Jewish Groups Condemn ’60 Minutes’ Segment Criticizing US Support for Israel During Gaza War

Shiryn Ghermezian

Troops from the IDF’s 98th Division operating in Jabalia, the northern Gaza Strip, May 2024. Photo: Israel Defense Forces.

The investigative news television program “60 Minutes” has been widely criticized for airing a “one-sided” and “biased” segment on Sunday night that featured former US State Department officials who condemned American support for Israel’s defensive war against Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip.

The CBS News show aired a segment titled “Dissent Within the State Department Over US Role in Israel-Hamas War.” It highlighted interviews with three former US State Department officials who resigned from their positions in protest of US support for Israel’s ongoing military actions in Gaza, which target Hamas terrorists who orchestrated the deadly terrorist attack in southern Israel that took place on Oct. 7, 2023. One of the former State Department officials told “60 Minutes”: “There is a linkage between every single bomb that is dropped in Gaza and the US because every single bomb is dropped from an American-made plane.”

The American Jewish Committee (AJC) called the “60 Minutes” segment “biased and misguided” in a statement released on Monday. The organization detailed a slew of issues with the segment, including its mention of unverified civilian casualty figures and the fact that it barely mentioned the Hamas-led terrorist attack on Oct. 7 that started the ongoing war in Gaza. The segment even described Hamas fighters as “militants” rather than terrorists. AJC also denounced the CBS show for promoting the “outlandish notion” that, after Hamas’s atrocities in southern Israel, the Jewish state should have made efforts to make peace with the Palestinian terrorist group rather than engage in self-defense to rescue the hostages taken to Gaza and target the Hamas terrorists who threatened to perpetrate similar deadly massacres in the future.

“This segment, the latest example of major news outlets recklessly reporting on Israel’s defensive war against Hamas, was shockingly one-sided, lacked factual accuracy, and relied heavily on misguided information,” AJC added.

“In this segment, ‘60 Minutes’ plays directly into the hands of the enemies of the West who aim to show that support for Israel is not in the United States’ best interest. Nothing could be further from the truth,” AJC noted. “Israel’s actions against Iranian-backed terror groups like Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis, as well as its recent direct responses to Iranian attacks, help deter attacks on the US. Each of these terror organizations has American blood on its hands. We share common enemies — the enemies of democracy and freedom.”

AJC CEO Ted Deutch said in a separate statement on X that the “60 Minutes” segment on Sunday night “relies on the same biased accusations and information that attempt to demonize and delegitimize Israel.”

“The one-sided segment plays into the hands of enemies of democracy and freedom who aim to divide the US and Israel,” he added. “It is shocking to see this kind of irresponsible journalism from a long-running, respected news program like ’60 Minutes.’”

Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), said in a post on X he is “outraged” that “60 Minutes” would “air such a biased and one-sided piece, villainizing Israel and berating US support for its ally.”

“Where are the counter perspectives to those interviewed? Where is the mention of the nearly 100 hostages — including Americans — STILL in captivity!? What kind of journalism is that?” he wrote. “According to last night’s piece, Israel should have responded to the mass slaughter, mutilation, rape, and kidnapping of its citizens by asking the perpetrators of these vicious crimes for peace. Newsflash: Rewarding terrorism won’t bring peace. And this sort of biased coverage only serves to fuel hate. It’s like a blood libel in a moment of expanding, intensifying antisemitism.”

“Responsible coverage of the war should not only honor the lives lost, but also accurately describe those responsible for this conflict for what they are — antisemitic terrorists,” he concluded.

Honest Reporting, a Jerusalem-based media watchdog that focuses on antisemitism and anti-Israel bias, released a detailed report on Monday of all the “skewed” and “imbalanced” reporting included in the “60 Minutes” segment. It revealed that the investigative news program amplified anti-Israel voices in the segment on Sunday night while failing to mention that two of its interviewees have “a history of anti-Israel activism and associations with anti-Israel organizations,” including the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN). Honest Reporting claimed “60 Minutes” tried to disguise these two former State Department officials — Josh Paul, a former director in the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs; and Hala Rharrit, a former American diplomat who specialized in the Middle East — as “impartial observers,” when in reality they are anti-Israel activists.

US Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) wrote on X that “60 Minutes” aired “a disgraceful hit job against Israel,” and “forgot that Hamas started the war, Hamas still holds American hostages, and any damage in Gaza is the sole fault of Hamas.”

Others who have condemned the “60 Minutes” segment include Jewish actor Michael Rapaport, who described the segment as a “smear campaign” against Israel and the show as a “propaganda machine.” Dozens on social media have called the segment “despicable,” labeled it as “a hit piece vilifying Israel,” and accused “60 Minutes” of defending Hamas.

Aktywiści “pro-palestyńscy” po prostu pokazują, że wszystko, co mają do zaoferowania, to nienawiść do Żydów i Izraela. Prawdziwymi “pro-palestyńskimi” obrońcami są ci, którzy chcą dobrego życia dla Palestyńczyków, a nie ci, którzy zachęcają ich do akceptowania brutalnego i skorumpowanego Hamasu. Na zdjęciu: Demonstranci za Hamasem i przeciwko Izraelowi przed Uniwersytetem Columbia 24 kwietnia 2024 r. w Nowym Jorku. (Zdjęcie: Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

Jak “pro-palestyńscy” protestujący w rzeczywistości szkodzą Palestyńczykom

Khaled Abu Toameh
Tłumaczenie: Małgorzata Koraszewska

It Wasn’t a Deal – It Was a Crime

Alan M. Dershowitz

• The decision by the Israeli government to make significant concessions to the Hamas kidnappers should never be called a “deal.” It was an extortion…. The kidnapping was a crime. And the extortionate demand was an additional crime.
• When a terrorist group “negotiates” with a democracy, it always has the upper hand. The terrorists are not constrained by morality, law or truth. They can murder at will, rape at will, torture at will and threaten to do worse. The democracy, on the other hand, must comply with the rules of law and must listen to the pleas of the hostage families.
• Especially complicit, with blood on their hands, are supporters of Hamas on university campuses who chant for intifada and revolution. Also complicit are international organizations, such as the International Criminal Court, that treat Israel and Hamas as equals.
• [L]et us put the blame for ALL the deaths in Gaza where it belongs: on Hamas and the useful idiots and useless bigots who support murderous terrorists.

The decision by the Israeli government to make significant concessions to the Hamas kidnappers should never be called a “deal.” It was an extortion. Would you call it a deal if somebody kidnapped your child and you “agreed” to pay ransom to get her back? Of course not. The kidnapping was a crime. And the extortionate demand was an additional crime. Pictured: A Hamas terrorist holds two of the many Israeli children that Hamas murdered, or abducted and brought as captives to the Gaza Strip, on October 7, 2023. (Image source: Hamas/X [Twitter])

The decision by the Israeli government to make significant concessions to the Hamas kidnappers should never be called a “deal.” It was an extortion. Would you call it a deal if somebody kidnapped your child and you “agreed” to pay ransom to get her back? Of course not. The kidnapping was a crime. And the extortionate demand was an additional crime.

So the proper description of what occurred is that Israel, pressured by the United States, capitulated to the unlawful and extortionate demands of Hamas as the only way of saving the lives of kidnapped babies, mothers and other innocent, mostly civilian, hostages.

This was not the result of a negotiation between equals. If an armed robber puts a gun to your head and says, “your money or your life,” your decision to give him your money would not be described as a deal. Nor should the extorted arrangement agreed to by Israel be considered a deal. So let’s stop using that term.

When a terrorist group “negotiates” with a democracy, it always has the upper hand. The terrorists are not constrained by morality, law or truth. They can murder at will, rape at will, torture at will and threaten to do worse. The democracy, on the other hand, must comply with the rules of law and must listen to the pleas of the hostage families. The result of this exertion was bad for Israel’s security, but good for the hostages who remain alive and their families. The heart rules the brain, as it often does in moral democracies that value the immediate saving of the lives of known people over the future deaths of hypothetical people whose identities we do not know. This tradeoff is understandable as compassionate, even if not compelling as policy.

If every democratic nation adopted a policy of never negotiating with terrorists, it might discourage terrorism. But every nation submits to the demands of kidnappers and extortionists, so terrorism and hostage-taking have become a primary tactic of the worst people in the world. And the rest of us are complicit.

Especially complicit, with blood on their hands, are supporters of Hamas on university campuses who chant for intifada and revolution. Also complicit are international organizations, such as the International Criminal Court, that treat Israel and Hamas as equals. These supporters of terrorism encouraged Hamas to hold out for many months in the belief that their support would pressure Israel into making more concessions.

The students of terror – the university students who are encouraging Hamas into continuing their murderous ways – must be held accountable for their complicity in evil. Though they may have the same First Amendment rights as Jews do, they should be treated with the same contempt that Nazis, the KKK and racist supporters of violence are treated. The First Amendment does not give them the right to be hired by decent employers.

The First Amendment gives employers the power to refuse to associate with supporters of Nazism, Hamas terrorism or other evil groups. American law criminalizes giving material support to designated terrorist groups, which include Hamas and Hezbollah. Morality, as distinguished from law, should deem immoral providing any support — material, political, economic or demonstrative – to any terrorist group such as Hamas. Yet both the presidential and vice-presidential candidates of the Democrat Party urged people to listen to the messages of these protestors. They would never say that about demonstrators who favored lynching blacks or raping women. But Hamas does lynch Jews and rape Jewish women. There is no moral difference.

Let us welcome the news that perhaps 33 of the 98 hostages may be released, some of them alive, with the realization that what Hamas extorted from Israel in return for these releases may well endanger Israel’s security in the future and cost still more innocent lives.

And let us put the blame for ALL the deaths in Gaza where it belongs: on Hamas and the useful idiots and useless bigots who support murderous terrorists.

Alan M. Dershowitz is the Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law, Emeritus at Harvard Law School, and the author most recently of War Against the Jews: How to End Hamas Barbarism, and Get Trump: The Threat to Civil Liberties, Due Process, and Our Constitutional Rule of Law. He is the Jack Roth Charitable Foundation Fellow at Gatestone Institute, and is also the host of “The Dershow” podcast.

Iran Congratulates Maduro on Inauguration, ‘Stands in Solidarity’ With Venezuela Against US ‘Coercive Measures’

Algemeiner Staff

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro meets with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia, Oct. 24, 2024. Photo: Miraflores Palace/Handout via REUTERS

Iran has congratulated Nicolás Maduro for beginning his third term as Venezuela’s president, despite international outcry over what many leaders have described as an “illegitimate” presidency only won through a “desperate attempt” to seize power.

The Iranian government sent its best wishes to Maduro and vowed to strengthen ties with Venezuela, describing their bilateral relationship as a way to stand up to the United States.

“Congratulations to President #NicolasMaduro on his inauguration into office as President of the Bolivarian Republic of #Venezuela,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said in a post on X/Twitter on Saturday. “We wish him all the success in serving his great people & country and are looking forward to working with the elected government for the good of our nations in furtherance of Iran-Venezuela’s extensive bilateral ties.”

Baghaei then said that Iran will stand by Venezuela in opposition to the US government.

“Iran stands in solidarity with Venezuelan people and government in the face of malign interventions and unilateral coercive measures led by the United States,” he said.

Maduro on Friday began his third term as Venezuela’s president, despite US Secretary of State Antony Blinken referring to his “illegitimate presidential inauguration in Venezuela” as a “desperate attempt” to seize power.

“The Venezuelan people and world know the truth — Maduro clearly lost the 2024 presidential election and has no right to claim the presidency,” Blinken said in a statement. “The United States rejects the National Electoral Council’s fraudulent announcement that Maduro won the presidential election and does not recognize Nicolás Maduro as the president of Venezuela.”

Opposition candidate Edmundo González Urrutia should have been sworn in as the Venezuelan president, according to the US State Department.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar agreed, posting on X/Twitter that the Jewish state “expresses concern over the political persecution and arbitrary arrests by the regime and joins the call of many in the international community to restore freedom and democracy in Venezuela.”

“Today, Jan. 10, Edmundo González Urrutia, the elected president of Venezuela, who won the presidential elections by a significant majority, was supposed to be inaugurated,” Sa’ar added. “However, the election results are not being respected, and his inauguration is not taking place. The ruler, Nicolás Maduro, an ally of Iran, must honor the will of the people in his country.”

US President-elect Donald Trump also lambasted Maduro after Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado — who emerged from months of hiding last week to join anti-Maduro protesters in the capital city of Caracas and demand that González be sworn in instead — was briefly detained by government security forces.

“Venezuelan democracy activist Maria Corina Machado and President-elect Gonzalez are peacefully expressing the voices and the will of the Venezuelan people with hundreds of thousands of people demonstrating against the regime,” Trump wrote on social media. “These freedom fighters should not be harmed, and must stay safe and alive.”

According to reports, Machado was forced to record several videos before she was released, although details of those recordings remain unclear and Maduro’s supporters have denied that the opposition leader was arrested.

Meanwhile, Iran is also increasing its military presence in Venezuela, with some members of the country’s elite even acquiring properties in the Latin American country and being offered political asylum should they need it, The Latin Times reported on Friday.

Iran has reportedly established a drone development base at the El Libertador air base in Venezuela, where training for Venezuelan military personnel also takes place in addition to the production and training in the use of a wide range of unnamed aerial vehicles (UAVs).

The two countries have also strengthened economic ties in recent years, such as Iran’s Mahan Air making direct flights between Caracas and Tehran. According to Infobae, a Spanish-language Argentine online newspaper, these flights have been used to violate international sanctions by transporting Venezuelan gold in exchange for Iranian oil.

The US and allied countries have imposed heavy sanctions on both Iran and Venezuela for a range of illicit activities, from human rights violations to supporting terrorist groups.

In 2021, for example, the US Justice Department announced charges against Iranian intelligence agents for plotting to kidnap an American citizen, journalist Masih Alinejad, in the US and take her by boat to Venezuela before forcibly returning her to Iran, where she was born.

Iran’s latest expression of support for Venezuela came about two weeks after a senior adviser to the Iranian health minister said that one of Iran’s top foreign policy priorities will be working to enhance its relationship with Cuba across several domains and to expand cooperation with Latin American countries more broadly.

Iran, Cuba, and Venezuela have all continued looking for ways to combat US sanctions, which are only expected to become harsher when Trump enters office on Jan. 20.

It is unclear if Iran will end up pursuing a relationship with Venezuela to resist US sanctions in a formalized way as it has with Russia.

Iranian and Russian leaders have been working on an initiative to form an international alliance against US sanctions known as the International Union Against US Sanctions. An Iranian lawmaker spearheading the effort said last month that it will soon be completed.

Zrzut ekranu z reportażu „Głosu Ameryki” o ludziach, którzy uciekli z Sudanu do obozów dla uchodźców w Czadzie przed trwającą wojną domową, 16 maja 2023 r. Źródło: Henry Wilkins/VOA via Wikimedia Commons.

Fałszywe ludobójstwo spotyka prawdziwe

Ben Cohen
Tłumaczenie: Małgorzata Koraszewska

Ben Cohen – komentator polityczny, stały publicysta JNS.