each side was portrayed by the other in children's books, comics and TV programmes as evil and out to kill and destroy. (I have been told of the effect of Soviet-bloc propaganda of the time on a Hungarian child whose father attended a short academic conference in the USA in the 1960s. The child seemed very anxious and withdrawn during his father's absence, and even after his return. Finally, the child plucked up the courage to ask his father anxiously, "Did they torture you much?")

And here is a link to an account of the indoctrination in hate and violence for children on both sides of the Northern Ireland conflict, and its effects.

http://cc.msnscache.com/cache.aspx?q=72965973475724&mkt=en-GB&lang=en-GB&w=fe8d0f8b&FORM=CVRE2

So it is a long-standing problem. I would say that what Hamas are doing *is* still morally worse than most (not necessarily all) of this, as they appear to be deliberately *trying* to teach children to hate Jews and Americans - in the way that more typical educational TV may attempt for example to teach children their alphabet or the principles of road safety; whereas most of the examples that I've given were more in the nature of reinforcing existing cultural stereotypes, sometimes without much thought. The Hamas teaching of hate is explicit; many of the other examples are implicit. However, the latter can be just as dangerous: children brought up e.g. on constant stories and images showing the 'Natives' or 'Red Indians' as savages are likely to absorb the ideas unthinkingly, and what is absorbed unthinkingly can be particularly hard to shed.



,

[CJCRANE]

9. Reminded me of Bush's alleged mockery of Karla Faye Tucker nt.

[number6]

10. how bout a Puppet Impeachment trial for

war crimes

[bemildred]

11. Well, I'd settle for impeachment, but ... nt

[Violet_Crumble]

17. I just can't muster up anything but a chuckle about the stabbing puppet....

Violent puppets? Whatever will people come up with next? ;)

[Vegasaurus]

19. Glad you find promoting violence in children funny n.t

[azurnoir]

12. Wonder if it's a hit in Iraq too?

I do not approve of teaching children this.

[ProgressiveMuslim]

13. Actually, I find it utterly remarkable that Palestinians aren't a helluva lot more vocal in placing

deserved blame on the US for their misery.

They have shown amazing restraint, IMO, and a good deal of savvy in being able to separate American people from hideously immoral American foreign policy.

[Waya]

30. That may be................

.........but I hardly find this appropiate viewing for children. I don't care what the political issues are or how 'right' their opinion may be - I can't condone this at all.

[LeftishBrit]

31. Agreed!

No cause justifies the promotion of hatred and violence in young children.