The State Department seems to need some clarity for its social media managers.
On Sunday night, Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s account tweeted, “Turkish Foreign Minister [Hakan Fidan] and I spoke further on Hamas’ terrorist attacks on Israel.”
“I encouraged Turkiye’s advocacy for a cease-fire and the release of all hostages held by Hamas immediately,” he wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken deleted his tweet calling for Turkey to broker a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. pic.twitter.com/HiXK0rAzdw
— Citizen Free Press (@CitizenFreePres) October 9, 2023
But by Monday morning, the tweet had been deleted.
This was not the first time the State Department apparently messed up its messaging on social media in the wake of Hamas’ brutal and unprovoked terrorist attacks in Israel.
As the world woke up to the news of the situation, the U.S. Office of Palestinian Affairs tweeted, “We unequivocally condemn the attack of Hamas terrorists and the loss of life that has occurred. We urge all sides to refrain from violence and retaliatory attacks. Terror and violence solve nothing.”
That tweet was also deleted after criticism.
Deleted, but the internet is forever. https://t.co/Y8uYJC0t3d pic.twitter.com/jzPOHIyXED
— Eitan Fischberger (@EFischberger) October 7, 2023
Eventually, the fighting will come to an end, whether that’s through a ceasefire or the destruction of Hamas and the occupation of the Gaza Strip by Israeli forces.
But calling for Israel to simply sit back and take the brutal and wicked acts of Hamas terrorists is morally wrong.
Some people have argued the situation is Israel’s fault because Palestinians in Gaza have been living in an “open-air prison.” But that is just a gross excuse. If someone was wrongfully convicted and spent decades behind bars, and then escaped and raped and murdered whoever they could, the public would not just shrug and say, “It’s understandable, they were unjustly imprisoned.”
Whatever your view of Israel and Palestine, there is no excuse for the actions of Hamas. There is nothing that Israel has done to justify raping and kidnapping women. There is no excuse for carrying off an 85-year-old grandmother as a hostage or paragliding into a music festival and opening fire into the crowd or any of the other reported atrocities.
As several writers have pointed out, the Israeli death toll of at least 700 people proportional to the U.S. population would equate to about 28,000 Americans killed if there were to be a similar attack and scale of devastation here.
Just as Ukraine has the right to defend its national sovereignty from Russia’s brutal invasion, Israel should be given the latitude from the international community it needs to respond to Hamas’ attacks.