Bari Weiss & Co. on the Israel/Palestine war

October 8, 2023 • 9:30 am

Some of the most sensible stuff about the media’s coverage of the Israeli/Palestine war—coverage that’s devolving into apologetics for Palestine, and the reasons why they had to attack— comes from this Free Press article by Bari Weiss.  It’s linked to four other articles worth reading.

Her piece is short, and here is one well-written part that happens to be true.  Bolding is mine:

You are about to withstand a barrage of lies about the war that broke out today in Israel.

Some of those lies will be explicit. Some of them will be lies of omission. Others will be lies of obfuscation. Or lies of minimization. Lies told by people who are simply too afraid to look at such an ugly, barbarous reality. And lies told by people whose true beliefs are too ugly to quite say aloud. Turn on cable news and you can hear some of them right now.

So let’s get some facts straight.

Israel was attacked last night. It was attacked by Hamas terrorists who streamed over the border from Gaza. They came on foot and on motorbikes. They came by truck and by car and by paraglider. They came to Israel to murder and maim and mutilate anyone they could find. And that is what they did.

It is impossible to know the numbers of the dead or the missing or the injured.

The official numbers as of this writing: 300 Israelis dead; 1,590 wounded. And dozens—maybe many more—taken hostage into Gaza. They include women, elders, and children.

But none of those words or numbers capture the evil of what unfolded today.

Young festival-goers running for their lives. Teenage girls dragged by their hair by terrorists. An old woman forced to pose with a Hamas rifle. A mother—a hostage—cradling two redheaded babies in her arms.

I have friends in Israel. Each one of them has a story of someone they know who is missing. Or injured. Or killed. This was not a tit-for-tat. This was not a justifiable military response, or just another day in a cycle of violence. This was the slaughter of innocent civilians.

New York City’s Democratic Socialists of America today announced a protest in honor of the attacks. It’s called All Out for Palestine: “In solidarity with the Palestinian people and their right to resist 75 years of occupation and apartheid.” The anti-Zionist group IfNotNow explained the attacks as Israel’s fault and said of the dead Jews: “Their blood is on the hands of the Israeli government.”

You will see a lot like this in the coming days. Ancient lies told in new language whose end is always, strangely, the same: a justification for genocide.

It stupefies me that the DSA is now supporting Hamas for what it did. DSA members include Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (who hasn’t said a word or a tweet about Hamas’s attack) and Rashida Tlabi, also emitting nothing.  Here’s the DSA tweet from New York:

The IfNotNow tweet is simply reprehensible, blaming everything on Israel:

In the next post I’ll highlight two NYT articles by a correspondent of Arab descent; the articles purvey lies of obfuscation, minimization, and even explicit lies. The two articles are meant to evoke sympathy with Hamas terrorists by ignoring what they did and, instead, highlighting civilian deaths when Israel retaliatesm, as well as to create the false impression that Israel has turned Gaza into an “outdoor prison.”

At any rate, Weiss’s short intro is followed by three short pieces and a podcast. I haven’t listen to the podcast, but all three pieces are worth reading (I’ve given an except from each):

“Today is Israel’s 9/11“, by Noah Pollak

I am going to describe the images coming out of Israel over the last 12 hours. I don’t want to believe any of them are real, because they are horrifying, among the most gruesome scenes of mutilation, murder, and abduction imaginable. But there is now going to be a war between Israel and Hamas—and possibly a broader regional war. Israel will invade Gaza. As we speak, Israelis my age are being called up to war. Some of them are my friends.

Within two or three days, the media narrative will change, as it does every time, and the grisly invasion that started the war quickly will be minimized into a half sentence of euphemistic dishonesty in press accounts (“an incursion by Gaza-based militants”) so that the focus can turn to prosecuting Israel.

This is part of why everyone needs to know about the images—the ones you won’t see if you turn on MSNBC or the BBC today. Because so much of the media and Western foreign policy officialdom do not want to embarrass the Palestinians by showing the sadistic brutality of Hamas. They do not want to undermine the coming effort to pressure Israel to stop fighting. They do not want people to notice the Iranian role in the war and how it is fueled by an appallingly dangerous Biden administration policy toward the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism.

“I was at a music festival when the terror began,” by Arad Fruchter

I heard that two minutes after we left the festival, there was a traffic jam because everyone was trying to get out. I heard that the terrorists showed up and started killing people in their cars. I heard of people who sprinted away from their cars while terrorists shot at them. I have friends who were there who still haven’t been found. I don’t know where they are.

“From joy to terror: a postcard from Jerusalem,” by Daniel Gordis

I heard that two minutes after we left the festival, there was a traffic jam because everyone was trying to get out. I heard that the terrorists showed up and started killing people in their cars. I heard of people who sprinted away from their cars while terrorists shot at them. I have friends who were there who still haven’t been found. I don’t know where they are.

. . . No one can know how many soldiers will pay the ultimate price to keep this country alive, or how many more mothers and grandmothers and ordinary people not in uniform will be murdered. In fact, it feels like no one here knows anything that matters. We are feeling something Israelis have not felt in a long time. This is a feeling that has been obscured, perhaps, by many years of building and success and relative security. It is that feeling that has always been part of this haunting, sad, beautiful, holy place—the terror of not knowing what tomorrow will bring.

A 53-minute podcast interview by Bari Weiss: “War in Israel: Michael Oren explains how ‘evil’ infiltrated the country.”  When you go to the link, then click on the arrow at the bottom right of the image to hear the podcast.  You can also speed up the audio (see arrows in screenshot below):

25 thoughts on “Bari Weiss & Co. on the Israel/Palestine war”

      1. I’ve read that many compare it to how Americans felt after 9-11. It is a horrible feeling, and I’m sorry you are in the midst of such an ongoing tragedy.

        1. Yeah. I guess that in some ways it’s similar to 9/11, but there are important differences too.
          Once the 9/11 attacks were over, there was no immediate threat to America. The Palestinians and Hamas, and other very hostiles organizations and countries are still on our border.

          1. I agree, your circumstance is far more dire, surrounded by enemies as you are. And unlike America, Israel doesn’t have world support for an extreme reprisal, either.

  2. I would recommend people stop looking at or paying attention to the propaganda of the other side. Speak out against it yes, but do not become obsessed with it. Something about this social media is like moths to the headlights. Why give a damn about what the far out crazies think and just concentrate on what Israel and it’s friends must do. It is similar to the republican garbage. We know it is all lies so ignore it and don’t get consumed by it.

  4. It sickens me.

    No matter your view on the situation between Israel and Palestine, Hamas slaughtered unarmed civilians and abducted others. I dread to think of what is happening to those abducted.

    Even if you support Palestine (wrongly, in my opinion) these actions are abhorrent and should be universally condemned. And it appears almost impossible for Israel to retaliate without any civilian casualties because of how Hamas “fight”. They don’t sit around in barracks and man frontlines. They hide in hospitals.

    I also posted the following on Bari Weiss’ Substack. I don’t like to generalise, and it’s often wrong to say “these people who say x, also say y”. I’m sure there are plenty of examples of this not being true, but I hope you get my point:

    “The same people who will call you a literal Nazi for believing in colour-blind policies, sex-based rights, and controlled borders rejoice at this terrorist attack on Israel and the slaughter of Jewish civilians.”

    2. “The same people who will call you a literal Nazi for believing in colour-blind policies, sex-based rights, and controlled borders rejoice at this terrorist attack on Israel and the slaughter of Jewish civilians.”

      Yes, this is so, and dreadfully sad for all parties except for the people who do the name calling. One would think that one holocaust was enough, but what does it take to satisfy these people? Total extermination, as in Goebbels’ propaganda? Don’t they stand back and look at themselves, ever? For shame.

  5. Shortly after the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the DSA issued a statement blaming it equally on Russia, for invading, and NATO, for existing. The same mentality today, which we will see in the standard media, will blame the mass terrorism attacks on Israel on Hamas, for carrying them out, and on Israel, for existing. But the DSA has gone further by simply asserting its solidarity with Hamas, period. This no doubt reflects the doctrine of the guru of gender theory Judith Butler, that Hamas and Hezbollah are “Progressive” parts of the “global Left”—although Professor Butler added that criticism of their methods was still permissible, a nuance that is evidently beyond comprehension in the DSA .

  6. Just think what these two groups could accomplish if they stopped seeking revenge and developed their countries. War wrecks stuff. Building up is much harder, not as much “fun”, but the rewards are greater, the citizens’ needs are met. They have been fighting for over 70 years! Isn’t it time to stop?

  7. The Times of Israel has full coverage of the horrible events happening in Israel right now and I urge everyone to scroll through their live blogs from yesterday and today. And I am appalled that anyone with the knowledge of what is happening here could call it “resistance” rather than what it really is, ruthless terrorism. However, what I really wanted to share is a short article describing Yaffa Adar, an 85 year old women who showed extraordinary resolve and a complete lack of fear despite being kidnapped from her home and brought to the Gaza strip by Hamas terrorists. Her granddaughter said of the photo and short video of her kidnapping: “I want people to see it, and I want them to draw inspiration from her strength and composure. May we all find the strength to show those who wish to harm us this steel-willed aspect of our resolve”. I hope she and all the other captives in the Gaza strip are returned safely to their families.

    https://www.timesofisrael.com/waiting-for-official-help-relatives-scan-graphic-videos-from-gaza-to-find-missing

  8. Many Politicians and most MSMedia in the UK have expressed support for Israel and have condemned the Hamas terrorist atrocities against Israelis.
    This is politically expedient initially, as I’m pretty sure that in a day or so there will be a return to ‘balanced’ reporting and comment (The BBC will be in the front line). Which basically means pushing the ‘Palestinian Cause’ (PC). There are many in the UK, including many in our ‘liberal elite’, as well as some MSM/Politicians, who are relieved to be able to use the ‘PC’ to disguise a loathing of Israel, while claiming it’s ‘only Israel’s Government Policies’ they dislike. Of course they deny this (Jeremy Corbyn anyone?). But this is not helped here by prominent Jews fending off any legitimate criticism of Israel’s Leadership and ‘blanketing’ everyone who does, as antisemites.
    A deeply ingrained antisemitism does run deep here and has done so for hundreds of years (if not 2000 years, culturally), a prejudice that blinds many to the reality that the one Country in the Middle East that shares our ‘Western values’ is Israel and we should be fully backing and supporting it, in these unstable times.
    The increasingly obvious threat to a somnolent Europe, is the ominous shadow of a ‘cloud’ (which I’ll call ‘Greenmantle’) which drifts remorselessly ‘West’.
    A personal view, of course.

  9. The vile and disgusting actions carried out by Hamas brutally killing innocent civilians is outrageous, but the knee-jerk response of bombing Gaza has lead only to the loss of further innocent civilian life and is hardly rational. If the whereabouts of Hamas fanatics are known why can’t they be continually monitored and eliminated using smarter methods which the Israeli intelligence services excel at? Such people shouldn’t even be living in Gaza. The great tragedy of this hellish episode is that the underlying issue – the current degrading treatment of the indigenous Palestinian population – is not being properly addressed, and is actually being willfully exacerbated by the current right wing Israeli government. So the cycle of violence and killing will sadly just continue.

    1. Sorry, but much of the “degradation” in Gaza is due to Hamas or the PA itself, which has chosen to use huge amounts of money to support terrorism rather than build hospitals, buy medicine, and support infrastructure. And the Palestinians have turned down a two-state solution, which would have eliminated nearly all these problems, FIVE TIMES. You do know that the head of Hamas Ismael Haniyeh, is a billionaire, and many members of Fatah are millionaires. Where do you think that money comes from, pal? It’s taken from what’s supposed to go to poor Palestinians. The corruption there is unbelievable. You don’t know this, of course, because you are ignorant, willfully or otherwise. Read this for a start: https://en.globes.co.il/en/article-the-phenomenal-wealth-of-hamas-leaders-1000957953

      And the Hamas leaders are often living overseas or, now, hiding. Where do you get the crazy idea that they’d be easy to find if the hostages themselves are nearly impossible to find? In light of that, do you suggest that Israel do nothing in response. Jebus!

      Please educate yourself before you go willy-nilly blaming the problems of Gaza on Israel.

      2. That’s a nine year old article and it’s likely to have been biased because it’s from an Israeli source. The degradation that I was particularly referring to was the constant harassment of Palestinian families by the IDF, leading to the largest loss of Palestinian life this year:

        https://www.map.org.uk/news/archive/post/1483-2023-becomes-deadliest-year-for-palestinians-in-the-west-bank-as-israeli-military-launches-fresh-attack-on-jenin-refugee-camp

        It’s likely that this backdrop was one of the main reasons why the recent Hamas attack occurred on Israeli civilians – an example of horrific vengeance!

        1. Sorry, but your article is from a pro-Palestinian site, so should I buy that? And do you think the Palestinian leaders lost all their money in the last nine years? What a joke. It’s a pathetic argument you’re making there, pal.

          Here’s a list of why the problems of Gaza come almost entirely from Gaza itself. You will undoubtedly reject these because you’re determined to blame Israel for everything.

          1. Since the 1930s, Palestinians turned down five offers of a two-state solution, and most of these offers were good ones—that is, offers that would be acceptable by centrists on the issue.
          2. Palestinians don’t want a two-state solution (and now neither do Israelis); most Palestinians want Israel eliminated.
          3. A two-state solution won’t eliminate Palestinian terrorism so long as many Palestinians want Israel wiped off the map
          4. The 1988 charter of Hamas, the rulers of Gaza, explicitly calls for the elimination of Israel (see first paragraph). So long as Hamas is there, terrorism will be there, too.
          5. Terrorist attacks have been going on for some time: the violence that occurred in the last two days is simply an escalation of attacks on civilians that have been going on for decades.
          6. Palestinian children are inculcated from a young age in school with hatred of Jews, and terrorism and desire for martyrdom will remain until the propagandizing stops. This is, of course, a religiously-based form of anti-Semitism.
          7. Until Palestinians depose Hamas as rulers of Gaza, the violence and attempt to eliminate Israel will continue. Abbas, too, needs to be replaced.
          8. Those who blame the problems of Gaza on Israel not only neglect the diversion of humanitarian funds by Palestinians into terrorism, but the fact that corruption is so rife that the higher-ups in Hamas, Fatah, and even Mahmoud Abbas, the head of the PA, are billionaires or millionaires. They have simply diverted money meant to go to poor Palestinians to their own bank accounts. Don’t believe me? Go here, here, here, here and here. Mahmoud Abbas is estimated to have $100 million. Where did that come from.

          It really angers me when people don’t even know this!

          End of discussion.You’ve had your say.

        2. It is an openly pro-Palestinian site. It’s definitely biased, but not for Israel.
          What on earth are you talking about?
          Israel suffered casualties equivalent in proportions to 40,000 in America. What do you think the American response would be or that of any other country?
          The Palestinians have always stated their will to destroy Israel and kill Jews. They don’t need your excuses.

    2. The whereabouts of Hamas terrorists are not always known with such accuracy necessary for precision targeting.
      Israel has the right to defend itself, and if innocent Gazans are hurt, it’s not the responsibility of Israel.
      Israel does not target civilians. But their presence doesn’t immune Hamas and other Palestinian terrorists.

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