Cross posted to the MRC's NewsBusters blog
On Monday's CNN This Morning, the show gave a forum to pro-Palestinian advocate Omar Baddar to accuse Israel of committing "daily war crimes" and the "mass indiscriminate bombing of civilian areas" as he blamed "injustice" perpetrated by Israel for the weekend terrorist attack.
Co-host Phil Mattingly set up the segment by introducing a clip of the Palestinian observer to the United Nations:
PHIL MATTINGLY: Well, the Palestinian observer to the United Nations, Riyad Mansour, is speaking out against Israel's military response to the Hamas terror attacks.
RIYAD MANSOUR, PALESTINIAN OBSERVER TO THE UNITED NATIONS: History for some media and politicians start(s) when Israelis are killed. (editing jump) We know only too well that the messages about Israel's right to defend itself will be interpreted by Israel as license to kill, to pursue on the very path that led us here.
The CNN host brought aboard Omar Baddar, describing him as a "Palestinian American Middle East Journalist," and began by asking him about the timing of the terrorist attack by Hamas. His anti-Israel biases -- which include recently calling Israel a "racist" country -- were not mentioned.
After expressing regrets over one of the Jewish families who appeared in an earlier segment, Baddar launched into blaming Israel:
But the real scandal here is that this is every bit as horrific as it is predictable and preventable. A lot of people are talking about this as an intelligence failure, but I think there is a much more fundamental failure of common sense that you can put millions of Palestinians under indefinite military occupation and a system of apartheid as recognized by every major human rights organization in the world were Israel commits daily war crimes against Palestinians everywhere, land theft, lack of access to water, dropping bombs indiscriminately on civilian areas, and to think that this is a situation that is not going to eventually lead to an explosion is absolutely insane.
He added:
This is absolutely predicable. We were obviously heading towards eventually a disaster of this kind. And now all of this direction towards further militarism and further violence is obviously not going to lead to anything better because that is exactly the track that got us here. I think that is absolutely correct. We need a real, meaningful solution to the underlying injustice that drives this violence, and that has to mean that Palestinians get to be free of Israeli control and occupation.
Setting up a clip of a spokesman for the Israeli military, co-host Poppy Harlow softly pushed back: "Omar, you just heard from Michal and David Abramov searching desperately for their 20-year-old son. They're one of many -- at least 100 hostages -- being held at this moment. This is what the spokesman for the IDF -- Lieutenant Colonel Hecht -- said overnight."
After a clip of IDF spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Richard Hecht arguing that the Israel military tries to minimize civilian casualties, Harlow blandly posed: "You have said that this conflict cannot be solved militarily. How do you see this ending? Where do you see this going?"
Baddar responded by insisting that the Israeli military targets Palestinian civilians:
I mean, look, there is all these pronouncements about the need to -- that they're going to do everything that they can to avoid civilian casualties. It is really worth emphasizing here that Israel has bombed Gaza many, many times before, and Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International and even Israeli human rights organizations like B'Tselem say that this is not at all what Israel's conduct is. There isn't an effort to minimize civilian casualties -- that there is mass indiscriminate bombing of civilian areas -- and, frankly, we are watching that unfold right now as well.
He soon added:
And, at the end of it, Palestinians are going to remain a population that is captive and under an illegal siege -- as recognized by the U.N. -- and we're only setting ourselves up towards another round of this in the future. What we need right now is for the world community to come together and start dealing with this issue seriously -- understanding that giving Israel this policy of carte blanche to behave however it wants to towards Palestinians, is not actually a way to achieve long-lasting peace, you can't keep doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. The one thing that has not been tried so far is allowing Palestinians to be free of Israeli occupation and military dictatorship.
With no further challenge to his claims, Harlow concluded: "Omar Baddar, thank you for joining us."
It was not mentioned that the Israeli military withdrew from the West Bank in the 1990s but had to return after it was used by terrorists to attack Israel, or that the IDF withdrew from Gaza in 2005, also resulting in the region being used to stage more terrorist attacks.
This anti-Israel propaganda on CNN was sponsored in part by Lexus. Their contact information is linked.
Transcript follows:
CNN This Morning
October 9, 2023
7:52 a.m. Eastern
PHIL MATTINGLY: Well, the Palestinian observer to the United Nations, Riyad Mansour, is speaking out against Israel's military response to the Hamas terror attacks.
RIYAD MANSOUR, PALESTINIAN OBSERVER TO THE UNITED NATIONS: History for some media and politicians start(s) when Israelis are killed. (editing jump) We know only too well that the messages about Israel's right to defend itself will be interpreted by Israel as license to kill, to pursue on the very path that led us here.
MATTINGLY: The death toll is rising on both sides -- more than 700 people confirmed dead in Israel, more than 500 Palestinians killed. The U.N. estimates that more than 123,000 Palestinians have already been displaced since the fighting began on Saturday. Joining us now is Palestinian American Middle East journalist Omar Baddar. Omar, appreciate your time. To start with the timing, I think the big question has been the surprise and "How did this happen?" and "How was Israel caught so off guard?" But what's your sense in terms of the timing as why it happened now?
OMAR BADDAR, MIDDLE EAST ANALYST: I think the timing is inherently random because otherwise it would not be a successful surprise attack. And I just want to mention that obviously just what we've saw -- what we've seen out of it has been absolutely horrific. I've been listening to your previous guests who were talking about not being able to find their children, and that's absolutely heartbreaking. I'm a father of two little children, and I can't imagine how I would feel if they were kidnapped and not know where they were.
But the real scandal here is that this is every bit as horrific as it is predictable and preventable. A lot of people are talking about this as an intelligence failure, but I think there is a much more fundamental failure of common sense that you can put millions of Palestinians under indefinite military occupation and a system of apartheid as recognized by every major human rights organization in the world were Israel commits daily war crimes against Palestinians everywhere, land theft, lack of access to water, dropping bombs indiscriminately on civilian areas, and to think that this is a situation that is not going to eventually lead to an explosion is absolutely insane. This is absolutely predicable. We were obviously heading towards eventually a disaster of this kind. And now all of this direction towards further militarism and further violence is obviously not going to lead to anything better because that is exactly the track that got us here. I think that is absolutely correct. We need a real, meaningful solution to the underlying injustice that drives this violence, and that has to mean that Palestinians get to be free of Israeli control and occupation.
POPPY HARLOW: Omar, you just heard from Michal and David Abramov searching desperately for their 20-year-old son. They're one of many -- at least 100 hostages -- being held at this moment. This is what the spokesman for the IDF -- Lieutenant Colonel Hecht -- said overnight.
LIEUTENANT COLONEL RICHARD HECHT, ISRAELI DEFENSE FORCES SPOKESMAN: We don't focus our attacks on women and children. We do everything we can to minimize collateral damage, but, again, we are at war with Hamas. And, sadly, there's going to --sadly, there might be people that aren't involved killed, and it's not -- it wouldn't be intentional. And, sadly, Hamas have entrenched themselves in a cynical away in the civilian population.
HARLOW: You have said that this conflict cannot be solved militarily. How do you see this ending? Where do you see this going?
BADDAR: I mean, look, there is all these pronouncements about the need to -- that they're going to do everything that they can to avoid civilian casualties. It is really worth emphasizing here that Israel has bombed Gaza many, many times before, and Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International and even Israeli human rights organizations like B'Tselem say that this is not at all what Israel's conduct is. There isn't an effort to minimize civilian casualties -- that there is mass indiscriminate bombing of civilian areas -- and, frankly, we are watching that unfold right now as well. The policy is essentially to punish the entire Palestinian population -- cutting off electricity to all of Gaza -- preventing anybody in Gaza from coming in and out. This is an act of collective punishment, and this is exactly the trajectory that we unfortunately are on. I think what we are going to see is much greater death that's going to cover the entire Gaza Strip.
And, at the end of it, Palestinians are going to remain a population that is captive and under an illegal siege -- as recognized by the U.N. -- and we're only setting ourselves up towards another round of this in the future. What we need right now is for the world community to come together and start dealing with this issue seriously -- understanding that giving Israel this policy of carte blanche to behave however it wants to towards Palestinians, is not actually a way to achieve long-lasting peace, you can't keep doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.
The one thing that has not been tried so far is allowing Palestinians to be free of Israeli occupation and military dictatorship. And until we start taking Palestinian grievances seriously -- until Israel starts seeing Palestinians as equal human beings who are deserving of the same human rights and decency and dignity that Israelis enjoy, I'm afraid we're going to be stuck in this situation for a very, very long time.
HARLOW: Omar Baddar, thank you for joining us.