Hamas and Fatah contest who is the biggest liar

There's one positive benefit that has actually come out of the Hamas take over of Gaza. It would seem that some of the energies invested in distorting the truth and concocting stories of the 'Zionist oppressors' are starting to be diverted towards concocting stories about Fatah and Hamas themselves.

There's a certain irony in the fact that a recent story posted on JPost Caught on tape: How a 16 year old girl was lynched in Gaza [cached copy] proved to be a fabrication of the truth, the 'Honor killing' did happen its just it happened some where else and at a much earlier date rather than the Gaza report. JPost acted quickly and withdrew the story.

The original reporter of the article Khaled Abu Toameh writing for the Jerusalem Post in his article Fatah uses false video as evidence is quite adamant who the culprit is.

But now I'm not so sure. Khaled Abu Toameh is celebrated by some for his objectiveness, he has revealed the media manipulation P.A. uses, on more than one occasion.

In a briefing by Toameh Telling the Truth about the Palestinians which appears in The Middle East Forum he puts forward the PA as ruthless and intimidating censor and manipulator of the press.

In what is uncannily a similar genre of story to the 'Honor killings' , in another story written in May 2007 Ramallah couple arrested for selling daughters , Toameh's story again cast a poor light on the Palestinian Authority.

Considering the expected ease and speed in which this story was 'disproved' is it just possible it was actually an attempt by Hamas to portray so called 'moderate' Fatah and the Israeli Media and the Israeli State by proxy as a group of manipulative co conspirators?

If we read the latest being written on this affair it seems the two 'witnesses' were apparently located in Gaza and were Fatah witnesses. Is it just a coincidence that now these two Fatah supporters are utterly unreachable on their mobile phones?

With out being too critical of the JPost reporter Khaled Abu Toameh it would appear he would make the ideal target to plant a story that would later blow up to embarass Fatah and the Israeli Media.

The story certainly wasn't easy to dismiss immediately as a lie, with the recent triple honor killing report Three sisters stabbed to death in Gaza 'honor killing' it would seem this latest story was certainly possible.

There's no doubt now, due to the vigilance of the blogosphere, that the story is concocted, the only doubt remains who was the actually concocter.

The obvious choice is Fatah, but something tells me this was a planted story by Hamas using former Fatah supporters possibly under some duress, and the story was calculated to self implode to bring a major embarrassment to both Fatah and the Jewish Media.

It smells, it smells really bad and I feel there never was any doubt it would be exposed as a lie, the question is who was supposed to be holding it when it was exposed as a lie?

My ten cents is Hamas was setting Fatah and the Israeli press up. Making that 'pesky' reporter Khaled Abu Toameh look foolish was just an added benefit.

But the irony is, the clumsiness of the story has quickly revealed the extent to which that Palestinians on either side of the divide are willing to go to cast an enemy in bad light.

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