The Media's Post-Gaza-War Propaganda Campaign Against Israel Is Already Under Way (Daled Amos) ~ Elder Of Ziyon

Thursday, January 30, 2025

The Media's Post-Gaza-War Propaganda Campaign Against Israel Is Already Under Way (Daled Amos)

By Daled Amos

The cease-fire is holding, Israeli hostages are being exchanged for Palestinian terrorists, and the stage is being set for further Israeli compromises.

What could go wrong?

Typical of the media agenda leading up to the cease-fire is the sloppy media narrative as per The Washington Post:

The conflict started when Hamas-led fighters attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing around 1,200 people and taking more than 250 others hostage. The Israeli military responded with a brutal campaign that destroyed much of Gaza and killed at least 47,000 people, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but says the majority of the dead are women and children.

...in which:

o  Hamas terrorists are described as "Hamas-led fighters
o  The massacre is described merely as an attack, with no modifier
o While the Israeli retaliation is described with an added adjective as a brutal campaign
o  At least 47,000 were killed -- despite analyses that dispute that number
o  The Gaza Health Ministry is quoted, without mentioning it is controlled by Hamas
o  The claim that the majority of those dead are "women and children" without mentioning contrary views
o  No mention of what age range defines "children"
o  No mention of the Hamas rockets landing in Gaza or how many Gazans killed by those rockets

Now, the media is framing the appropriate cease-fire narrative for their audiences. All this time, the media has carefully eschewed labeling Hamas as terrorists. This is hardly the time to describe the agreement as swapping of hostages for terrorists. Instead, we have descriptions along the lines of The New York Times:

Mere "prisoners"?

In the second paragraph, they clarify:

In the West Bank city of Ramallah, crowds of Palestinians held aloft the returning prisoners, many of whom had been jailed for deadly militant attacks against Israelis

Give The New York Times credit for at least admitting that the attacks were deadly. But many of them were guilty of "deadly attacks"?

Honest Reporting points out that actually the vast majority of the first batch of "prisoners" -- 83% -- were guilty of violent and deadly offenses.

But the New York Times "admission" of deadly attacks does not stop them from gushing:

"One of the largest prisoner exchanges" -- a prime example of New York Times evenhandedness, equating hostages with terrorists, "some" of whom are serving life sentences, without any specifics as to why.

Speaking about that exchange, it is noteworthy that Hamas violated the agreement during the second exchange. As The Washington Post noted:

Israel said Saturday that Hamas had violated the deal, which required it to release all living civilian women first. Israel had expected that Arbel Yehud, a 29-year-old civilian who was abducted with her boyfriend from Kibbutz Nir Oz on Oct. 7, would be among those in the Saturday release. [the article is reposted on msn.com]

JNS therefore duly noted that Israel took measures to ensure that Hamas would follow through by releasing Israeli hostage Arbel Yehud as agreed:

But CNN's sloppily constructed headline could not be bothered with the facts:

The headline paints Israel in the worst possible light. It is not until the eighth paragraph that CNN deigns to inform us:

Israel has been pushing for the release of Arbel Yehud, 29, who was kidnapped from her home in kibbutz Nir Oz. Israel says she is a civilian and should have been released Saturday.

Not only does CNN bury this important detail, but they also make it seem that Israel is inconveniencing the hapless Hamas terrorist leaders by "pushing" for the release.

In case you are wondering just how many cease-fire violations is Hamas guilty of violating...

According to Haaretz, Hamas is guilty of 3 violations:

The first, current phase of the deal was intended to be the simplest of the deal's proposed three phases. Both Hamas and Israel are thought to be committed to the so-called humanitarian part of the phase, but obstacles thrown up by both sides have threatened to stop the deal before it even began.

Hamas failed to submit to Israel the names of the hostages to be released in time, didn't release the civilian hostage Arbel Yehoud as promised and delayed issuing the list specifying which of the hostages designated for release are still alive. Israel, for its part, delayed allowing displaced residents of northern Gaza to return to their homes in response.

The 3 Hamas violations are:

o Failing to submit to Israel the names of the hostages to be released in time
o Not releasing the civilian hostage Arbel Yehoud as promised
o Delaying issuing the list specifying which of the hostages designated for release are still alive

But wait! Israel also placed an obstacle preventing the smooth proceeding of the cease-fire. According to Haaretz, Israel put an obstacle in the way of the cease-fire by insisting on the release of a kidnapped hostage as per the agreement.

In their haste to be "fair" and find something to pin on Israel, Haaretz claims that "obstacles thrown up by both sides have threatened to stop the deal before it even began," But the one "obstacle" by Israel clearly happened after the cease-fire began.

Now the campaign to erase Hamas responsibility for the war begins, as CNN tells us that this is not Hamas's war at all:

After 16 months of war, we were inundated by the media agenda to reframe the Hamas massacre itself and the war that Israel had to wage to protect itself.

Now, we should prepare for the media's coverup of the cease-fire as well.