Reuters Deploys the "P" Word to Whitewash Hamas, Muslim Brotherhood

Spinning and splitting hairs like crazy, the news agency makes an astounding claim about the folks whose motto is "Allah is our objective; the Prophet is our leader; the Quran is our law; Jihad is our way; dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope":

(Reuters) - Two Gaza militants killed by Israel on Saturday were the most senior al Qaeda affiliates in the Palestinian enclave, and one had links to jihadi networks in Egypt, Jordan and Iraq, sources said on Sunday. 

Hisham al-Saedni and Ashraf al-Sabah, who were killed by an air strike as they rode a motorcycle, were ultra-conservative Salafi Islamists. 

Armed Salafis, while a fringe presence in Gaza, have been stepping up violence against Israel while at times clashing with the Palestinian Hamas government. They also operate in the neighboring Egyptian Sinai. 

Saedni and Sabah were leaders, respectively, of the Tawhid wa-Jihad and Ansar Al- 

Sunna groups, two Salafi sources said. The movements share al Qaeda's vision of global jihad and opposed the more pragmatic Islamism espoused by Hamas and Cairo's politically dominant Muslim Brotherhood.

"Pragmatic," are they? About as "pragmatic" as, say, a certain Herr Hitler, another "pragmatist" who dreamt of snuffing out Jewry for the good of humankind.

As for the hair-splitting about "pragmatic" Islamists and less-"pragmatic" ones, the only real difference between the two is that the "pragmatists" tend to be more patient and have more effective P.R.