THE TENSION: Update: Militant Mickey Returns to TV

The sueaky-voiced Mickey Mouse look-alike named Farfur
While leaders in the U.S. are wasting time debating the semantics of the Surge, extremists are making no such digressions from their mission to get their message out.

UPDATE 2: AFP and Reuters report Hamas-run television defied Israel and the Palestinian government on Friday by airing a controversial children's show with a Mickey Mouse lookalike preaching resistance and Islamic domination.

Padded out with Islamic songs and calling cities in Israel part of Palestine, Friday's episode apparently sought to prepare children for their end-of-year examinations.

Asked by an Al-Aqsa reporter why he looked around to see what his friends were writing, Farfur -- whose name means butterfly -- answered: "Because the Jews destroyed my home and I left my books and notes under the rubble."

"I'm calling on all children to read more and more to prepare for exams because the Jews don't want us to learn," said Farfur who failed the test.

"Anyone who wants to go to the sea will be killed," said Farfur.

UPDATE 1: The Associated Press reports Hamas militants have suspended a TV program that featured a Mickey Mouse lookalike urging Palestinian children to fight Israel and work for global Islamic domination, the Palestinian information minister said Wednesday.

Information Minister Mustafa Barghouti said the character - a giant black-and-white rodent with a high-pitched voice - represented a "mistaken approach" to the Palestinian struggle against Israeli occupation.

He said that the program was pulled from Hamas-affiliated Al Aqsa TV at his ministry's request and "placed under review."

The character, named "Farfour," or "butterfly," but unmistakably a copy of the Disney character, preached against the U.S. and Israel each Friday on the show called "Tomorrow's Pioneers."

"You and I are laying the foundation for a world led by Islamists," Farfour squeaked on a recent episode. "We will return the Islamic community to its former greatness, and liberate Jerusalem, God willing, liberate Iraq, God willing, and liberate all the countries of the Muslims invaded by the murderers."

ORIGINAL POST: Ynet reports a Mickey Mouse-like character is making regular appearances on Hamas's al-Aqsa TV to teach Palestinian children that Islam will "dominate the world."

"The squeaky-voiced Mickey Mouse look-alike, named Farfur, is the star of a weekly children's program called Tomorrow's Pioneers on the official Hamas TV station," PMW said, adding that the character takes "every opportunity to indoctrinate young viewers with teachings of Islamic supremacy, hatred of Israel and the US and support of 'resistance' – the Palestinian euphemism for terror."

"We are setting with you the cornerstone for world leadership under Islamic leadership. Isn't it so, Saraa'?" Farfur asked, turning to a young girl who co-presents the children's program.

"Yes, our beloved children," she replied.

"You must be careful regarding your prayer and to go to the mosque for all five (daily) prayers. I say, in the mosque and in the first rows, until we can lead the world," Farfur continued.

"We remind you that we, the great ones, started this program to lead this world. The nucleus, with the will of Allah, will be from here, from Palestine. We will carry the concern of this (Islamic) nation that awaits us," added Saraa.

The dialogue makes clear to children watching the program that Israel's destruction is a clear goal of "Allah's program."