NewsNation continued to flaunt its moral compass on Monday, with primetime host Dan Abrams taking to his eponymous show to call out “far-left media” organizations like MSNBC and The New York Times because they were trying to draw a parody between Hamas releasing the women and children they kidnapped with Israel releasing convicted terrorists, who were women and young adults. He called their arguments “disgusting” and “so dumb.”
He opened his monologue by decrying how, “so many in the media around the world seem to be falsely equating innocent civilians, toddlers, grade-schoolers taken hostage often from or with their parents on October, 7th – if those parents are still alive – with the accused and in most cases convicted Palestinian criminals they're being traded for.”
Noting that many of the people Israel was releasing were women and young adults, Abrams pointed out that, “so many are choosing to ignore...that the Palestinians have all been convicted or charged with violent, even terror-related, attacks. So, yeah, they’re ‘women and children,’ but it is not the same.”
The first to get called out by name was model Gigi Hadid, who claimed: “Israel is the only country in the world that keeps children as prisoners of war” alongside an image of Ahmed Mansara. Abrams played a video of Mansara and his cousin attempting to murder “a 13-year-old Jewish boy and a 20-year-old security guard” with knives, for which he was convicted in court.
“Here in the United States, teenagers charged with violent offenses are often prosecuted as adults. I don't know what Gigi Hadid is talking about,” Abrams would later scoff at her.
Pro-Hamas MSNBC host Ayman Mohyeldin was also called out by name for trying to draw false equivalencies between innocent Israeli civilians and the Palestinian terrorists he had an affinity for.
“See, he doesn’t want to distinguish between them because the reality is hard for apologists of Hamas to accept,” Abrams said of Mohyeldin (emphasis his). “It’s really not hard to distinguish between a 4-year-old kidnapped from the arms of her murdered parents and a 16-year-old, at the very least accused of if not convicted of a serious crime.”
There was also the case of The New York Times, which tried to put a sympathetic spin on a female Palestinian terrorist (again, the emphasis comes from Abrams):
Or 38-year-old Israa Jaabis, a Palestinian woman who attempted to set off a car bomb that wounded an Israeli police officer. She was disfigured in the explosion and her homecoming this weekend was covered extensively; with The New York Times headline from this weekend reading, quote, “A disfigured woman whose cases become well known is among the Palestinians released,” not “convicted suicide bomber.” And completely ignoring that she became disfigured when she tried to blow herself up with gas canisters at a West Bank checkpoint.
Abrams also gave a rundown of some of the other terrorists getting released. You can check that out in the transcript below.
European media has been some of the worst in terms of siding with Hamas terrorists over civilized Israelis. As an example of that, Abrams highlighted U.K.-based, Sky News anchor Kay Burley, who disgustingly suggested that Israel didn’t put equal value on Palestinian lives:
I was speaking to a hostage negotiator this morning. He made the comparison between the 50 hostages that Hamas has promised to release as opposed to the 150 prisoners that are Palestinians, that Israel has said that it will release; and he made the comparison between the numbers and the fact that does Israel not think that Palestinian lives are valued as highly as Israeli lives.
“It's not really just disgusting, it's just so dumb!” he told her off.
Adding: “Of course, they're trading three-for-one because they have to! This has got to be a tough pill for Israel to swallow to see Hamas succeeding in many ways, seeing Hamas getting exactly what it wanted when it murdered and then kidnapped hundreds. It speaks to some degree to how much Israel values the lives that they're willing to agree to that kind of terrible deal!”
The transcript is below. Click "expand" to read:
NewsNation’s Dan Abrams Live
November 27, 2023
9:04:39 p.m. EasternDAN ABRAMS: As Israel and Hamas extend that truce for 2 more days with the promise of more hostages released in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, so many in the media around the world seem to be falsely equating innocent civilians, toddlers, grade-schoolers taken hostage often from or with their parents on October, 7th – if those parents are still alive – with the accused and in most cases convicted Palestinian criminals they're being traded for.
You see, both the Israeli hostages and the Palestinian prisoners being released are “women and children” [uses air quotes]. In the case of the Palestinians, they're teenagers almost all 16 or older. The comparisons just don’t work. And yet what so many are choosing to ignore is that the Palestinians have all been convicted or charged with violent, even terror-related, attacks. So, yeah, they’re “women and children” [uses air quotes], but it is not the same.
That didn’t stop model Gigi Hadid from posting to her nearly 80 million followers, 80 million, 8-0 on social media, quote: “Israel is the only country in the world that keeps children as prisoners of war.” She posts that alongside the story of Ahmed Mansara, a Palestinian who when he was 13, along with his cousin, stabbed and severely injured a 13-year-old Jewish boy and a 20-year-old security guard. In fact, the attack was caught on video. You can see Mansara and his cousin running after people with knives on surveillance footage.
You want to compare that now-21-year-old with, I don’t know, 4-year-old Abigail Idan, who saw her parents killed right in front of her before she was taken hostage and swept away to Gaza? She turned 4 while being held hostage. Or 9-year-old Emily Hand, whose father prayed she was dead because the alternative was torture at the hands of terrorists?
It’s not just celebrities, either. You see it too often in the far-left media. MSNBC host Ayman Mohyeldin tweeting on the first day of the truce and hostage release, quote: “You’re about to see in real time over the next four days how the media can choose who it humanizes and who it villainizes, who is a child and who is a minor, who is a mother and who is an accomplice. Who is a hostage and who is a prisoner. In short who is innocent and who is not.”
See, he doesn’t want to distinguish between them because the reality is hard for apologists of Hamas to accept. Remember, this is from a guy who the day of the attack said on the air that the October 7 murders were the, quote, “deadly consequences” of failed policies on the American administration’s part and the Israelis.
It’s really not hard to distinguish between a 4-year-old kidnapped from the arms of her murdered parents and a 16-year-old, at the very least accused of if not convicted of a serious crime.
Here in the United States, teenagers charged with violent offenses are often prosecuted as adults. I don't know what Gigi Hadid is talking about. But children stolen from their parents, they're called crime victims.
Here are some of the so-called women and children released by Israel. 17 year-old Mohammed Abu Katish, who stabbed him paralyzed a 20-year-old Jewish man. Nourhan Awad, who was 17 when she was arrested in 2017 for attempting to stab an Israeli soldier with a pair of scissors. Sixteen-year-old Nafod Hamed who stabbed an Israeli woman nearly death in front of her five children.
Or 38-year-old Israa Jaabis, a Palestinian woman who attempted to set off a car bomb that wounded an Israeli police officer. She was disfigured in the explosion and her homecoming this weekend was covered extensively; with The New York Times headline from this weekend reading, quote, “A disfigured woman whose cases become well known is among the Palestinians released,” not “convicted suicide bomber.” And completely ignoring that she became disfigured when she tried to blow herself up with gas canisters at a West Bank checkpoint.
There was widespread celebration of the release of now-23-year-old Marah Bakir who was 16 when she was sentence for attempting to stab an Israeli border police officer. The list goes on and on and on.
Look. It is true. There is controversy around the judicial proceedings surrounding some of those arrested in the West Bank and Gaza because they face military courts with higher conviction rates that in the typical Israeli civilian justice system. And you can absolutely question that. I have questions about that. But I'll tell you this: That system as a whole, it's still more democratic by far than any of the systems in any of the Arab countries, which neighbor Israel. And the evidence against the vast majority of these women and “children” [uses air quotes] is overwhelmed. But so many in the media insist on giving equal weight to the word of Hamas terrorists about the innocence of those arrest.
Think about this. On Sky News, one of the best known anchors on the network and perhaps in all of Europe, asked this question of an Israeli spokesperson regarding Israel agreeing to release three Palestinians in exchange for every Israeli stage.
[Cuts to video]
KAY BURLEY: I was speaking to a hostage negotiator this morning. He made the comparison between the 50 hostages that Hamas has promised to release as opposed to the 150 prisoners that are Palestinians, that Israel has said that it will release; and he made the comparison between the numbers and the fact that does Israel not think that Palestinian lives are valued as highly as Israeli lives.
EYLON LEVY: That is an astonishing accusation. If we could release one prisoner for every one hostage, we would obviously do that. We are operating in horrific circumstances. We not choosing to release these prisoners who have blood on hands. We are talking about people who have been convicted of stabbing and shooting attacks. [Transition] But really it is outrageous to suggest that the fact that we all willing to release prisoners who are convicted of terrorism offenses, more of them than we are getting our own innocent children back somehow suggest that we don't care about Palestinian lives. Really? That's a disgusting accusation.
[Cuts back to live]
ABRAMS: It's not really just disgusting, it's just so dumb! Of course, they're trading three-for-one because they have to! This has got to be a tough pill for Israel to swallow to see Hamas succeeding in many ways, seeing Hamas getting exactly what it wanted when it murdered and then kidnapped hundreds. It speaks to some degree to how much Israel values the lives that they're willing to agree to that kind of terrible deal! Most importantly, it just seems so patently absurd to compare the babies and elderly who were taken hostage and now released to the Palestinians in Israeli custody, some for attempting to kill.
(…)
