Israel freed four hostages over the weekend who have been held by Hamas in unimaginable conditions for eight months. But some in the media only seem to care about the terrorists and terrorist sympathizers who died in the process.
“More than 200 Palestinians killed,” The Washington Post shamelessly wrote of the “brazen daytime raid.”
“How an Israeli raid freed 4 hostages and killed scores of Palestinians in Gaza,” reads one Associated Press headline.
The far-left, former MSNBC commentator Medhi Hassan dared to say that the raid wouldn’t have been necessary if Israel had agreed to peace talks.
Did he say anything about the dozens of innocent Palestinians killed in the raid to rescue them, a raid that wouldn’t have been necessary if Netanyahu had agreed to the hostage release deal – for all the hostages, not just four! – that Biden had claimed Netanyahu had agreed to? https://t.co/Y0augijzBX
— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) June 8, 2024
Overall, it was one of the “bloodiest” raids of the war, at least if you’re willing to take Hamas’ self-reported figures at face value, as these outlets do.
The point here is to paint a picture that is both utilitarian and moralizing, a strange combination. “How can four lives be worth 200?” these headlines rhetorically pose. The implied answer is that they cannot be — but that requires de-contextualizing everything that’s occurred since Oct. 7. Forget these are hostages viciously, arbitrarily kidnapped and subjected to torturous conditions, and that Hamas was free to hand them back at any time and enter into ceasefire negotiations. No, the carnage is selfish Israel’s fault for wanting to get them back.
The truth of the matter, buried near the bottom of The Post’s reporting, is that the Israeli rescue team met heavy fire approaching the two buildings where the hostages were held and were pursued as they were leaving Gaza. Were they just supposed to let Hamas terrorists kill them, along with the hostages? We’ll likely never know how many Palestinian deaths were among those terrorists fighting to hold onto the hostages, and how many were just average people minding their own business.
The Palestinian deaths, however many of them there really were, are entirely at the hands of Hamas. We’ll never These hostages were held in civilian areas, no doubt to generate the very sympathetic coverage that the AP and The Post put out. No doubt, too, that almost everyone in the area knew the hostages were being held there. The only real civilians in this case are the four hostages who will finally get to see their families again.