In “She backed Israel. Her son led a protest” (05/22/24), The Washington Post published another front-page article that gave an opportunity to malign Israel and showcase the false Palestinian narrative. 

In this edition, there were actually two such front-page articles for the Post to put its bias on full display.  In one iteration, the Post article was a story about a mother and son who at least initially had opposing views on the recent Hamas/Israel conflict, until the mom came around to the son’s perspective.

The article gives the background of how the son, Eric, accepted the pro-Hamas narrative.  It started when he “watched online ... as some Palestinians lived in Gaza as refugees with limited food or work.”  Further, when he was a sophomore at Andover High, he took an elective called “The Modern Middle East,” after which he said, “I thought people being displaced from their homes was awful. ... From then on, I broadly aligned myself with the Palestinians.”  The son “empathized with Palestinians displaced by the war that broke out in 1948 after Israel declared independence.”  The son said, “My view is if you want to stop the conflict in Gaza, stop the Israeli occupation.  Give the Palestinian people self-determination because ultimately it’s their decision to make, not ours.”

The mother eventually came around to the son’s view: “the only reasonable and equitable path toward peace, she thought, was a two-state solution.”  And “she felt proud of his calls for a cease-fire.”

This is not a story of a mother/son misunderstanding that eventually resolved.  This is an example of an educational system run amok, one that dangerously misleads its students.  On top of that, social media and misinformation from the legacy media should be reproached for distorting the news.

The son’s initial discovery about the war was that Gazans had “limited food” and “work.”  Well, if that were true, why isn’t his gripe with Hamas, which controls the territory, not Israel?  There was not one Israeli in Gaza since 2005 and no occupation.  Gaza was bordered by Israel and Egypt, but no one gripes about Egypt being an occupier or controller.  Further, the Gazan territory has received billions in aid from many countries worldwide.  Gazans have received more aid per capita than any people in the world.  What did they do with this money?  Yes, we all know where the money went: Hamas built a massive underground military fortification, beyond what the world has ever seen.  The terrorist tunnel infrastructure was larger than the New York and London subway systems combined.  What was the purpose of this underground fortification? 

Eric never learned this part: according to its charter, Hamas’s raison d’être is the destruction of Israel.  The charter also includes the mission of killing Jews the world over.  Even not knowing this, wasn’t he still shocked by the mutilation, burning, raping of Israeli women, babies, toddlers on October 7?  And this student took part in the same educational system that teaches about the dangers of microaggressions.

His education left out the other half of the story.  Imagine telling the story about America bombing Tokyo without mentioning Pearl Harbor.  Imagine telling the story about America bombing Germany without telling how Germany conquered most of Europe first.  Imagine telling the story about America’s attack on Afghanistan without mentioning the 9/11 attack.

The son was never taught all the facts, and the article’s reporter felt no need to fill in the gaps.  The reporter was an accomplice in the son’s biased education.

Here is the missing link in understanding the Middle East quagmire.  Yes, on May 14, 1948, Israel declared independence.  From this act, this declaration, Arabs were not displaced.  Where is this in any Washington Post article?

In the Post, they merely claim that a war “broke out” after Israel declared independence.  No wonder Eric is so misinformed.  What happened after the declaration was that five hostile neighboring Arab nations and the local Arabs (later called Palestinians) launched a genocidal war against Israel to “push the Jews into the sea” — their words.  In the greatest upset in history, the Arabs lost to the nascent Jewish state.

As in many wars, civilians were displaced.  There were Jews displaced and Arabs displaced.  The local Jews who were displaced from Jerusalem and the West Bank, and the hundreds of thousands of Jews who were displaced from Arab nations after the war, were repatriated in Israel.  And that’s why we never hear about them.  But unlike the Jewish refugees, most of the Arab refugees were cynically kept in refugee camps as a political tool by neighboring Arab nations and have not been resettled to this day. 

Since that time, Israel numerous times has offered the Palestinian Arabs a state of their own side by side with Israel.  Each time, the Palestinians said no.  Never in the history of warfare has the loser of a war demanded so much from the winner.  In the last offer, Israel offered the Palestinian Arabs virtually everything that they wanted, close to 100%.  Still no.

One of the Palestinians chief sticking points in peace negotiations is to give millions of Palestinians the right to relocate to Israel.  If Palestinians want a state of their own, why do they want so many of their brethren to live in Israel?  The reason is to flood Israel and take it over.  Eric, the son, should have been taught all this, as should have the author of the article.

Lastly, it is sad that the mother doesn’t even realize the significance of a ceasefire.  Is she even aware that there was a ceasefire in place on October 6, before Hamas launched this heinous massacre?  Probably not.  Leaving Hamas in power now — which is what a ceasefire would do — would only prolong the conflict and cause more deaths on both sides.  Hamas has vowed to repeat October 7 again and again — meaning more murderous invasions into Israel.  Its leaders and operatives make no bones that their ultimate goal is to destroy Israel.  Repeated attacks would cause repeated Israeli responses — unceasing war and death.  Is this what the mom wants?  I doubt it. 

The Washington Post should serve as an educational adjunct for people like Eric, his mother, and others on the reality of the Middle East conflict.  Obviously, school curricula are lacking in this department.  With the proper knowledge, how could anyone rationally protest in favor of Hamas, and so enthusiastically, no less?

For the sake of the Palestinian people and the Israeli people, let’s get the facts out.  Come on, schools of higher education!  Come on, social media operators.  Come on, Washington Post.  Do your jobs!

Dr. Michael Berenhaus is a freelance activist who works to combat anti-Israel bias in the media.  He has been widely published in news sources such as The Economist, The New York Times, and The Washington Post.

Image via Pxfuel.