Words matter.  And exact words matter most of all.  Especially in the Middle East, where Palestinian leaders -- whether Fatah or Hamas -- have twisted and denatured nomenclatures to disguise their radical aims and reliance on terrorism.  Their semantic makeovers instead present a civilized and acceptable face to the world. And they're getting away with it, as most Western mainstream media help them distort words and language to suit Palestinian propaganda agendas. Here's how it's done, for example, in the Dec. 14 edition of the New York Times, in a dispatch from Nablus by Jerusalem bureau chief Jodi Rudoren, who writes about Hamas flexing its muscles in the West Bank ("Hamas Rally in West Bank Calls for Palestinian Unity," page A11). Hundreds of men and boys, Rudoren reports in her lead paragraph, were sporting the signature green of the "militant Hamas faction."  Right off the bat, Rudoren trots out the familiar euphemism "militant" so as to prevent readers...(Read Full Post)