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‘Do Your Godd*mn Job’: Former Israeli PM Goes Off On Anderson Cooper Over Gaza Hospital Rocket Strike

[Screenshot CNN]

Brianna Lyman News and Commentary Writer
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Former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett went off on CNN’s Anderson Cooper on Wednesday night over the Gaza hospital rocket strike.

Hundreds of people were allegedly killed Tuesday night after an explosion at the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which is controlled by Hamas.

Gazan authorities immediately blamed Israel despite conflicting reports about who was responsible. An Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson denied Israeli responsibility and alleged a rocked launched by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad had misfired and struck the hospital. President Joe Biden, who traveled to Israel on Tuesday, told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu it appears “the other team” is responsible for the strike.

Bennett was speaking on CNN when he brought up the “two side” claims.

“I do also want to talk about this floating the narratives or the claims,” he said. “There are no two sides to this hospital. Either it was bombed by Israel or it was targeted by someone else on the Palestinian side. And if it’s — if two people come and say, one says it’s raining outside and the other says it’s dry, you don’t bring the quotes of both sides. You just goddamn open the window and look whether it’s raining or not. That’s what we did. And this hospital, in fact it’s a parking lot, was hit definitely, a hundred percent, by Islamic Jihad barrage shot fired at 6:59 p.m.” (RELATED: Disinfo Reporter, Other Journalists Spread Hamas Narrative On Hospital Rocket Strike)

“We have three different videos from different angles showing it,” Bennett continued. “We have the ballistics. We know that an Israeli bomb would have created a crater, which does not exist. We know that the propellant in the rocket, because it was a long-term rocket targeted for Israel, so a lot of that propellant was still in the rocket, which created a lot of fire. We have two Hamas [inaudible] talking to each other and saying and admitting that it is from Islamic Jihad. So, Anderson, with all due respect, there aren’t two sides to this. Not everything is two sides. And I have a feeling that if it wasn’t the state of Israel, then I think the global media would have behaved very differently.”

“We’re simply saying we have not been able to independently verify the claims that have been made,” Cooper said. “We have reported exactly what Israel has put forward and also that the U.S. intelligence community has backed up as well. And that certainly seems to be what President Biden has also been basing his assessment on. It’s what he said, information from his own Defense Department, in addition to Israel’s presenting of evidence that takes the —”

“Anderson, I have to barge in here,” Bennett said. “I have to say something. I was in 9/11, I was in Manhattan when it happened. And if, a day later, al-Qaeda would have said that it’s America who perpetrated it, no one would have quoted al-Qaeda. No one would — and you didn’t have validation back then that it was al-Qaeda, but you knew it’s not America. And somehow there’s a double standard here.”

“You had 30 hours to validate,” he continued. “We have all the information. Everything is transparent. For heaven’s sakes, to see the headline of The New York Times saying the Palestinians claim that Israel bombarded a hospital — we don’t do that. It’s the Palestinian who rape young girls. It’s the Palestinians who tear apart limbs. It’s the Palestinians who burn whole families and shoot five-month-old babies. It’s the Palestinians, for heaven’s sake, who kidnapped 84-year-old Holocaust survivors. It’s not the Israelis. This is not what Israel does. And you’ve had ample time, do your job and show the truth. There is moral clarity in the world. Not everything has two sides to it.”

“Naftali Bennett, I appreciate your time. Thank you very much for being with us,” Cooper said.

Bennett later tweeted the clip, saying, “No, CNN, there aren’t ‘two sides’ to the Gaza hospital story. Go do your goddamn job.”