January 13, 2025 — New York
American Jewish Committee (AJC), the global advocacy organization for the Jewish people, is deeply disturbed by Sunday’s 60 Minutes segment, “Dissent within the State Department over U.S. Role in Israel-Hamas War.”
This segment, the latest example of major news outlets recklessly reporting on Israel's defensive war against Hamas, was shockingly one-sided, lacked factual accuracy, and relied heavily on misguided information.
Perhaps most egregiously, the segment made almost no mention of Hamas’ actions that started this war, placing Palestinian civilians in Gaza in harm’s way for years by embedding weapons and other terrorist infrastructure in civilian areas. The segment only briefly referred to Hamas’ massacre on October 7, 2023, described their fighters as “militants” rather than terrorists, and even went so far as to elevate the outlandish notion that, following Hamas’ October 7 attack, Israel should have sought to make peace with Hamas terrorists rather than act in self-defense.
The 60 Minutes segment further reported unverified civilian casualties, citing a recent report by The Lancet, which last year published false information regarding Gaza casualties. The segment repeated the claim that Israel is blocking aid into Gaza, even though there is widespread knowledge that multiple aid agencies have made this claim inaccurately and have been refuted, including recently by U.S. Ambassador to Israel Jack Lew. This segment ignored the fact that like any nation that receives U.S. assistance, Israel is required to follow United States laws governing arms sales.
In this segment, 60 Minutes plays directly into the hands of the enemies of the West who aim to show that support for Israel is not in the United States’ best interest. Nothing could be further from the truth. Israel’s presence in the region ensures that U.S. interests remain protected, including its forces in Syria and Iraq. Israel’s actions against Iranian-backed terror groups like Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis, as well as its recent direct responses to Iranian attacks, help deter attacks on the U.S.. Each of these terror organizations has American blood on its hands. We share common enemies—the enemies of democracy and freedom.
The omission of blame on Hamas terrorists for starting and perpetuating this war, and the indisputable fact that it is Hamas that has prevented this war from ending by refusing to agree to proposal after proposal to release the hostages and begin a ceasefire, suggests that somehow Israel does not have the right that every other nation has to defend itself.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said, “What we’ve seen time and again is Hamas not concluding a deal that it should have concluded.” He added yesterday on CBS, “The quickest way, the most effective way to get people what they need is actually through what we’ve been trying to achieve for many months now, and that’s a ceasefire, with the hostages coming home, [and] massive assistance going in [to Gaza].”