Ron DeSantis sees two-front Israeli war against Hamas — and media

At the rollout of his Veterans Coalition backing his presidential campaign, Ron DeSantis described Israel as being at war not just with Hamas, but with a media he says is carrying the Palestinian terror group’s water by misrepresenting facts to harm the Israeli position.

Addressing an audience in Anderson, South Carolina, the 2024 Republican candidate for President blasted “bogus media reports” that contended Israel blew up a hospital in Gaza days ago.

“Hamas lied and said that Israel blew up a hospital. Did the media fact check Hamas? Did the media make sure that that assertion was verified? No, they went and printed that because they’re trying to produce a narrative,” DeSantis said.

“They went with things that were lies, that lit a fuse throughout the world, where you got people now out there protesting and all these things,” DeSantis added. “And so when we stand with Israel, not only stand their right to defend themselves, we have to stand for the truth against media lying, and they are going to continue to do this throughout this conflict.”

The Governor called it “a disgrace,” noting that he himself had “never been to journalism school and never would think to do that.”

“But I guarantee you that they would probably flunk you if you said that regurgitating a Hamas press release was adequate journalism. I don’t think that that would fly anywhere else. So, this is harmful, harmful stuff and it’s all meant to attack the state of Israel.”

DeSantis has famously blamed the media for all manner of misrepresentation domestically, but he has honed in on panning the press as the conflict between Israel and Hamas hurtles toward a seemingly inevitable ground war.

During a Fox News Radio interview, the 2024 presidential candidate told host Brian Kilmeade that Wednesday’s anti-American protests outside the U.S. Embassy in Lebanon were because of press outlets “jumping the gun” and incorrectly claiming that Israeli munitions blew up a Gaza hospital, taking 500 lives.

DeSantis claimed then that media organizations were “pursuing a narrative about this hospital, basically taking the word of Hamas for it, that this was somehow an (Israeli Defense Forces) strike on a hospital when in fact, it was a rocket fired by Palestinian Islamic jihad that misfired and hit the hospital.”

He said “the media ran with that, that stoked a lot of rage throughout the region and it was false.”

While an investigation of the explosion’s origin is still ongoing, it appears President Joe Biden shares DeSantis’ belief that Israel was not responsible for the detonation of the medical facility.

As reported by Haaretz, Biden told Israeli media Wednesday that the attack “appears that it was done by the other team, not you.”

Biden said he was “sad and outraged by the explosion in the hospital in Gaza.”