No, Hamas-loving liberal media. Israel’s hostage rescue was not an unjustified bloodbath

If the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again while expecting novel results, the coverage of Israel’s hostage rescue mission over the weekend is enough to have much of the West’s journalistic class committed.

On Saturday, Israel mounted a daring operation to retrieve four innocent civilian hostages taken by Hamas during last October’s horrific atrocities.

Of course when undercover IDF commandos made their move, dispatched the Hamas gunmen guarding the hostages, and began their evacuation from the refugee camp where they were being held, they took fire from the terrorists surrounding them. By the grace of God – and with air support – all of the hostages and all save one of the heroes who rescued them escaped with their lives. While this is cause for celebration for those clear-eyed about the moral distinctions in this conflict, the confused members of the Fourth Estate are again using the incident to hype up exaggerated “civilian” casualty counts.

A CNN summary of the events in Gaza was headlined “An Israeli operation rescues four hostages and kills scores of Palestinians” and uncritically reported that “at least” 274 Palestinians were killed, according to the mysterious “Gazan authorities” – the standard Western media fig-leaf covering up the fact that they are simply repeating a figure given to them by Hamas.

The Washington Post ran with the even more galling title “More than 200 Palestinians killed in Israeli hostage raid in Gaza.” The opening paragraphs went further still, declaring that “Israel’s military launched one of the bloodiest raids of the war Saturday,” and characterizing it as “a brazen operation” that “left unimaginable devastation in its wake.”

And incredibly, just days after the Associated Press very belatedly published a report casting doubt on the numbers produced by the “Gazan Health Ministry” – which is overseen by Hamas – it credulously parroted the claim that “at least” 274 Palestinians were killed during the operation, attributing that number to “local health officials.”

Such overwrought descriptions and dutiful recitations of opaque figures compiled by Hamas’ agents were endemic to most of the press’s coverage of the rescue, just as they’ve been endemic to its coverage of the war in Gaza more generally. Recall when a rocket aimed at Israel fell near a Gazan hospital and the media reacted by not only falsely attributing the explosion to Israel, but by massively exaggerating the casualty count? Evidently, journalists aren’t capable of shame, much less soul-searching.

Never mind that the initial figures are always revised downward.

Never mind that many of those killed were either actively trying to murder Israelis or in league with those who were.

And never mind that the culpability for the innocent Palestinian lives lost on Saturday lies not with Israel but with the people – Hamas – who started this war with acts of savagery so inhuman that it has earned them an ignominious place in history.

Again the media rushed to condemn Israel, this time for the most righteous of wartime operations.

How can the Western media be led – and lead others – astray so often?

At the root of this persistent problem are the dual myths that Israel is the aggressor in this conflict and that it is the role of the press to bring it to heel.

Nothing could be further from the truth, of course. Israel is fighting a just war to eliminate a barbaric enemy hiding behind a population that supports it. This is a heavy and even tragic burden; one Israel doesn’t take lightly. That’s why its civilian-combatant casualty ratio is historically impressive even when you use Hamas’ juiced-up numbers.

Moreover, the press’s allegiance should be only to the truth, not misguided activism.

The failure of the press to understand its role and resist that temptation has blinded journalists to the moral truths underpinning conditions on the ground. And those moral misconceptions have resulted – time and again – in the media amplifying treacherous lies.