Where’s the Coverage? Israel Offered to Help Iranian and Iraqi Earthquake Victims
An Israeli offer to assist Iranian and Iraqi earthquake victims was “immediately rebutted” by Baghdad and Tehran—and widely ignored by major U.S. news outlets.
As The Times of Israel reported on Nov. 14, 2017, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a group of North American Jewish leaders that “Israel had offered the aid via the Red Cross, following Sunday’s magnitude 7.3 quake that killed at least 530 people in Iran and several people in Iraq, and injured thousands across the region (“Israel offers quake help to Iran, Iraq, but immediately turned down”).”
Netanyahu said that he saw “heartbreaking images of men and women and children buried under the rubble,” prompting him to offer assistance to two countries that fail to recognize the Jewish state.
As CAMERA and others have noted, Iran routinely calls for Israel’s destruction and supports terrorist groups, such as Hamas, Hezbollah and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) that wage war against it. Yet, the Israeli Prime Minister said: “We have no quarrel with the people of Iran. Our quarrel is only with the tyrannical regime that holds them hostage and threatens our destruction. But our humanity is greater than their hatred.”
Despite the devastation of the earthquake, both Iran and Iraq refused the aid, leading an official from Netanyahu’s office to note: “This shows the true face of the Iranian regime.”
While Iran and Iraq rejected the offer, the media rejected coverage.
Many major U.S. news outlets, including The Washington Post, USA Today and The Baltimore Sun, failed to provide a detailed report on Israel’s offer. The Post did, however, republish a November 14 Associated Press brief that noted Israel’s offer—but not the subsequent rejection.
The Post’s failure to offer readers an original report on the subject is striking. As CAMERA has pointed out, the paper has reported on Chinese tourists purportedly being overcharged at an Israeli restaurant, among other comparably frivolous stories.
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