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.

Today I had the terrible job of reporting on the murder of Juliano Mer Khamis.

Juliano was an Arab-Israeli actor and director who spent the past five years offering the youth of Jenin an alternative reality. He founded and ran the Freedom Theatre, a drama school and community theatre in the middle of the Jenin refugee camp, where any child could become a part of plays, films, and art which they otherwise would never have known.

His mother Arna, an Israeli Jew, lived in Jenin throughout her life and in the 80s erected a similar venue called the Stone Theatre; it was built during the First Intifada and perished during the Second. Juliano produced a documentary about her work called Arna's Children. But I believe that Arna's son surpassed even her great efforts in developing the Freedom Theatre and placing art into the hands of children who've known only violence. That was no romantic ambition; it was a struggle, as the story of Yussef makes clear:





Today a masked man walked up to Juliano as he was leaving his home and left him with five bullets in his chest. One of Juliano's colleagues watched him die and was injured from the fire herself.