The BBC's Desperation to Humanise Hamas

'Elderly hostage was beaten, but otherwise well cared for'

The BBC’s desire to humanise Hamas terrorists overrides whatever journalistic judgement they might have.

Consider these two tweets.

The first BBC tweet, now deleted, shows released Jewish hostage, grandmother Yocheved Lifschitz, shaking the hand of a Hamas terrorist as she is freed.

The photo is captioned …

“Released Israeli hostage shakes her captor’s hand.”

Look everyone! She shook hands with the men from Hamas. Don’t you see now? She wasn’t so much a hostage as a guest!

She wan’t kidnapped at gunpoint so much as gifted a spontaneous vacation in Gaza by a bunch of benevolent tour guides who became like family to her.

She had such a great time staying in the underground tunnels of Gaza that she was actually quite sad to be going home.

She’ll certainly miss the boys from Hamas, but rest assured, they have promised that provided the Israeli Defence Forces do not wipe them out, they hope to drop into her Kibbutz, and others like it, again real soon!

That first tweet was soon deleted and replaced with the second tweet showing Mrs Lifschitz back home with the caption:

“I went through hell,” says 85-year-old hostage released by Hamas

Did it ever occur to the BBC that Yocheved Lifschitz’s decision to shake her captors hand might have said a great deal more about her humanity than about theirs?

First, she’s a godly woman. The Jewish faith teaches forgiveness, not hate. She didn’t shake the hands of Hamas to acknowledge who they are but to affirm who she is.

Second, her husband Oded is still being held captive.

This might explain why she said nice things about her captors upon being released. Her husband’s life hangs by a thread, and her words carry enormous weight.

At best, the BBC’s hatred of Israel is making them incredibly naive to the realities of this conflict. At worst, they are showing themselves to be the propaganda arm of Hamas.

No, wait. It’s definitely the latter.

The BBC followed up with this article headline: “Freed hostage describes treatment by Hamas captors”.

The subheading read:

“A woman who was held captive by Hamas has described her ordeal, in which she was beaten, but otherwise treated humanely.”

It was a humane beating.

A mostly peaceful beating.

An otherwise pretty reasonable beating, all things considered.

Can you bare it?