State television in Syria issued a withering attack late Monday on a longtime ally, the leader of the Palestinian militant group Hamas, Khaled Meshal, declaring him an ungrateful child and a corrupt traitor, saying he was having a “romantic emotional crisis” over the Syrian uprising and accusing him of selling out “resistance for power.”
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The newscaster who delivered the rebuke to Mr. Meshal also castigated Egypt and Turkey for what it said was their complicity in the Palestinians’ plight.
At certain points its tone became downright snide: “Meshal, since you are having a romantic emotional crisis over what you call the suffering of the Syrian people,” the newscaster said, “why didn’t the Palestinian people elicit the same emotional reaction?”
She recalled how Syria defied other powers to grant him refuge in 1999. “The plane that was carrying him was sent back from the skies of airports as if he was the plague,” she intoned. “Doha and Ankara and Amman and Cairo all evaded him that day because Israel had vetoed his reception, and only Damascus dared defy the Israeli veto.”
Addressing him directly, she continued, “The only possible interpretation for their sudden welcoming attitude today is that you are no longer wanted by the occupation” — referring to Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories — “and no longer a threat to their safety.”
She offered a barely veiled “good riddance.”
“Syria is not regretful because it didn’t do what it did expecting loyalty or thanks,” she said. “Syria is happy that the person who sold resistance for power is leaving it now.”
The editorial also took shots at Turkey’s bid to become a regional leader and champion of the Palestinian cause.
For the Turks — who have been major allies of the Syrian insurgency, providing a haven for its fighters — that role is “too much for them to handle,” the newscaster warned. “The Turkishization of the resistance is read in Arabic as your complete abandonment of the cause.”
“Meshal, remember that fire needs authentic oil or the smoke will blind eyes. And the authentic oil for the fire of resistance is Syrian, Palestinian, Arab.”
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