The New York Times recently issued a correction to a new story about the conditions in Gaza. A viral photo showing an emaciated young child was held up as a symbol of the suffering of Palestinians and was a catalyst for many to condemn Israel. The Times story and ensuring narrative didn’t tell the whole story about that particular child, who suffers from a rare health condition that hinders proper nutrition. Airbrushed out of the original image was his brother who appears to be in better health. This comes on the heels of an erroneous Washington Post report that claimed Israel was deliberately shooting Gazans desperately seeking food. In June, journalists accused Israel of deliberately targeting a hospital, when in fact, the Israeli Defense Forces targeted a tunnel underneath a hospital in Gaza and eliminated a key Hamas leader.
War journalism is a dangerous enterprise, and we should be thankful for the many who risk their lives to bring us reports from conflicts around the world. The fog of war means that mistakes will often happen, but when it comes to the Israel/Gaza conflict, these mistakes only seem to go one way: against Israel and in defense of the barbaric terrorist enterprise of Hamas. These false narratives, built one upon another, become catalysts for increased and brazen anti-Semitism. In the last few months, two Israeli embassy staffers, a Jewish couple, were shot dead at an event held at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C. In Boulder, Colo., a deranged pro-Palestinian protestor threw a Molotov cocktail at pro-Israel demonstrators, killing a woman and injuring several others. And these are only two of the thousands of anti-Semitic attacks happening in Western cities around the globe since the Oct. 7 terrorist attack against Israel.
These events are fueled by a persistently false narrative about Israel, that the country is deliberately and purposefully causing suffering in Gaza. Many commentators use the word “genocide.” But while Israel and the IDF have made mistakes—like every nation in the conduct of a war—these charges are patently untrue. Lt. Col. John Spencer, chair of the Urban Warfare Institute at West Point, has written persuasively, “Nothing I have seen or studied resembles genocide or genocidal intent.” What’s more, he finds that Israel, in an urban war, has taken more precautions, at risk to their own soldiers’ lives, than any military in history, including the United States.
Click Here to Read More (Originally Published at World Magazine)
