by Tyler O’Neil in The Daily Signal
The Coalition for Jewish Values, which represents 2,500 Orthodox Jewish rabbis in American public policy, condemned Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., for rushing to blame Israel for the Wednesday bombing of a hospital in Gaza, despite increasing evidence that a misfired missile launched by the terror group Islamic Jihad caused the blast.
“Rep. Tlaib has repeatedly made it clear that she doesn’t value human rights, she merely hates Jews,” Rabbi Yaakov Menken, managing director of the Coalition for Jewish Values, told The Daily Signal in a statement Wednesday.
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“In this case, her devotion to an antisemitic lie is of a piece with blood libels spread by bigots of the past,” Menken added. “That a woman whose rhetoric recalls Nazi Germany is a member in good standing of the House Democratic Caucus should alarm every American, even given President Joe Biden’s strong moral stance.”
“Israel just bombed the Baptist Hospital killing 500 Palestinians (doctors, children, patients) just like that,” Tlaib posted on X (formerly Twitter) Tuesday night.
She tagged Biden and directed her comments to him.
“@POTUS [President of the United States,] this is what happens when you refuse to facilitate a ceasefire & help de-escalate,” Tlaib added. “Your war and destruction only approach has opened my eyes and many Palestinian Americans and Muslim Americans like me. We will remember where you stood.”
Israel just bombed the Baptist Hospital killing 500 Palestinians (doctors, children, patients) just like that. @POTUS this is what happens when you refuse to facilitate a ceasefire & help de-escalate.
Your war and destruction only approach has opened my eyes and many… https://t.co/mZYoifT7bj
— Rashida Tlaib (@RashidaTlaib) October 17, 2023
Palestinian officials said an explosion at Al-Ahli al-Arabi hospital killed 471 people Tuesday, Reuters reported. Hamas, the group the U.S. has designated a terrorist organization that runs the government of Gaza and the health ministry that reported the deaths, blamed Israel for the explosion.
Yet Israel claims the explosion traces back to a misfired rocket sent by Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Iran-backed terrorist group that took part in the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack in Israel. Palestinian Islamic Jihad has denied involvement, saying it did not have any activity in or around Gaza City at the time.
Israel released video of Hamas terrorists speaking over the radio about the explosion.
“I’m telling you this is the first time that we see a missile like this falling, and so that’s why we are saying it belongs to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad,” one speaker says.
“It’s from us?” another asks.
“It looks like it,” the first speaker replies.
Hamas terrorists in their own voices:
Listen to the conversation between Hamas operatives as they discuss the failed Islamic Jihad rocket launch on the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital on October 17, 2023. pic.twitter.com/mz31MiePU3
— Israel ישראל 🇮🇱 (@Israel) October 18, 2023
Biden told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the explosion appears to have been “done by the other team, not you.”
"We've got to overcome a lot of things."
Pres. Biden tells Israeli leaders it appears Gaza hospital explosion was "done by the other team, not you." https://t.co/z9eNH1M7PG pic.twitter.com/xye9YzQoJK
— ABC News (@ABC) October 18, 2023
The Israel Defense Forces shared footage around the area showing that the misfired rocket damaged a parking lot near the hospital, rather than the hospital itself.
A failed rocket launch by the Islamic Jihad terrorist organization hit the Al Ahli hospital in Gaza City.
IAF footage from the area around the hospital before and after the failed rocket launch by the Islamic Jihad terrorist organization: pic.twitter.com/AvCAkQULAf
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) October 18, 2023
Pictures and video of the area on Wednesday confirmed that the explosion took place at a parking lot.
So let’s walk through it.
We now have video of the scene showing the explosion is from the parking lot and the buildings are in tact. There is no crater, no building demolished. This is inconsistent with the type of bomb many were suggesting yesterday. pic.twitter.com/HFKKxS8kvr pic.twitter.com/SpgG3Ktbiy
— AG (@AGHamilton29) October 18, 2023
Tlaib did not respond to The Daily Signal’s request for comment by publication time.
Originally published in The Daily Signal