The Liberal Media Supported Hamas Over President Trump, U.S. Ambassador To Israel Argues

The U.S. Ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, slammed the "liberal media" in an op-ed for Fox News, accusing the press of supporting the Islamist organization Hamas over President Donald Trump.

The op-ed, published a week after the U.S. moved its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, argued that the media had helped overshadow the embassy opening by focusing on the death of Palestinians who were protesting that day on the border between Israel and the Gaza Strip.

"The opening ceremony was a beautiful and uplifting event attended by hundreds and watched by millions. As the ceremony proceeded, there were a few sporadic, peaceful protests from among the hundreds of thousands of Arabs living in Jerusalem. The West Bank remained calm," Friedman wrote.

"The apparent success of the embassy's opening ceremony enraged the liberal media. Could this be yet another diplomatic triumph by President Trump? The prospect was unbearable. Hamas to the rescue. These thugs, acknowledged nearly universally as a terrorist organization, had been rioting in Gaza over the past six weeks for purported reasons not connected to the embassy move. They were more than willing to provide the media with a dark side to an otherwise uplifting story," Friedman continued

Palestinians in Gaza had been protesting their dismal living conditions for weeks in the lead-up to the U.S. embassy's opening ceremony. Most of the protests were peaceful, yet some young Palestinian men threw rocks and burned tires near the border with Israel. Others tried to fly burning kites over the border.

The Israeli military said that the protesters were encouraged and organized by Hamas, and that some intended to storm the border fence to attack nearby Israeli settlements. At least 60 protesters were killed on the day the U.S. Embassy opened in Jerusalem, including a baby girl who was suffocated by tear gas.

Speaking after the violence took place, a senior official in the Israeli defense force said that Hamas had won the public relations war by sending protesters to their death. Members of the international community, however, accused Israel of perpetrating human rights abuses by targeting unarmed protesters.

Several media outlets broadcast photographs and videos of the violence on a split screen next to images of President Trump's daughter Ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner attending the embassy opening. This decision was criticized by Friedman, who said "the liberal media vilified everyone associated with the embassy move and glorified the poor Hamas terrorists."

Opening an embassy in Jerusalem and recognizing the city as the capital of Israel was controversial across the Muslim world because it appears as if the U.S. accepted Israel's claim to the entirety of the city. The eastern half of Jerusalem has long been envisioned as the future capital of a Palestinian state, if and when a two-state solution is reached between the Israelis and the Palestinians. The Trump administration continues to argue that it has not taken a position on a two-state solution or who should control Jerusalem in the future.