American and European media outlets in recent days can’t produce enough stories about the Netanyahu government possibly falling apart after agreeing to a ceasefire with the terrorist organization Hamas.
What the mainstream media has conveniently forgotten to mention is what led the administration to this dilemma.
After an intelligence-gathering mission by the Israel Defense Forces went awry, resulting in the killing of an Israeli special-forces soldier, Hamas launched an unprecedented attack on Israeli civilians, firing nearly five hundred rockets on communities in southern Israel from the Gaza Strip.
In this latest barrage of rocket attacks against Israeli civilians, one Israeli was killed and well over 100 were injured, while rockets directly hit homes in the southern cities of Sderot and Ashkelon. A civilian bus carrying Israeli soldiers was hit by an anti-tank missile and erupted in flames minutes after they disembarked the vehicle. Warning sirens wailed as the night sky blazed with the light of incoming Hamas rockets. Schools in the south canceled their classes, and communities were instructed to remain near bomb shelters.
As an American newly arrived in Israel, I am appalled that the international and American press willingness to ignore this large-scale terror attack against the Jewish state.
Weeks after the shooting that killed eleven Jews at a Pittsburgh synagogue (the deadliest assault on Jews in U.S history), the media couldn’t wait to find ways to blame President Trump and white supremacists. Yet when Palestinians target Israelis — Jewish civilians — Mum’s the word as to reporting the murderers.
The media’s failure to report and condemn anti-Semitism wherever it manifests itself is a breach of journalistic standards. But when has the mainstream media’s efforts to find moral equivalency between Islamic terrorists and Israel ever taken a back seat to truth in reporting?
So, what exactly did the press report?
In the limited coverage offered, the BBC described the terror attack as “deadly fire traded across border.” TIME magazine described Hamas’ bombardment of Israeli men, women and children as an “exchange” of heavy fire.
These outlets also conveniently ignore that Palestinians in Gaza have been launching incendiary kites and balloons since May 2018, resulting in the burning of at least 2,260 acres of woodland and 1,500 acres of agricultural crops. Some of these balloons reached schoolyards in Israel.
The mainstream media seems to be at a loss when Palestinians are implicated in attempts to murder Jews — or, when they can’t be used as fodder, to push their blame the political right agenda. Otherwise, they would finally call out people like newly elected Minnesota Congresswoman Ilhan Omar.
Out of 105 news stories written in the aftermath of her Election Day victory, not a single one mentioned that she believes Jews possess mind-control abilities or that Israel is “evil.”
No one in the media called on the Democratic Party to distance itself from this poisonous rhetoric. They just celebrated her being the first Muslim woman elected to Congress. An achievement? Yes. But you would think they rather champion a person without hate in her heart.
But why would they? Women’s March co-founder Linda Sarsour justified Hamas’ rocket attacks against Israeli civilians, yet she is hailed as a feminist hero by the American mainstream press. But just so there is no doubt that Hamas or any of these people actually care about Palestinian lives, the man who was murdered in one of the Hamas rocket attacks was a Palestinian father of six and contractor gainfully employed in Israel
Fighting against anti-Semitism or any bigotry should never be a partisan issue. It shouldn’t matter whether you are politically on the left or the right to denounce attempts to murder Jews. When the press refuses to report the perpetrators of hate, they become accomplices to these heinous acts.
So, forgive me if I take it a bit personal when a genocidal terror group has put a bullseye on mine and my neighbors back and the media has chosen to ignore those pulling trigger because it doesn’t fit their narrative.
Bradley Martin is a senior fellow with the news and public policy group Haym Salomon Center.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of The Daily Caller.