{"id":120978,"date":"2025-05-08T17:05:27","date_gmt":"2025-05-08T15:05:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=120978"},"modified":"2025-05-08T09:28:39","modified_gmt":"2025-05-08T07:28:39","slug":"07-05-110","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=120978","title":{"rendered":"Media lies about fake martyrs and famines fuel antisemitism"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>Media lies about fake martyrs and famines fuel antisemitism<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n

Jonathan S. Tobin<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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The elevation of Israel-hater Mohsen Mahdawi to a hero of free speech, coupled with the spread of lies about conditions in Gaza, is endangering American Jews.<\/strong><\/h4>\n<\/div>\n

People gather for a rally in support of Columbia University student activist Mohsen Mahdawi and Tufts University student Rumeysa Ozturk in Foley Square in New York City on May 6, 2025. Photo by Michael M. Santiago\/Getty Images.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

The unprecedented surge of antisemitism throughout the United States since the Hamas-led Palestinian terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, has created a new reality for American Jews, especially Jewish students on college campuses. But perhaps the most sinister aspect of what has unfolded in the last 19 months is not just the way elite universities were transformed into hostile environments for Jews.<\/span><\/p>\n

The scariest part of this tragic saga is the way that antisemitic organizations and activists, actively assisted by some of the most prestigious and powerful media outlets in the country, have been gaslighting Jews. They\u2019ve been doing everything they can to convince the victims of this hateful campaign that the people who have been targeting them are actually against antisemitism while promoting propaganda aimed at depicting Israel and the Jews as evil oppressors.<\/span><\/p>\n

While this has been the game plan all along for those cheering on Hamas terrorists since Oct. 7, it became even more obvious in the past week as the liberal press engaged in an effort to portray Mohsen Mahdawi, a leader of the mobs harassing Jews at Columbia University, as not only a martyr to free speech but someone who stands against antisemitism. These same outlets have been resurrecting an already debunked canard about Israel causing a famine in Gaza.<\/span><\/p>\n

The press, led by legacy media companies like\u00a0The New York Time<\/em>s,\u00a0CBS<\/em>\u00a0News<\/em>\u00a0and the cable-news station\u00a0MSNBC<\/em>, has gone from tacit support for the post-Oct. 7 demonization of Israel and Jews to active participants. In doing so, they have demonstrated once again that they\u2019ve discarded journalism and what was left of their credibility for left-wing activism.<\/span><\/p>\n

The impact of their coverage of the agitation on college campuses and the war against Hamas in Gaza, which the groups behind the hate surge use as justification for their efforts, transcends the question of the decline of trust in the media. Their journalistic malpractice has become the primary engine driving the intimidation and vilification of Jews.<\/span><\/p>\n

Lionizing a mob leader<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Mahdawi became just the latest example of the liberal media\u2019s infatuation with people arrested by the Trump administration. A Palestinian Arab who holds a green card, he was detained while undergoing an interview for his application for American citizenship as part of the government\u2019s efforts to crack down on those foreign nationals involved in the pro-Hamas mobs targeting Jewish students at Columbia.<\/span><\/p>\n

The U.S. Department of Justice informed the federal court in Vermont, where Mahdawi had been arrested, that Secretary of State Marco Rubio was revoking his green card because the \u201cactivities and presence of Mahdawi in the United States undermine U.S. policy to combat antisemitism.\u201d It also noted that efforts to disrupt university life that Mahdawi led at Columbia \u201cpotentially undermine the peace process underway in the Middle East.\u201d Both points are legitimate reasons to deport Mahdawi, but a sympathetic judge has released him pending further legal proceedings.<\/span><\/p>\n

Since being freed, he has become the toast of the corporate media, authoring an\u00a0op-ed<\/a>\u00a0in\u00a0The New York Times<\/em>\u00a0and being the subject of a\u00a0fawning profile<\/a>\u00a0on\u00a0CBS\u2019<\/em>s \u201c60 Minutes\u201d program, in which he was allowed to pose as both a martyr to free speech and an advocate for peace. This narrative, depicting him as the subject of persecution by the administration, was further amplified by coverage in outlets such as\u00a0NPR<\/em><\/a>. That story actually claimed that he was the victim of ill treatment by supporters of Israel because they were chanting for the release of the abused hostages taken by Hamas while Mahdawi was ranting about Gaza with a bullhorn on campus. Mahdawi\u2019s claims that he opposes antisemitism and wants peace went unchallenged. Meanwhile, other left-wing outlets like\u00a0New York Magazine\u00a0<\/em>cheered<\/a>\u00a0him as a hero of the anti-Trump and anti-Israel \u201cresistance.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Contrary to the way that he has been portrayed in these accounts, Mahdawi is no advocate for peace. A\u00a0leader<\/a>\u00a0of the pro-Hamas illegal encampments and building takeovers at Columbia, he supported the murderous Hamas assault on civilians in the Jewish state and repeatedly called for Israel\u2019s destruction, an outcome that could only be obtained by the genocide of its population. As a more accurate\u00a0article<\/a>\u00a0in\u00a0The Free Press\u00a0<\/em>noted, he was personally involved in several incidents in which he harassed Jewish students, including one where he blared a siren at them. While Columbia gave Mahdawi a pass for his law-breaking activities, a Jewish student was subjected to disciplinary action for calling the terrorism backer a \u201cNazi.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Moreover, he has a record of antisemitic utterances and support for terrorism going back to 2015, when he said, \u201cI like to kill Jews,\u201d as he was seeking to acquire a sniper rifle. Mahdawi has close family ties to convicted Palestinian terrorists he has praised as heroes and martyrs, rather than disassociating himself from their actions as someone who was a peace advocate would do.<\/span><\/p>\n

As for his claim to be an advocate for peace, or, as he did in one\u00a0video<\/a>, argue that the genocidal chant of \u201cfrom the river to the sea\u201d doesn\u2019t mean Jewish genocide, that is nothing but gaslighting. Suffice it to say that anyone who thinks the only way that peace can be achieved is the destruction of the one Jewish state on the planet, shouldn\u2019t be taken seriously as anything but a rabid antisemite.<\/span><\/p>\n

Opposing Trump<\/strong><\/h4>\n

None of this matters to those who have elevated him to the status of a \u201cfree speech\u201d martyr.<\/span><\/p>\n

Part of the reason for this is partisan politics. Many on the left are prepared to lionize anyone targeted for deportation by the Trump administration as victims who have been abducted by the government, rather than lawbreakers and threats to public safety. Just as Democrats rallied to the cause of MS13 gang member Kilmar Abrego Garcia, so, too, did Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) when he\u00a0visited<\/a>\u00a0Mahdawi in jail, and then echoed lies about the agitator seeking peace and making common cause with Jews.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sadly, the same motivation is behind the decision of 500 Reform, Conservative and Reconstructionist rabbis to sign a\u00a0letter<\/a>\u00a0opposing President Donald Trump\u2019s efforts to force institutions of higher learning to take action against antisemitism on their campuses as well as to drop the woke leftist ideologies that are fueling the hate against Jews.<\/span><\/p>\n

What\u2019s happening here is not merely a wave of sympathy for those threatened by deportation by the administration. These attempts to treat terror supporters who have organized and taken part in thuggish efforts at intimidating Jewish students and even faculty members as victims are linked to similarly dishonest media coverage of the post-Oct. 7 war that Israel is waging to eradicate Hamas.<\/span><\/p>\n

Indeed, many in the mainstream liberal press have been acting as Hamas\u2019s stenographers since Oct. 7\u2014accepting flagrantly false statistics about civilian casualties as truthful, downplaying or denying the Islamist group\u2019s genocidal goals, and falsely alleging that the Israel Defense Forces have been committing war crimes when, in fact, they take greater care to avoid civilian loses than any other modern army.<\/span><\/p>\n

The famine myth<\/strong><\/span><\/h4>\n

Currently, the main anti-Israel media talking point is an effort to revive the myth that there is a famine going on in Gaza. The drumbeat of accusations lobbed at Israeli forces of deliberately starving Palestinians has been going on since the war began, even though the United Nations, which is profoundly hostile to the Jewish state,\u00a0admitted<\/a>\u00a0it wasn\u2019t true.<\/span><\/p>\n

But with Hamas refusing to release the remaining Israeli hostages it still holds, and also showing itself unwilling to lay down its arms and give up control of the Strip, Israel has stopped the flow of aid into areas the terror group controls. It also plans on taking control of the distribution of food and fuel in the coastal enclave to prevent Hamas from continuing to steal most of it.<\/span><\/p>\n

Palestinians in Gaza are suffering from Hamas\u2019s continuation of the war it began on Oct. 7, but there remains\u00a0no evidence<\/a>\u00a0of famine or anything close to it. Yet newspapers like the\u00a0Times\u00a0<\/em>ignore these facts in order to keep pushing a narrative about Israelis oppressing Palestinians. The responsibility for this situation belongs to the terrorists, not the nation they attacked. Nevertheless, claims of a humanitarian catastrophe are largely part of an effort to allow the Islamist group to retain control, something that will ensure that the Jewish state will suffer more barbaric atrocities like those that began this struggle. The only way to alleviate the situation is not to lift the siege of Hamas but to force its surrender.<\/span><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the inflammatory coverage of Gaza is doing more than harming Israel\u2019s image while largely giving the Palestinians a pass for their continued efforts to slaughter Jews. The myths about \u201cgenocide\u201d or \u201cfamine\u201d going on are also putting wind in the sails of Hamas\u2019s supporters in the United States and their campaign against Jews. Without the widespread publication and broadcast of falsehoods about Israeli actions of self-defense, it would be difficult, if not impossible, for people like Mahdawi to get away with their bigoted thuggery. Nor would he be treated as a hero if not for the fact that liberal outlets give credence to the deceptive narrative about Israeli actions to ultimately exonerate those responsible for Oct. 7, as well as those, like Mahdawi and other Palestinians, who continue to applaud such barbaric crimes.<\/span><\/p>\n

The media\u2019s embrace of stories about a fake famine and fake martyrs among those slated for deportation has legitimized a mindset among many Americans who see Jewish rights and Jewish lives as unworthy of respect or protection. It\u2019s bad enough that Mahdawi is allowed to get away with misinformation about his criminal actions and toxic beliefs about Israel, and that news organizations absolve Hamas for the impact of the war it launched. However, it is the acceptance of the Hamas narrative about Gaza and schools like Columbia that have been key to the rise in Jew-hatred.<\/span><\/p>\n

To \u201cso-called\u201d progressives steeped in ideas like critical race theory, intersectionality and settler-colonialism, the delegitimization of American Jews is the inevitable corollary to their attacks on the Jewish state. Despite the lip service paid to condemnations of Jew-hatred, defeating antisemitism will be impossible so long as major journalistic outlets continue to bolster this mendacious campaign.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Jonathan S. Tobin<\/strong> is editor-in-chief of the Jewish News Syndicate, a senior contributor for The Federalist, a columnist for Newsweek and a contributor to many other publications. He covers the American political scene, foreign policy, the U.S.-Israel relationship, Middle East diplomacy, the Jewish world and the arts. He hosts the JNS \u201cThink Twice\u201d podcast, both the weekly video program and the \u201cJonathan Tobin Daily\u201d program, which are available on all major audio platforms and YouTube. Previously, he was executive editor, then senior online editor and chief political blogger, for Commentary magazine. Before that, he was editor-in-chief of The Jewish Exponent in Philadelphia and editor of the Connecticut Jewish Ledger. He has won more than 60 awards for commentary, art criticism and other writing. He appears regularly on television, commenting on politics and foreign policy. Born in New York City, he studied history at Columbia University.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

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Media lies about fake martyrs and famines fuel antisemitism Jonathan S. Tobin The elevation of Israel-hater Mohsen Mahdawi to a hero of free speech, coupled with the spread of lies about conditions in Gaza, is endangering American Jews. People gather for a rally in support of Columbia University student activist Mohsen Mahdawi and Tufts University […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[26,24],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120978"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=120978"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120978\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":121007,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120978\/revisions\/121007"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=120978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=120978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=120978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}