The brutal, barbarous slaughter of 1,200 innocent civilians and the taking of over 200 hostages commencing on Oct. 7, which witnessed the biggest massacre the Jewish people have had to suffer since the Holocaust, offends every human sentiment and feeling.
The sheer raw emotion such an event evokes is still being experienced throughout the world community. To those personally impacted, the feeling would be multiplied 100-fold if not more.
The Iranian-backed terrorist group Hamas and its morally repugnant leadership responsible for this atrocity need unequivocal condemnation and destruction.
Yet the majority of the Western media portray the resulting understandable Israeli response—allowed under all international laws and protocols—as somehow offending human rights, disproportionate, if not outright illegal.
The commentary and reporting largely fail to call out, expose, and remind their respective audiences of the depravity of the acts, including raping parents in front of children before murdering them. The list of documented atrocities is heinous.
What is worse, the documented evidence comes to us courtesy of the perpetrators’ own videos.
Such a callous disregard for innocent human life is unfathomable.
However, as soon as Israel rightly pursued the terrorists to their safe havens (they use their own people as human shields) we have group-thinking Western media peddling moral equivalence and ignorantly asserting war crimes against Israel.
How any right-minded, fair, and compassionate person can give any ground to these terrorists is truly baffling.
Facts of the Matter Lost in Reports
It is a tragic consequence of conflict that innocent lives will be lost. The law correctly demands that such losses need to be minimised.In recognition of this, the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) dropped leaflets and sent text messages warning civilians well in advance before military action took place.
The terrorists responded by refusing to allow the civilians to leave, cowardly using their own people as shields.
The resultant deaths are then used as propaganda against Israel when the civilian toll rises.
On the other hand, Hamas deliberately and without warning seeks to kill as many Israeli civilians as possible.
A compare and contrast would be salient.
And rather than calling Hamas a “militant group” it should be called for what it is—an internationally recognised terrorist group with no “ifs” or “buts” (Are you reading this at the New York Times?).
Continual references to Gaza being occupied by Israel are also demonstrably false. Israel does not control a square millimetre of Gaza. Hamas’ control of Gaza is the reason for the abject poverty of the people who reside there.
Suggestions for a ceasefire conveniently ignore the numerous ceasefires Hamas has previously breached.
Hamas, from a tactical point of view, would love a ceasefire to enable it to regroup and rearm.
When even Hilary Clinton acknowledges this obvious point, one wonders why the media and commentators have such difficulty in grasping the obvious.
And in the meantime, the hostages would continue to languish.
Iran and Hezbollah will be emboldened and see it as another sign of waning Western resolve to defend a fellow democracy.
The role of the reporters is surely to report these well-known reasons for the civilian casualties and lay the blame where it belongs, including reporting that failed rocket launches from the terrorists damaged vital infrastructure and killed their own.
Another issue is to report on the labyrinth of tunnels under and surrounding a hospital—a deliberate tactic by those without a moral compass to avoid scrutiny and attack.
Article 19 of the Geneva Convention (designed to keep war as civilised as possible) specifically acknowledges that hospitals used for military purposes forfeit the protection that would normally be afforded to them.
Why most in the media fail or refuse to acknowledge these facts in their reporting is beyond disappointing.
Mentioning Hamas, Israel in the Same Breath Is Wrong
The unquestioning repetition of Hamas’ assertions as to number of casualties is lazy at best but nevertheless irresponsibly misleading.This is a terrorist organisation that organised a cold-blooded mass slaughter of hundreds of Jews and yet their assertions are given equal weight as those coming from the IDF.
The undeserved credibility provided to the Hamas propagandists that is put on equal footing and status as the Israeli officials is repugnant at every level. Israel is the only genuine liberal democracy in the Middle East.
Although reports pointing out the mixed race and religious makeup of the IDF would be another public service the media might provide ...
What remains particularly disturbing is how government-owned media such as the BBC and Australia’s ABC have slanted reporting while brushing aside the catalyst for Israel’s operations.
The framing of the terrorists and Israel as morally equivalent is to do great violence to fair reporting.
Until journalists return to their rightful and important task of reporting facts, their professional standing will continue to languish at the bottom of the table with used car salesmen.
Golda Meir best summed up the path to peace in the Middle East when she asked the Palestinian leadership to begin loving their own children more than they hate Jewish children.
Even a few journalists reporting such sentiments would help inform the public and deny terrorism its undeservedly easy ride in the media.
