In an interview with Christiane Amanpour on CNN Monday night, former Prime Minister Ehud Barak belittled the IDF’s claims that Hamas had maintained a major command center in tunnels underneath Shifa Hospital in Gaza.
And then he declared that those tunnels had been dug by the IDF. You heard right. The premier the cat dragged in told the CNN audience: “Decades ago we were running the place. We helped them build the bunkers in order to enable more space for the operations of the hospital within the very limited size of this compound.”
Amanpour, who was taken aback, wanted to make sure Barak meant what she had heard, that it was Israeli engineers who designed and dug those underground tunnels. Unphased, Barak confirmed.
“We do not pretend to kill ideologies.” I spoke with former Israeli PM @barak_ehud about the war in Gaza and risks of further radicalization. “We are doing our best,” he says. “We feel fully committed to international law, fully committed to this principle of proportionality.” pic.twitter.com/hQZ0mE2VOX
— Christiane Amanpour (@amanpour) November 20, 2023
Obviously, for Arab social media, this was Xmas in November. Pro-Palestine independent journalist Rober Martin tweeted: “[Expletive] Israel and its systematic propaganda. Here’s the truth. Former Prime Minister Ehud Barak said Monday that Israel had built bunkers ‘decades ago’ underneath Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. ‘It’s already [been] known for many years that they have the bunkers that originally [were] built by Israeli constructors underneath Shifa [which] were used as a command post of Hamas.’”
Dr. Raed Behbehani tweeted: “What’s interesting is that this CNN anchor did not even know this until the former Israeli PM admitted himself! I mean he could have just [said] he had ‘misspoken’ and let that slip! But he confirmed it and yet accused Hamas of using it without a shred of evidence! How many Israeli lies and false propaganda is being circulated by Western MSM as facts is something to think about!”
And Dr. Karim Wafa Al-Hussaini tweeted: “The former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak just said on live TV: ‘Israel built the bunkers under al-Shifa hospital.’ Everyone must remember this when they tell you all in the next couple weeks that they found ‘Hamas bunkers’ under the hospital.”
Thank you, Mr. Barak, and a very happy 82nd birthday (coming up in February). We could say that you’re beneath contempt, but we don’t wish to insult all the people who are beneath contempt.
