Hundreds of Palestinians are dead — a terrible tragedy — after a rocket exploded late last Tuesday at a hospital in Gaza, which was crowded not only with injured patients but with civilians seeking shelter from bombings.
Hamas — as they always do — blamed Israel for killing innocents. What else would they say?
It’s what the media did that is so troubling.
In a breaking news notification, The New York Times took Hamas’s word for it. The headline, published soon after the incident, screamed “Israeli Strike Kills Hundreds in Hospital, Palestinians Say.”
The Israeli Defense Force did what a responsible army should do, and actually examined the evidence. An IDF spokesman, a few hours later, responded to Hamas’s false claim and denied responsibility, pointing out that no Israeli aircraft had been operating in the area of the hospital. Israel also released footage showing that the hospital was struck by a wayward missile fired from the parking lot of the hospital. The IDF spokesperson also said that recordings of intercepted conversations and drone footage establish that the hospital was hit by a rocket fired by Gaza-based terrorist group Islamic Jihad.
Faced with specific evidence that what Hamas was saying was wrong, the editors at the Times changed the headline — twice. The first said that “At Least 500 Dead in Strike on Gaza Hospital, Palestinians Say.” The second, finally, called it a “blast” instead of a “strike,” but still “At Least 500 Dead in Blast at Gaza Hospital, Palestinians Say.”
So in the space of several hours — and with no admission of a mistake or a correction — it went from an Israeli strike to an ambiguous blast.
Even then, the headline was still wrong. On Wednesday, President Joe Biden in Israel stated that based on intelligence reports, it was established that the deaths were not caused by Israel but by rockets that were aimed for Tel Aviv, and instead exploded at the hospital. Yet with the president of the United States saying unequivocally that Israel was not responsible, NPR reported that Israel and Hamas were “trading blame,” not that Israel was not responsible.
It took until Thursday for CNN to conclude that its own investigation was “consistent” with what the president and the IDF said.
In addition, while what happened at the hospital was still horrific, the Palestine Health Ministry claimed that at least 500 people were killed, while the accurate number according to U.S. intelligence was 100 to 300 people were killed.
As the media should know, but often forgets to report, the Palestine Health Ministry, which has been relied upon by the media, is controlled by Hamas, whose interest is in exaggerating death and injury numbers, not reporting them accurately.
Why was the media so quick to credit the Palestinians and blame Israel?
Why did it report that the two sides were “trading blame,” even after the president of the United States said that Israel was not responsible?
Indeed, why has it been taking as true the reports coming from a Health Ministry that is under the control of Hamas?
As a senior adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pointed out, reporting on numbers from the Palestine Health Ministry is like calling a doctor in North Korea and expecting an honest answer. Why does the American media equate what the terrorists tell them with what Israel, a transparent democracy, tells them?
This will be an ugly war. Israel needs international support. If the past is any indication, Israel will be blamed not only for what it does, but for what it does not do. The explosion at the hospital triggered protests around the world. And those protests were aimed at Israel, not those who were responsible.
Antisemitism? What else?
