Son of elderly hostage demands Israel save hostages before attacking Gaza
The son of an elderly peace activist trapped in Gaza demands the Israeli government "correct" its failure to protect its citizens and prioritize hostage retrieval.
Israeli Idan Rakovsky spoke to Fox News Digital after his brother-in-law, Avidan Tordjman, was killed by Hamas members in the infamous October 7 attacks. He criticized international media — both left-wing and right-wing — for its treatment of the Israel-Hamas war.
"How would the average American, or Canadian, or British, or French — doesn't matter now — How would he or she respond to [an event] 20 times 9/11 in one day?" Rakovsky said of the October 7 attacks by Hamas that left at least 1,400 Israelis killed, with at least 199 others being taken hostage by Hamas into Gaza.
"That's what we're going through right now," Rakovsky said, again comparing the shock and tragedy of the Hamas attacks on Israelis and other citizens at a festival on the Gaza-Israel border to 9/11. "So seeing the coverage outside of Israel is very, very hard," he said.
Israeli Idan Rakovsky spoke to Fox News Digital after his brother-in-law, Avidan Tordjman, was killed by Hamas members in the infamous October 7 attacks. He criticized international media — both left-wing and right-wing — for its treatment of the Israel-Hamas war. (Courtesy of Idan Rakovsky (LEFT and RIGHT) // Getty Images (MIDDLE))
"I can tell you that we are already used to it, unfortunately," he said. "So it doesn't really bother us anymore. We know that Israel is strong for itself and that we have no one to rely on [but] ourselves. And that's that's fine with us. And that's why we need to be as strong as we can."
Rakovsky responded directly to the media coverage of the Gaza hospital bombing, which has sparked intense debate online as outlets, including CBS and The New York Times, received criticism for suggesting that Israel was to blame.
Critics bashed "CBS Evening News" Wednesday night for a social media post that suggested Israel was to blame for the explosion that rocked the al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza City despite President Biden and the Israeli government saying otherwise.
Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., accused The New York Times of doing something far "worse" than making a mistake, after the outlet quoted Palestinian claims blaming Israel for the explosion earlier this week.
Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., accused The New York Times of doing something far "worse" than making a mistake, after the outlet quoted Palestinian claims blaming Israel for the explosion that rocked the al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza City earlier this week. (Getty Images)
President Biden said that U.S. intelligence confirmed Israel was not to blame for the attack and backed up Israel's military investigation which found the strike was caused by Palestinian terrorist group Islamic Jihad.
"They can say whatever they want," Rakovsky said of slanted media coverage on the war. "They are the ones who are going to spread fake news at the end of the day."
"That's not going to change the way that Israel is handling the war," he added. "That's not going to change anything [in] the way we mourn our dead. That's not going to change anything in the way we support our soldiers. And unfortunately, there's going to be millions of people that are going to be brainwashed by just fake news over and over and over again. And I just feel pity for them."
"We already know that the different news channels are biased," Rakovsky said. "Doesn't matter if it's the left or the right."
"I was a soldier, I can tell you," Rakovsky said of some of allegations that Israel bombed the Gaza hospital. "Israel will never bomb a hospital. It's not who we are, it's not what we do. We're not fighting civilians. That's not what we're doing here. We're fighting terrorism. We're fighting not only our battle, not only our combat, we're fighting the world's, the Western modern world's, the democratic world's combat."
"Because if things like that happened in Israel, they could happen all over the world," he said of the Hamas terrorist attacks. "They can happen in New York, they can happen in New Jersey, they can happen in Iowa, California, Texas, it doesn't matter."
"Israel will never bomb a hospital. It's not who we are, not what we do. We're not fighting civilians," Rakovsky said. (DAWOOD NEMER/AFP via Getty Images)
Rakovsky said that after the required days of mourning for his brother-in-law's death, called Shiva, his wife's siblings who were in the army went to join the war.
"My father and mother-in-law, they are devastated," he said. "They lost one of their sons and the rest of their children are now going to fight in Gaza. So it isn't easy at all."
"At the end of the day, we know it's a war between the light and the darkness, and we know that life will prevail, even though people might say differently. But I can tell you," Rakovsky said, "it is a huge challenge to try and convey those things to the greater world. And unfortunately, I don't think the media is doing a good job in this."
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Fox News' Kristine Parks, Brian Flood and Lawrence Richard contributed to this report.
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