TRUTH BE DAMNED: Tapper Leaves Door Open to Israel Bombing Hospital

Nicholas Fondacaro
October 18th, 2023 3:35 PM

Text to Speech

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CNN’s Jake Tapper made a fool out of himself when he proclaimed in all seriousness that he and the world had “no reason to doubt” Hamas’s claims about Israel allegedly bombing a hospital in Gaza. But in the light of day, a leveled hospital quickly turned into a partially torched parking lot and shattered windows as irrefutable evidence proved it to have been a rocket fired from Gaza. But Tapper didn’t care about the truth on Wednesday’s CNN News Central when he continued to leave the door open to Hamas’s lies.

“Let's go to a major story developing right now in Gaza, what the Palestinian government is calling a war crime, the government in Gaza says the Israeli Defense Forces struck a hospital in the center of Gaza City,” Tapper initially announced on Tuesday. “[W]e have reports of hundreds killed and there's no reason to doubt that.” He refused to mention that the Hamas terrorist organization controlled the Health Ministry.

Dropping any mention of those supposed hundreds he was adamant were blown to bits by Israel less than 24 hours before, Tapper began his Wednesday coverage by timidly admitting that the Health Ministry was controlled by terrorists and that, “It is not unheard of for them to misfire and kill their own people accidentally and blame it on Israel.”

“And it does seem as though that is what the National Security Council believes happened here,” he added.

 

 

He was followed up by CNN host Kaitlan Collins who reported that U.S. officials have seen enough evidence to deduce that the damage at the hospital was caused by an errant rocket fired from Gaza:

Yeah. And Jake, this comes after a lot of uproar and unrest that happened as a result of that explosion at that hospital in Gaza, with a lot of governments and even some lawmakers blaming the Israeli government, as, of course, you saw Palestinian authorities also doing similar yesterday. But now we do have a clear statement and one of the clearest that we've gotten yet from the U.S. administration saying that they do not believe Israel was responsible for that explosion.

Later in the show, Tapper was speaking to anti-Israel CNN host Christiane Amanpour and inexplicably left the door open to the possibility that Israel did bomb the hospital; that’s despite all the video, photographic, and intercepted communication that proved terrorists inside Gaza were to blame.

“And if it is true that the Israelis were not responsible, then what does that say of the willingness of these Arab leaders to just automatically believe whatever the Palestinians say even if what they're saying isn't accurate?” he asked Amanpour.

She argued that the skepticism and hatred toward Israel over the incident were justified because they were supposedly the ones who lied about bombings. “They've seen so many times. And because, and I'm sorry to say this, because in the past the Israeli IDF has not been honest about what actually happened,” she huffed.

Elsewhere on CNN, host John Berman gawked at the misinformation and damage his network helped to spread. He commented that it might not be "possible at this point" for Israel to effectively push back on the narrative "given how quickly that information spread."

 

 

And correspondent Sara Sidner was taking the word of a social media “influencer” and their now-deleted post to continue to push the debunked lie. Luckily, Tal Heinrich, the spokeswoman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was there to tell her off.

 

 

The transcript is below. Click "expand" to read:

CNN News Central
October 18, 2023
11:01:33 a.m. Eastern

(…)

JAKE TAPPER: Kaitlan, we just got this consequential statement from the National Security Council. We should note it is not unheard of for the Palestinian authorities, the hospitals and the Health Ministry which are controlled by Hamas which the U.S. government does label a terrorist organization. It is not unheard of for them to misfire and kill their own people accidentally and blame it on Israel. And it does seem as though that is what the National Security Council believes happened here.

KAITLAN COLLINS: Yeah. And Jake, this comes after a lot of uproar and unrest that happened as a result of that explosion at that hospital in Gaza, with a lot of governments and even some lawmakers blaming the Israeli government, as, of course, you saw Palestinian authorities also doing similar yesterday. But now we do have a clear statement and one of the clearest that we've gotten yet from the U.S. administration saying that they do not believe Israel was responsible for that explosion.

(…)

11:36:27 a.m. Eastern

TAPPER: Yeah. If – Do you think that the leaders, these Arab leaders canceled their trip because of what happened at the hospital in Gaza?

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR:  Yes.

TAPPER: You do. And if it is true that the Israelis were not responsible, then what does that say of the willingness of these Arab leaders to just automatically believe whatever the Palestinians say even if what they're saying isn't accurate?

AMANPOUR: So, this is a really important conundrum. First and foremost, we know that it is because of that because the Jordanian ambassador to Washington last night basically said this is not the moment, and the Palestinian president said he could not go, Mahmoud Abbas, to any such meeting under these circumstances.

Now, the issue is no matter what the Israelis say, and now what the U.S. say, in the beginning before there was any, quote, unquote “investigation” –  well, there was an investigation and they came to their conclusions, it ignited the Arab world because –

TAPPER:  Yeah.

AMANPOUR: -- they've seen so many times. And because, and I'm sorry to say this, because in the past the Israeli IDF has not been honest about what actually happened.

(…)

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