On Monday afternoon, during a joint appearance at The White House, President Donald Trump announced that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has signed on to his 20 point peace plan to end the war in Gaza. But hours later, instead of soaking up praise, Bibi and Israel were being vilified by members of the panel on CNN's NewsNight with Abby Phillip.
After playing clips of Trump and Netanyahu from earlier in the day, Phillip went on to ignore the fact that Hamas is not a typical military opponent, but rather a vicious terrorist group holding Israeli hostages for nearly two years: "It's really only in this conflict that I feel like there's a peace deal announced except that one party to the deal is not really involved in it."
She then went on to question the sincerity of Netanyahu in agreeing to the deal, asking one of her panelists, Max Boot of The Council on Foreign Relations, "Did you sense that he was actually committed to the peace deal, or is he just waiting for Hamas to reject it so that he could move forward with the war plan?"
It turns out she was lobbing a softball to Boot, who replied with , "That's my conjecture Abby. The reason why Prime Minister Netanyahu is willing to go along with this, which include some things which would be a hard sell to his right wing coalition including a path for statehood for Palestinians, is because he expects that Hamas will turn it down. Or if they do accept it they will say yes but, and add conditions and then they will negotiate endlessly, while Israeli troops continue advancing in Gaza."
While Hamas largely received a pass, the panel was stocked with those more than willing to go after Netanyahu and Israel. Pete Seat and Rob Bluey represented the GOP side, opposed by Phillip, Boot, Ana Kasparian of The Young Turks, and perhaps the worst offender of the night, Dr. Cornel West, who compared the Israel/ Hamas situation to slavery in the U.S. "You've got to deal with occupation and domination. The only reason you have Hamas is because you've got occupation and domination." Of course Israel did not occupy Gaza on October 7th 2023, in fact they had handed it over to the Palestinians in 2005, and Hamas took power in 2007. But why confuse the radical professor with the facts.
More from West, in this unhinged analogy, "Just like in the United States you had slavery right...You can have ... John Brown, you can have Nat Turner, and you can kill all of them, and if you don't come to terms with slavery, then sooner or later you're going to have to redo the whole thing over." He then went on to trash Trump's peace plan, .."So don't reduce Hamas to the Palestinian people, you've got to deal with their suffering and their occupation and domination. Does this deal speak to occupation? I didn't hear a mumbling word!"
Let's face it. As we approach the second anniversary of October 7th, no matter what Israel or Benjamin Netanyahu do to try to bring about peace, those like Phillip and the panelists mentioned here, along with scores of others throughout the media, worldwide, will never find it to be enough, and will always have a soft-spot for the terrorists Hamas.
