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Call Me Back - with Dan Senor

How Hamas fooled the world - with Matti Friedman

Call Me Back - with Dan Senor

Ark Media

Society, Foreign Policy, Geopolitics, Israel, News Commentary, News, Politics, Elections, Palestine, Dan Senor, Government

4.82.3K Ratings

🗓️ 22 February 2024

⏱️ 45 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Every day we see news accounts “reported” by reputable journalists. There is typically one frame in the post-10/07 War: ‘Gazan Palestinians are the victims of Israel.’ How does this happen? How do journalists actually operate in Gaza and around the world? And is this a window into what had Hamas figured out long before 10/07 — that the forces of barbarism could manipulate the intentional press reaction to their massacre of 10/07? That is why we wanted to sit down with Matti Friedman, who is one of the most thoughtful writers when it comes to all matters related to Israel, the broader Middle East, and also trends in the world of journalism. He writes regularly for The Free Press is a regular contributor to The Atlantic. His newest book is called “Who by Fire: Leonard Cohen in the Sinai.” Before that he published "Spies of No Country: Secret Lives at the Birth of Israel," and before that "Pumpkinflowers: A Soldier’s Story of a Forgotten War.” Matti’s army service included tours in Lebanon. His work as a reporter has taken him from Israel to Lebanon, Morocco, Moscow, the Caucasus, and Washington, DC. He is a former Associated Press correspondent and essayist for the New York Times opinion section. But it was his time covering Hama’s takeover of Gaza that led him to study with great detail how Hamas manipulates the media, NGOs and the international community, and how they are working from the same playbook right now, perhaps quite masterfully. Matti Friedman's published works that we discuss in this episode: “The Wisdom of Hamas” — The Free Press — https://www.thefp.com/p/matti-friedman-the-wisdom-of-hamas “What if the Real War in Israel Hasn’t Even Started?” — The Free Press — https://www.thefp.com/p/matti-friedman-israel-hezbollah-war "There Is No 'Israeli-Palestinian Conflict'" -- The New York Times -- https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/16/opinion/israeli-palestinian-conflict-matti-friedman.htm "An Insider’s Guide to the Most Important Story on Earth" -- Tablet Magazine -- https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/israel-middle-east/articles/israel-insider-guide "What The Media Gets Wrong About Israel" -- The Atlantic -- https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/11/how-the-media-makes-the-israel-story/383262/ That is why we wanted to sit down with Matti Friedman, who is one of the most thoughtful writers when it comes to all matters related to Israel, the broader Middle East, and also trends in the world of journalism. He is a monthly writer for Tablet Magazine and a regular contributor to The Atlantic. His newest book is called “Who by Fire: Leonard Cohen in the Sinai.” Before that he published "Spies of No Country: Secret Lives at the Birth of Israel," and before that "Pumpkinflowers: A Soldier’s Story of a Forgotten War.” Matti’s army service included tours in Lebanon. His work as a reporter has taken him from Israel to Lebanon, Morocco, Moscow, the Caucasus, and Washington, DC. He is a former Associated Press correspondent and essayist for the New York Times opinion section. But it was his time covering Hama’s takeover of Gaza that led him to study with great detail how Hamas manipulates the media, NGOs and the international community, and how they are working from the same playbook right now, perhaps quite masterfully. Matti Friedman's published works that we discuss in this episode: "There Is No 'Israeli-Palestinian Conflict'" -- The New York Times -- https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/16/opinion/israeli-palestinian-conflict-matti-friedman.htm "An Insider’s Guide to the Most Important Story on Earth" -- Tablet Magazine -- https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/israel-middle-east/articles/israel-insider-guide "What The Media Gets Wrong About Israel" -- The Atlantic -- https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/11/how-the-media-makes-the-israel-story/383262/

Transcript

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0:00.0

A lot of people in the West watching this incredible event on October 7th, this massacre of hundreds of civilians,

0:07.6

1,200 people killed on that day, plus about 250 people taken hostage, and people were watching this saying what are they

0:15.1

thinking and this was clearly some kind of miscalculation no one of course could support the

0:20.0

kind of atrocities we'd seen on October 7th. I think that four months in, it seems pretty clear that they understood things about the West that many Westerners didn't understand. I think that the idea that they miscalculated was a bit facile.

0:34.0

I think that they understand something deep about the world that we have learned in the past four months,

0:39.0

but which they clearly knew on October 7th.

0:43.0

Every day we see news accounts in mainstream print publications flashing across our phones on social media and on television

0:58.0

reported and I put the word reported in October 7th war is a story about

1:12.7

Gazanians as the victims of Israel.

1:16.2

I mean to give one recent example

1:18.6

during the early morning of February 12th,

1:21.4

Israel rescued two hostages, two year old Fernando Simon Marman and 70 year old

1:28.3

Louise Har. Marmon and Har had been kidnapped from Kibbutz near Yitzhach on October 7th.

1:34.7

The IDF, the Shinbait and Special Police Forces rescued these two innocent men from a building

1:40.9

in Rafa in southern Gaza.

1:43.0

Raffa, the place that the international community has been lecturing Israel

1:47.2

that they cannot wage military action.

1:50.0

Well, according to public reports, one Israeli soldier was injured in this daring operation and 37 Hamas terrorists, including the hostages guards, were killed.

2:01.0

But what received the most press attention internationally in the days after this rescue operation

2:07.0

was a report according to Amnesty International that the operation and airstrikes by Israel to rescue these two elderly men led to the

2:15.1

deaths of at least according to the reports 95 Palestinian civilians that was

2:20.7

the story that broke through over here in the diaspora in the west.

...

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