Media lies on Israel’s war in Gaza fueling antisemitic terror attacks, says US envoy

“Reckless and irresponsible” – US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee blasts mainstream media coverage of war in the Gaza Strip for creating antisemitic climate in the US that fueled wave of terror attacks on Jewish targets.

By David Rosenberg, World Israel News

The United States Ambassador to Israel lambasted mainstream media coverage of the war in Gaza, targeting major domestic news outlets including CNN, The New York Times, and the Associated Press, linking misinformation spread by the outlets to two recent terror attacks against Jewish targets in the US.

On Monday, the US Embassy in Jerusalem released a statement by Ambassador Mike Huckabee, in the wake of the attack on Sunday by an Egyptian national that left eight people injured in Boulder, Colorado, during an event on behalf of Israeli hostages held in the Gaza Strip.

Huckabee also referred to the shooting attack last month that left two Israel Embassy staffers dead outside of an event organized by the American Jewish Committee at a Jewish museum in Washington.

“Reckless and irresponsible reporting by major US news outlets are contributing to the antisemitic climate that has resulted in the murder of two young people at an Israel Embassy event in Washington last month and the attempted murder and terror attack on a group of pro-Israel demonstrators in Colorado on Sunday,” Huckabee said.

The ambassador pointed to recent claims by news outlets that IDF soldiers gunned down Gaza civilians as they waited in line to receive humanitarian aid packages this week, a claim relying entirely on claims by Hamas-run Gaza authorities and debunked by an American relief group operating in Gaza, as well as aerial footage released by the IDF.

“Without verification of any source other than Hamas and its collaborators, the New York Times, CNN, and Associated Press reported that a number of people seeking to receive humanitarian food boxes from the Gaza Humanitarian Fund (GHF) were shot or killed by the Israeli Defense Forces,” Huckabee continued.

“These reports were FALSE.  Drone video and first-hand accounts clearly showed that there were no injuries, no fatalities, no shooting, no chaos.  It is Hamas that continues to terrorize and intimidate those who seek food aid.”

“The only source for these misleading, exaggerated, and utterly fabricated stories came from Hamas sources, which are designed to fan the flames of antisemitic hate that is arguably contributing to violence against Jews in the United States.”

“Media sources who willingly parrot these libelous allegations should recant their fake news stories, apologize, and pledge to practice actual reporting of fact instead of engaging in dangerous propaganda that assists the terror group Hamas as they continue to hold innocent hostages for over 600 days after butchering over 1,200 people on October 7.”

The embassy called for immediate retractions from media outlets which pushed Hamas claims of IDF gunfire on Gazan civilians waiting for aid from the GHF, calling the false reports “reprehensible.”

AntisemitismColoradoMike HuckabeeWashington Jewish museum shooting