More Antisemitism — Legacy Media Implies Israeli Rescue Mission is War Crime

Israeli Defense Forces rescued four hostages from Hamas on Saturday — 245 days after the terror group kidnapped hundreds of civilians from Israel.

According to legacy media outlets including CNN, ABC News and The Washington Post, the miraculous rescue mission only illustrates Israel’s failure to adequately protect Palestinians. An NBC News article went so far as to imply IDF soldiers committed “war crimes” during the extraction (the piece’s original title —”Israel hostage rescue: New video shows how raid unfolded; war crimes possibly committed, U.N. says” — has since been changed).

The argument goes like this: Israel didn’t let civilians know the mission was taking place, so a disproportionate number were caught in the crossfire.

Is that a reasonable accusation? Let’s break it down.

Most outlets, including CNN, claim more than 270 civilians died, citing the Gaza Health Ministry. The ministry doesn’t distinguish between Hamas militants and civilians — but that  tidbit is usually buried somewhere in the article’s belly (nine paragraphs later, in CNN’s case).

Few outlets, if any, choose to mention that the Gaza Health Ministry is controlled by Gaza’s government — which Hamas took over in 2007.

“The daytime raid in the Nuseirat refugee camp freed four Israeli hostages and killed at least 274 Palestinians,” the Post crows in the second paragraph of its latest article.

Readers eventually learn that the captives “were held by Hamas under armed guard in the densely populated refugee camp, apparently in family homes” — but only after wading through three more paragraphs, a video and an advertisement.

Why are Israel’s efforts to rescue its citizens criticized more readily than Hamas’ penchant for hiding behind civilians, you might ask?

It’s textbook antisemitism.

The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IRHA) lists “applying double standards by requiring of [the State of Israel] a behavior not demanded of any other democratic nation” as a contemporary example of antisemitism.

Would we expect Ukraine to alert Russia of an impending hostage rescue mission? Could you imagine if America had alerted enemy combatants before saving citizens trapped in Benghazi?

Of course not! Alerting your enemy of a rescue mission defeats the purpose of a rescue mission. No one should castigate Israel for using standard military procedure to save its people, nor blame it for Hamas’ intentional and repeated use of civilians as human shields.

Please continue praying for the many hostages still trapped by Hamas and the innocent lives endangered by the fighting. And as always — be careful what you read.

Additional Articles and Resources

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