Adviser for The 10/7 Project talks about the media's coverage of the Israel-Hamas war
The 10/7 Project's Brad Todd spoke with Fox News Digital about the new effort from prominent Jewish groups to combat inaccurate reporting about the Israel-Hamas war.
The 10/7 Project launched by prominent Jewish organizations this week aims to "set the record straight" on the Israel-Hamas war, combating false narratives coming from the legacy media.
"It's unprecedented that all these groups who have advocated for the U.S.-Israel relationship have come together for this project," The 10/7 Project adviser Brad Todd told Fox News Digital in an interview. "It is a broad array of groups that have come together with one mission, and that is to set the record straight here in the United States about the facts in this war and to elevate the hostage situation to the public and keep people focused on that until we can bring every hostage home."
The five leading groups, the American Jewish Committee (AJC), the Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA), the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, call The 10/7 Project a "new centralized communications operation" meant to "promote continued U.S. bipartisan support for Israel by working to ensure more complete and accurate information about the Israel-Hamas war in real time for policymakers and the American public," according to its press release Tuesday.
Jewish groups united to form The 10/7 Project aiming to combat inaccurate reporting and "misinformation" from Hamas as the war unfolds between Israel and the terrorist group. (The 10/7 Project)
Todd says The 10/7 Project's "Daybook" daily newsletter, for example, will "elevate coverage that viewers and readers here in the United States need to know" about the ongoing war as well as "call out incorrect facts." He also said the newsletter will call out the "creeping antisemitism" in the U.S. and the "institutionalization" of the hatred towards Jews.
He singled out The New York Times as the news organization with the most egregious coverage of the Israel-Hamas war.
"If you only read The New York Times, you would be pretty confused about what's happened over in Israel since this war started. You can see the disparate treatment that the hostages that Hamas took literally from their beds in their homes on the morning of October 7th, you see how their situation has been likened to those accused terrorist who had been held in prison in Israel, and in many cases convicted terrorists," Todd said.
"They somehow leave that word out for people who've been convicted in court. You also see the circumstances of their terrorist acts being completely left out. When we saw the exchange of prisoners for hostages, and you have terrorist- accused terrorists on one side and innocent people taken from their homes on the other. And if you only read The New York Times, you could believe that the situations were the same."
Todd called out The New York Times' "disparate treatment" in its coverage of Israel and Palestinians during the unfolding war. (DON EMMERT/AFP via Getty Images)
Todd said The 10/7 Project will also elevate stories like instances of antisemitism occurring on college campuses, pointing to Tuesday's congressional testimony of three university presidents from Harvard, MIT and Penn, who failed to say calls for genocide against Jews through pro-Palestinian "intifada" slogans violated the university's code of conduct regarding harassment and bullying of Jewish students, with some saying it would depend on "conduct" or "context."
"That's not the kind of answer they would have given had the group being discussed was anyone except Jews," Todd said. "I think those kind of stories, they're going to be skipped over by a lot of the American media unless projects like The 10/7 Project elevate those stories into the public consciousness."
"I think a lot of Americans have been surprised at how many people who are fairly high up in our cultural institutions have been reticent to call out antisemitism since October 7th, and it's unacceptable. It's a thing that we can't tolerate here in America. And we at least must hold accountable people who are reticent to call out that antisemitism."
One of the immediate narratives Todd says The 10/7 Project is combating is that Israel is the aggressor, pointing out how 11,000 rockets have been launched from Gaza by Hamas towards Israel since Oct. 7.
"This is an attack that is ongoing and never, never ending, seemingly," Todd said. "Hamas will not stop attacking Israel. And we know that. And so that's a truth about this conflict, that's an everyday truth. It doesn't stop."
The 10/7 Project adviser Brad Todd says those in major institutions "reticent to call out antisemitism" must be held accountable. (William B. Plowman/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images)
There has been a raging debate on social media about whether anti-Zionism (opposition to Zionism, the movement supporting Jews having their own land in Israel) equates to antisemitism. Todd seems to think so.
"Well, half the world's Jews live in Israel, and Israel has a right to exist as a Jewish state. Denying that is de facto antisemitism," Todd said. "It's sad that it's going to be debated in this context. The people of Israel want to live in peace with their neighbors. And that's a message that the American public needs to know."
Todd also rejected allegations from pro-Palestinian critics that Israel, too, engages in misinformation, something The 10/7 Project vows to combat from Hamas.
"The Israeli government is a government that abides by standards. They adhere to those standards of transparency. And I think there's just a clear distinction between the information that the Israeli government has gladly put forward as this conflict has proceeded and the things we see coming out of the terrorists at Hamas," Todd said.
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As the rise of antisemitism continues to plague the nation, Todd says the answer is to "speak out," which is something The 10/7 Project intends to do.
"I think a lot of Jews, not only in Israel but worldwide, have been surprised that so many people that they felt were their allies have turned out to be so reticent to defend them. Israel is the Jewish state, and it is a homeland for all Jews should they want to go there. And the fact that so many people who have long pledged to support Israel have been squishy on Israel's right to defend itself and its right to exist is alarming. But it's one that we think with more information can be corrected."
"It's our job to get the facts out so that the Americans - the vast majority who agree that Israel has a right to exist and defend itself, are armed with the right information in their own conversations with their friends and neighbors as this topic comes up," he later added.
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