In the wake of yet another violent antisemitic attack, the media continues to obscure and distort relevant facts. On Sunday, June 1, demonstrators advocating for release of the hostages that are still held by Hamas, now for 604 days, were attacked by a man throwing molotov cocktails and shouting, “free Palestine!” Eight people suffered burn injuries.
The Wall Street Journal, just as it did after the terrorist murders of Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky, once again connected violence against Jews in the US to the war in Gaza, without making clear that Hamas started the war with a savage and brutal attack and, just two days ago, Hamas once again rejected a ceasefire proposal. Originally the article read,
Anxiety about violence in the U.S. stemming from the Hamas-Israeli conflict has been high since last month, when a man who also shouted “Free Palestine!” fatally shot two Israeli Embassy staffers near a Jewish museum in Washington.
(“Suspect in Colorado Flamethrower Attack Charged With Murder,” June 2, 2025, originally by Ginger Adams Otis.) News articles that connect violence against Jews in the US to the war in Gaza without making clear how that war started, subtly imply that Israel is at fault for the increase in antisemitism in the US. The Journal also fails to make clear that it is specifically violence that targets Jews that is on the rise, suggesting instead that the violence is two-sided. By the evening of June 2, having gone through multiple revisions (including to the title), the article still did not include the information about how the war started or why it continues, and the passage in question now reads,
Anxiety about violence in the U.S. stemming from the Hamas-Israeli conflict has been high as the war between Israel and Hamas stokes global tensions and has contributed to a jump in antisemitic attacks. Sunday’s episode comes just 10 days after another man also shouted “Free Palestine” before he fatally shot two Israeli Embassy staffers near a Jewish museum in Washington. It also took place at the start of the Jewish holiday of Shavuot, which commemorates the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai.
NBC, in a televised report that was included with its online coverage, also included both of these distortions. Referring to this attack and the earlier attack at the Capital Jewish Museum, the network intoned, “as the war [in Gaza] between Israel and Hamas drags on, both antisemitic and anti-Muslim hate crimes are on the rise.”
The Associated Press also connected violence against Jews in the US to war in Gaza. Although the AP did correctly attribute the cause of the war to the attack in which “Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting about 250 others,” the newswire for some reason referred to the war that, again, it correctly states Hamas started, as “Israel’s war in Gaza.” (“FBI says 8 injured in Colorado attack by man with makeshift flamethrower who yelled ‘Free Palestine’,” by Colleen Slevin and Eric Tucker, June 2, 2025.)
The AP further repeated the canard that most of those killed in Gaza have been women and children. In reality, about half of the casualties are combatants, and a report from the Henry Jackson Society, a British think tank, found that Hamas-reported casualty figures included natural deaths, included people killed by misfired Hamas rockets, and included people who died before the war even began.
Reuters, too, said, “the incident comes amid heightened tensions in the United States over Israel’s war in Gaza.” And while Reuters noted an “increase in antisemitic hate crime,” it for some reason tied this to “moves by conservative supporters of Israel, led by President Donald Trump, to brand pro-Palestinian protests as antisemitic.” Of course, both conservatives and many liberals, such as Congressman Ritchie Torres and Senator John Fetterman, have noted the antisemitism among demonstrators who claim to be “pro-Palestinian.” This all came under a headline that obscured the nature of the attack, as well as the victims: “Man attacks Colorado crowd with firebombs, 8 people injured.” (June 2, 2025, by Jasper Ward, Kristina Cooke and Mark Makela.)
From the start of this war, various media outlets have breathlessly rushed out coverage of alleged Israeli misdeeds that were subsequently proven to be false. From the blast at Al-Ahli Hospital that was initially blamed on Israel but that turned out to have been caused by a misfired rocket from within Gaza, to false claims of violations of international law, to fabricated claims that thousands of babies were imminently about to die of starvation following false claims of famine that have been circulating for months, and most recently, the unsubstantiated claim that the IDF fired on civilians that were lined up for aid, the media have been inciting against Israel and its supporters for the past year and a half with stories that are “too good to check.”
Instead of equivocating on the target and source of the violence, the media should perhaps consider the role that false stories about Israel have played in inciting such violence.
This article was updated on June 3.