Tyab, Okeefe, and Haley

Pictures from Haley's recent visit to Israel (VIN)

In searching the news to find a subject of interest to talk about today, I found nothing. Truth is I have ‘wartalk fatigue’. With over 6 months of near daily discussion about the war with Hamas and everything surrounding it, including the increased level of antisemitism it has drawn out of the woodwork, I am just plain tired of talking about it – over and over again, day after day, ad nauseum. 

Problem is, this story seems to have dominated the news cycle unlike any other since the Viet Nam War. So as much as I am loathe to write yet another post about it, I am compelled to do so. Not only because this news overwhelms anything else happening in the world.  But because the survival of Israel and the welfare of the Jewish people demands my attention. It is unfair in the extreme to complain about the ‘burden’ of talking about a war when so many brave young Jews are risking their lives trying to protect the Jewish people.

Besides, it’s important to call a spade a spade lest anyone mistake it for something else. The ‘spade’ in this case is the broadcast news media. Specifically CBS. Whose news staff is particularly biased against Israel. The CBS reporter stationed in Israel is Imtiaz Tyab, a former reporter for Al Jazeera. One may recall that  Al Jazeera was banned from Israel precisely because of their extreme anti Israel bias.

Tyab is their trusted reporter on the scene. No questions asked. He does a great job pretending to be balanced. But his bias is there for anyone to see when compared to the other mainstream broadcast news media. The resulting coverage by CBS in the US reflects that bias. As it did yesterday during a news conference  when CBS reporter Ed O’Keefe (in an exasperated voice) asked National Security Council spokesman John Kirby, how many burned corpses will it take for the president’s red line to be crossed? Nice.

As if Israel deliberately attacked them  and set them ablaze. But preliminary reports from an Israeli investigation into the matter indicate otherwise. Something Tyab ‘forgot’ to mention. As if Israel’s version could not possibly be true. That it was just spin to weasel their way out of their actual responsibility. 

With this kind of daily news coverage is it any wonder that American sentiment has turned against Israel?   

If only there could be more coverage of people like Nikky Haley. As reported at VIN, She chose to visit Israel on Memorial Day in total solidarity with them: 

Haley posted photos on Monday from her visit to southern Israel, where she met with survivors of the Hamas attack on October 7. She emphasized that the United States should fully support Israel and refrain from dictating how it should conduct its military operations.

 The following is one of her tweets that was generated from those encounters: 

Like my daughter, Tali Biner is a nurse in her 20s who loves music and her friends. But, her life changed forever at the Nova Music Festival. For hours she hid, praying not to be next, listening to fellow concert goers beg for mercy as they were raped, genitally mutilated, and shot to death by Hamas. When she escaped, she tried to treat victims who were butchered and left to slowly die. Now, she bravely tells her story to bear witness for the hundreds who can’t — raped, tortured, kidnapped, and murdered simply for being Israeli.

If only she could have been the Republican nominee for president. Polls taken just before she suspended her campaign showed that she would have been elected president - winning handily over Biden. What a difference that would make in the government narrative. There would be no talk of red lines – as though Israel didn’t have any of their own. Only talk about finishing off Hamas.