Just as reports indicate that a Gaza ceasefire deal is closer than it has been since the initial pause in November, ABC fabricates that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has so far rejected President Biden’s proposal.
Thus in their article yesterday, “Netanyahu calls on Congress to give bipartisan support to Israel,” Lauren Peller, Allison Pecorin, Ivan Pereira, Shannon K. Kingston and Anne Flaherty invent:
Netanyahu’s speech came as the prime minister has so far rejected Biden’s proposal for a cease-fire that would free the hostages Hamas still holds, as part of a larger regional peace plan.
The false claim also appears in a caption accompanying the story. (Screenshot at left.)Netanyahu has not rejected Biden’s proposal, and deliberations and negotiations are still underway.
As Reuters reported July 8:
Senior U.S. officials are in Cairo for talks to achieve a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, but gaps still remain between the two sides, White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said on Monday. . .Hamas last week dropped a demand that Israel first commit to a permanent ceasefire before the Palestinian movement would sign an agreement. Instead, the militant group said it would allow negotiations to achieve that throughout the six-week first phase, a Hamas source told Reuters on Saturday.The move prompted an official on the Israeli negotiating team to say there was a real chance of a deal.
Indeed, a White House press release today on the upcoming agenda for the meeting between President Biden and Prime Minister Netanyahu refers to “progress towards a ceasefire and hostage release deal.”
ABC’s false reporting that Prime Minister Netanyahu has thus far rejected the proposal is the flip side of widespread fallacious reporting in May that Hamas had accepted the ceasefire proposal on the table.
CAMERA yesterday reached out to ABC about the blatant factual error. Stay tuned for updates about a possible correction.