Sunday on Fox News Channel’s “Life, Liberty & Levin,” former Israeli ambassador Ron Dermer addressed the deadly conflict between Israel and terrorist group Hamas.
Host Mark Levin asked Dermer about the media portraying Israel as equals with Hamas.
“I think it’s downright shameful,” Dermer advised. “I’d ask the American people how would they like it if foreign governments or the international media drew a moral equivalency between the United States of American al-Qaeda or the United States of America and ISIS. I think people in Israel are disgusted by it because there is no moral equivalence between the terrorist organization and the democratic state of Israel. And not only that, there’s something even worse about the media’s attitude, most of the media’s attitude — in fact, I would say about 98% of the international media’s attitude. They are actually endangering Palestinian civilians because the game that the terrorists play is they not only target our civilians by hurling these missiles into Israeli population areas — and they’re trying … to kill as many Israelis as possible — but they also embed their arsenals of rockets and missiles and weapons and bombs and drones they embedded in civilian areas, so they use their civilians as human shields, and what they rely on is a gullible, or even worse, international media that when we respond to their attacks, and even if we do surgical strikes, there will always be unintended casualty among the civilian population.”
“We are not trying to harm them,” he continued. “We’re doing everything to keep the civilians among the Palestinians out of harm’s way. Hamas does everything to put them in harm’s way, but Hamas is relying on an international media that will then put the blame on Israel, that would pressure the international community to move against Israel and to stop Israel to try to pressure us to stop us from doing what we have to do to fight terrorism. If the international media in the United States or elsewhere around the world wants to help peace, wants to keep civilians out of harm’s way, it’s not that they shouldn’t show all the pictures. It’s that they should blame Hamas. If terror organizations can’t get away with it, they will stop doing it. If they can get away with it, they will continue to do it. It’s just that simple.”
Dermer went on to describe Hamas as a “genocidal organization,” more so than just a terrorist organization.
“Islamic jihad is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” he said. “Hamas is backed by Iran, but beyond that … Hamas is not just a terrorist organization — they are a genocidal organization. They call for the murder of Jews worldwide. That is in their charter. It is shameful for any self-respecting government in the world — certainly any democratic government in the world — to draw any moral equivalence between the state of Israel and Hamas.”
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