Christiane “Be Truthful, Not Neutral” Amanpour lied by omission on Wednesday's edition of Amanpour and Company, which airs globally on CNN and domestically on PBS. She reported that American munitions were used recently in an Israeli strike that “killed more than 45 people,” but omitted that the warhead on the bomb was not big enough to create the massive fire that caused all those deaths by itself.
Amanpour kicked off the show by attacking President Joe Biden from the left, “Israel's assault on Rafah is intensifying, but the U.S. president, Joe Biden, is not changing tack. The White House asserts it hasn't yet seen a major ground operation there. But that's done nothing to temper global outrage after an Israeli airstrike killed more than 45 people in a displacement camp in Southern Gaza on Sunday.”
She then added, “A CNN analysis has found that U.S.-made munitions were used in that attack.”
Here’s what the CNN report says in greater detail: “In video shared on social media, which CNN geolocated to the same scene by matching details including the camp’s entrance sign and the tiles on the ground, the tail of a US-made GBU-39 small diameter bomb (SDB) is visible, according to four explosive weapons experts who reviewed the video for CNN.”
CNN reported that its conclusion matches Israel’s:
[IDF Spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel] Hagari told reporters the strike – which he said targeted senior Hamas commanders – used two munitions with small warheads containing 17 kilos of explosives, adding these bombs were ‘the smallest munitions that our jets could use.’ The traditional GBU-39 warhead has an explosive payload of 17 kilos.
Hagari said the deadly fire which occurred following the strike was not caused solely by weapons used by the Israeli military.
Biden’s previous halt on weapons shipments to Israel was over 500-2,000 pound bombs. Israel listened to his concerns about larger munitions in Rafah and used a much smaller bomb with a 37 pound warhead, but Amanpour omitted all that.
Instead, she welcomed Sen. Chris Van Hollen and asked him, “Does the United States have leverage? I mean, it does, but is it prepared to use it? It appears – I mean, again, this is, you know, the impression we get that all the admonitions and recommendations from Israel's biggest backer, i.e., the United States, the president of the United States, don't seem to have affected action on the ground, and we keep seeing civilian casualties. Prime Minister himself, Netanyahu, called it a tragic mistake the other day that would be investigated. Are you confident that the United States is able to use its leverage or should be using more leverage?”
Van Hollen replied:
Oh, Christiane, I think we should and can be using more leverage in order to pursue our interests, which I believe are also in the best interests of Israel, both in terms of the Rafah operation, but also what's next. I mean, after all, Benny Gantz said he's going to leave the war cabinet shortly if he doesn't see a post-war plan for governing Gaza. So, you would think that the United States could take the position that, you know, we're not going to continue to provide a blank check until we see a post-war plan that meets our concerns and meets the interests that the president has announced.
Instead, we see Prime Minister Netanyahu publicly and repeatedly rebuffing the president of the United States, whether it's on having the P.A. having a governance role in Gaza, whether it's for a two-state solution, to provide some light at the end of the tunnel as part of the normalization agreement with Saudi Arabia and others. Time and again, we see Prime Minister Netanyahu rebuffing the position and requests of the United States. And so, yes, we should be doing more to exercise our influence.
Amanpour, the self-appointed champion of truthfulness over neutrality, couldn’t be bothered to mention that Gantz, Van Hollen’s great hope, wanted to attack Rafah earlier and also opposes the creation of a Palestinian state.
