After the initial shock of the anti-Jewish pogrom committed by Hamas infiltrating Israel from the Gaza Strip, the New York Times was back to its usual tricks, giving space to professional anti-Semites like Columbia University professor Rashid Khalidi to change the subject from Palestinian atrocities against civilians. Khalidi quickly got an op-ed into the paper, “The U.S. Should Think Twice About Israel’s Plans for Gaza,” which devoted half of a single bland sentence to Hamas’s war crimes while faulting Israel for everything that’s ever happened in the Gaza Strip.
Khalidi, a former spokesman for the terrorist Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), traditionally shows up on liberal networks lambasting the idea of Israelis being able to defend themselves and comparing the Jewish state to a white mob in the Jim Crow era. Two years ago, Khalidi told MSNBC that "Israel has a military doctrine the disproportionate use of violence and force, and I think that what the United States is doing is basically running interference for Israel as it commits war crimes."
The Times also let Peter Beinart, formerly editor of The New Republic, continue his recent anti-Israel jihad in an op-ed. And sadly, there was much more in a similar vein of pro-Palestinian apologia.
A Friday news story whined about the lack of “historical context” in discussion of the Israel/Palestine conflict, just a few days after the mass war crime of murder, rape, and kidnapping of civilians, men, women, and children and infants by Hamas: “Palestinian Americans, Dismayed by Violence, Say Historical Context Is Being Overlooked.”
As news spread over the weekend that gunmen from Hamas, the Palestinian faction that governs the Gaza Strip, had killed hundreds and taken hostages in a surprise attack on Israel, Zarefah Baroud watched in horror from Seattle.
Ms. Baroud, a doctoral student and activist who is Palestinian American, said she felt deep sadness for the Israelis who were killed and kidnapped. And she was immediately worried that those killings would be “used to justify genocide” against Palestinians.
The Times even used the war to drive a domestic political wedge within the Republican Party. DeSantis-hostile Nicholas Nehamas wrote about a hostile questioner during a campaign stop in New Hampshire: “Voter Asks DeSantis, What About Palestinians?”
That was followed by a nitpicking fact check within a story on Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s (R) tough line against admitting Palestinians to the United States as refugees: “DeSantis Says Palestinians in Gaza Are ‘All Antisemitic’ and U.S. Should Refuse Refugees.”
When the CBS anchor Margaret Brennan pointed out to Mr. DeSantis that Arabs are Semites and replayed his remarks, he stood by his words.
Um, gotcha?
GOP-hostile reporter Jeremy Peters was his usual snotty self in Monday’s “In Conservative Media, Biden Is to Blame in the Hamas-Israel War.”
The conflict unfolding thousands of miles away in Israel and Gaza has its roots in decades of complex strife between Jews and Arabs over land. But to hear the way it’s being described in American conservative media, much of the fault and responsibility lies with one man: President Biden.
Republicans are justifiably pointing to the administration transferring $6 billion in frozen oil money to Iran as part of a hostage deal.
Peters’ tone is negative, though he doesn’t actually spell out what he finds so wrongheaded about Republican criticism of Biden.
Barely mentioned in conservative media were the widely condemned comments from Mr. Trump in which he criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and referred to Hezbollah, the Iran-backed militant group, as “very smart.”….
Republican presidential candidates and elected officials have also seized on the Hamas attack to lay blame on the president, drawing a connection to the hostage release deal and the $6 billion payment, which the United States froze after the attack.
….
Some conservatives have linked the outbreak of violence in Israel and Gaza to a broader critique of the left and liberal policies -- often with unfounded claims. With thousands of migrants being stopped at the southern border every day, some in right-wing media have argued, without offering any evidence, that agents of Hamas are slipping through.
