Israeli ex-ambassador: Media equating Israel to Hamas is like claiming 'moral equivalency between US, Al Qaeda

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Former Israeli Ambassador to US sounds off on media coverage of Palestinian attacks

Ron Dermer joins Mark Levin on 'Life, Liberty & Levin' to react

Former Israeli Ambassador to the United States Ron Dermer called out the global media – including in the United States – for continuing to claim there is any similarity between the actions taken by both Israel and Hamas, the fundamentalist group in control of the Palestinians.

On "Life, Liberty & Levin," host Mark Levin called the coverage of the missile attacks against Israel and the response from Jerusalem is "par for the course" in today's media.

"They treat Hamas and Islamic Jihad, these terrorist groups, on an equivalency with Israel. Israel's trying to hit… military targets in very dense areas. And the terrorists are obviously aiming heavily at [Israeli] population centers," he said, asking Dermer his thoughts.

Dermer called the coverage "shameful," adding that it actually endangers Palestinian civilians because by failing to properly analyze what is going on in the Middle East, the Hamas "terrorists are… embedding their arsenals of rockets and missiles and weapons and bombs and drones in civilian areas."

"There is no moral equivalence between a terrorist organization and the democratic state of Israel," Dermer said.

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Dermer said in the case of the U.S. media, their coverage of Palestinian attacks on Israel would be like foreign media covering an Al Qaeda attack on the United States homeland and deeming both the terrorists and Americans to be on the same moral level.

"I'd ask the American people, how would they like it if foreign governments or the international media drew a moral equivalency between the United States of America and al Qaeda or the United States of America and ISIS?" added the U.S. born Dermer, "I think people in Israel are disgusted by it because there is no moral equivalence between a terrorist organization and the democratic state of Israel." 

Dermer's fervent remarks also came after two Democratic lawmakers, Reps. Andre Carson of Indiana and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, protested in front of the U.S. State Department in Washington to demand the Biden administration "seek justice" for the Palestinians.

Meanwhile, Republicans and other Democrats spoke strongly in support of Israel, including Rep. Theodore Deutch, D-Fla., who declared Hamas a "terrorist organization" and said that America must continue to stand with its ally, Israel.

Dermer noted that while the Palestinians are launching attacks from within civilian areas – often against Israeli civilian areas – the Israeli response has been painstakingly calculated to minimize civilian casualties and only take out Palestinian government or military targets.

But, by embedding military sites within residential areas, it is difficult to avoid casualties, which are then registered in the press as being more intentional than in reality.

"We are not trying to harm them. We're doing everything to keep the civilians among the Palestinians out of harm's way. Hamas does everything to put them in harm's way. But Hamas is relying on an international media that will then put all the blame on Israel, that would pressure the international community to move against Israel and to stop Israel, to try to pressure us, to stop us from doing what we have to do to fight terrorism," he added.

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In addition, Levin said Hamas is "made to look like a victim" even though they engaged in heavy weapons attacks unprovoked.

"Look, Mark, if Israel were trying to kill Palestinian civilians, you would have not hundreds that you'd not have thousands. You'd have tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands with the firepower we have and with the amount of munitions that we have dropped on Gaza," Dermer replied.

"Even up to this point, if we were trying to target Palestinian civilians, you'd have tens of thousands of people dead. The reason why you don't is we don't want to do that. But the media is very lazy about telling the story. They want to paint Israel as some sort of Goliath, paint the Palestinians as David," he said.

Dermer also criticized the Europeans for their analysis and inaction, remarking that that region is "used to Jews being defenseless" but that they are that no longer.

"Those days are over. And a lot of people are not used to that. We're a proud sovereign country and we're going to defend ourselves just like any other sovereign country would."