Columnist Charles Krauthammer condemned what he called "rank ignorance" among U.S. media outlets that have harshly covered Israel as the Jewish state has battled the terrorist group Hamas this month.
On Thursday night's Hannity, host Sean Hannity said he was dumbstruck by how people were treating the conflict, given Israel's status as the Middle East's lone true democracy, as well as that Hamas started the conflict, disregards Israel's right to exist and fires rockets at civilians.
Yet media coverage has consistently focused on the deaths of Palestinian civilians during Operation Protective Edge, with many outlets ignoring the fact that Hamas has used hospitals and schools as weapons depots and employs civilians as human shields in order to garner positive press coverage when they're killed or injured. Israeli ambassador to the U.S. Ron Dermer was so incensed on the subject, he called out CNN's coverage for not providing context during an interview on OutFront Thursday.
Krauthammer said anti-Semitism is partly to blame for the world's skewed view of Israel, but it also comes down to just not understanding history of the conflict.
"The more prevalent one among the American media is simple rank ignorance," Krauthammer said. "They don't know the story. They don't know what Israel offered Gaza, what it offered the West Bank. Do you ever hear anybody report that when Israel left Gaza nine years ago unilaterally, at the same time it dismantled four settlements in the West Bank? That was a signal from Ariel Sharon that he wanted to eventually leave all the territories and live in peace with the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. But you never hear that."