FTO | First One Through

The world is a deeply unhinged place.

Extremist groups on the right and left are winning elections. Wars are raging around the world including Russia-Ukraine and Iranian proxies of Hamas, Hezbollah and Houthis against Israel. And new terrorist groups continue to emerge like the Palestinian’s Tulkarm Brigades and Lion’s Den.

Yet one would not know this from tracking how the United States designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs).

Since the U.S. State Department began listing FTOs on October 8, 1997, every Democratic and Republican administration was on top of the global terrorist threats, adding new FTOs with regularity. The longest gap between designating a new FTO was 992 days, from June 17, 2005 to March 5, 2008.

Until now.

The Biden administration last added a terrorist group on December 1, 2021, 1,005 days ago when it added two Colombia-based terrorist groups. Since that time it delisted five groups.

*U.S. State Department Foreign Terrorist Organizations*

Why hasn’t the U.S. listed any of the groups which have been murdering civilians for over 1,000 days? Has ignoring the “evil ideology” (to quote Obama) or “tragic deformity” (to quote James Zogby) of Palestinian culture pacified them?

The U.S. has spent the last three years with its head in the sand pretending that terrorist groups only exist INSIDE America as it left open its borders and ignored the toxic mushrooming of jihadi terrorist groups.

Note To Kamala: Vast Majority Of West Bank Arabs Are Terrorist Supporters (July 2024)

The Scale And Barbarity Of The Hamas Massacre (October 2023)

The UN Continues To Grossly Minimize Palestinian Terror (September 2023)

UNRWA’s West Bank Terrorists (July 2023)

Majority of Palestinians Believe Israel Will Soon Cease to Exist (June 2023)

Letter to Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) On Conditioning Aid To Israel (March 2023)

The Successful Murder Of Jews and Marker For New Massacres (January 2023)

The UN Continues To Absolve Palestinian Attacks Against Israelis In The “West Bank” (November 2022)

Wilayat Sinai: The Other Terrorist Group Abutting Israel (February 2022)

Gaza, The Terrorist Enclave (December 2021)

Palestinian Terrorist Groups (July 2021)

For years, The New York Times has refused to label Hamas as a designated foreign terrorist organization and instead has opted to call it an “Islamist militant group.” That changed on September 5, 2020 but not for a good reason.

The Times went so far to label the group in its headline, “The Justice Department Charges Two With Trying to Support Terrorist Group Hamas.” It seemed a moment to celebrate the Times finally calling out this horrible antisemitic group. However, the two pictures of White men under the title gave immediate pause.

September 5, 2020 NY Times article

The article said that the “Justice Department on Friday charged two American citizens with ties to a far-right extremist group with trying to support the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas – a case that shows that extremists have sought to turn protests against racism into opportunities to commit violence, but that also runs counter to President Trump’s assertions that those extremists are predominantly from the far left.” It would continue to call a Hamas a terrorist group two more times before continuing that “the Justice Department has predominantly charged members of Boogaloo with crimes, contradicting claims by Mr. Barr and Mr. Trump that far-left extremists are responsible for the violence and crimes that have occurred at protests.”

After a decade of not referring to Hamas as a terrorist group in hundreds of articles which mentioned it, the Times did so FOUR TIMES in a single article as it linked it to a far-right extremist movement. Yet Hamas is not a right-wing movement but an Islamic one, championed by progressives supporting Palestinian Arabs including former Democratic President Jimmy Carter.

The Times is actively moving past its history of ignoring Palestinian Muslim antisemitism and terrorism to actively recharacterizing it as an evil of the right. I wonder whether these efforts will win the praise or scorn of Muslim anti-Zionist Democratic members of Congress like Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI).

Related First.One.Through articles:

The New York Times Refuses to Label Hamas a Terrorist Group

The New York Times wants the military to defeat terrorists (but not Hamas)

Strange difference of opinion on Boko Haram and Hamas in New York Times

For The New York Times, “From the River to the Sea” Is The Chant of Jewish and Christian Zealots

The Many Lies of Jimmy Carter

Educating the New York Times: Hamas is the Muslim Brotherhood

Even The New York Times Needs to Fire David Halbfinger

What’s “Left” for The New York Times?

Socialists Employ Arabs’ Four Step Battle Plan

NY Times Hails the Heroes of Hamas

Differentiating Hamas