The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) told American Jewish leaders to prepare for a difficult public relations battle over the impending war with Hamas, telling them Thursday that “scenes out of Gaza will be hard to stomach” given likely civilian casualties and damage.
The Times of Israel reported:
A spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces urged [the American Israel Public Affairs Committee] and its followers to stick with Israel as it attacks Hamas even when “the going gets ugly” and “the scenes out of Gaza will be hard to stomach.”
Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, the international spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces, spoke Thursday evening to a webcast convened by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee about what Israel expected from Americans and especially those who support the pro-Israel lobby.
As of Friday evening, the IDF had yet to enter the Gaza Strip aside from a few reconnaissance raids, despite the expiration of a 24-hour warning given to Palestinian residents of the northern Gaza Strip to move south (400,000 fled homes before the warning.).
With Egypt still denying Palestinians the ability to leave, and Hamas trying to stop them from relocating even within the Strip, the stage was set for a tough battle for the IDF, with Hamas able to use civilians as human shields to stoke anti-war global pressure.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the new biography, Rhoda: ‘Comrade Kadalie, You Are Out of Order’. He is also the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.