Imagine for a moment that you are the prime minister of what could very well be—in a few short months—a bona fides state recognized by the United Nations, the IMF and the World Bank. All the world's eyes are set upon your efforts to build strong institutions, invest wisely, and pursue a constructive policy with your neighbors, who have after all been a co-belligerent in a long, bloody war spanning over sixty years.

One crisp spring day, a villain of global notoriety is shot dead; a character who has not only murdered innocents of every creed, color and nation, but also annexed the cause of your people's statehood as a justification for the mass murder carried out by his apocalyptic cult. Regardless of whether or not the platform of your political party shared certain tenets of said villain’s ideology, might it appear politically expedient—whether or not humanity is your chief interest—to solemnly acknowledge the harm caused by such a figure? Would not this be the proper response?

It would be. But that is not how Ismail Haniyeh chose to respond to the death of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

Instead, he chose to say something like this:

If this news is true, it comes as part of the US policy of killing, destruction and the shedding of Arab and Islamic blood.

Sorry, what was that, head of government soon-to-be-voted-legitimate-or-else-once again-damned-to-diplomatic-wilderness?

[Bin Laden] is a Muslim Mojahed.

Way to go, you absolute fucking shithead.