By tashatuvango @Adobe Stock
Can’t Take Hamas at Face Value
From John Kirby, spokesman for President Joe Biden’s National Security Council:
“We all know that the Gazan Ministry of Health is just a front for Hamas. It’s a — it’s run by Hamas, a terrorist organization. I’ve said it myself up here: We can’t take anything coming out of Hamas, including the so-called Ministry of Health, at face value.”
Clueless
How does that square with Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin parroting before Congress on Feb 29 Hamas’s claim that “over 25,000” women and children have perished in Gaza? Not even close, explains Danielle Pletka in NRO:
A few short hours later, the Pentagon walked back the secretary’s claim. Why? Because nobody has any idea — any honest idea — how many Gazans have died in the war that began with Hamas’s October 7 attack.
The only sources of data about casualties in Gaza are Hamas-controlled organizations. And despite a demonstrable record of manipulation designed to exaggerate the deaths of women and children (and minimize the numbers of men — the targets of Israeli military action), these numbers have become the data of record, used without qualification by the United Nations, its specialized agencies, the media, and, … Joe Biden, one of the U.S. government’s highest officials.
Why wasn’t Hamas’s credibility shot after Hamas claimed that 471 were killed by an alleged Israeli attack on al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City?
The “attack” turned out to be a misfired missile launched by Palestinian Islamic Jihad that damaged an area adjacent to the hospital, and most experts concluded that deaths totaled half that number or even fewer. But doubts about Hamas’s honesty soon dissipated, and much of the press returned to an uncritical repetition of Palestinian statistics.
Echoing Lies from Hamas
Notwithstanding the White House’s own skepticism, and repeatedly demonstrated lies, exaggerations, and manipulation of casualty figures by Hamas, continues Ms. Pletka, many parts of the U.S. government regularly rely on Hamas data.
The taxpayer-funded Voice of America cites Gaza Ministry of Health numbers in its reporting on the war and Hamas. A U.S. Agency for International Development fact sheet echoed the Hamas/U.N. numbers. And an early survey by the Huffington Post checked on how much play the Hamas statistics were getting, finding a dozen instances where the State Department relied on Hamas for data.
And while there is some disagreement within the scholarly community over the question of what is a “normal” ratio — with some suspect research (echoed by the United Nations) suggesting it can be as high as 9:1 — there are few recent conflicts where the ratio has been so low as it is in Gaza.
But that’s not the story the media, many in the U.S. government, or the United Nations wants to tell. Israel’s critics are hoping that the steady repetition of Hamas claims will soon become a de facto part of the historical record, and that Hamas’s fabrications will lead to Israel’s punishment, certainly in the court of public opinion and, if Hamas and its supporters have their way, at the United Nations, at the hands of European governments, and in the United States. Israel’s aid, arms supplies, and international legitimacy rest on the support of its friends abroad. And slowly but surely, Hamas’s narrative — though built on a foundation of lies — is taking hold.
Danielle Pletka, a distinguished senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, is host with Marc Thiessen of the podcast What the Hell is Going On?
