Israelis lament 'PR disaster' after freed Israeli hostage reveals Hamas 'treated us very nicely'

By newseditors // 2023-10-25

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Israeli state media threw a fit on Tuesday over the "public relations disaster" of freed hostage Yocheved Lifshitz's press conference in which she revealed that Hamas treated her and fellow captives "very nicely" and "were very delicate and gentle with them and took care of all their needs." (Article by Chris Menahan republished from InformationLiberation.com) Lifshitz said Hamas operatives were "very friendly," "told them they were Muslims and they were not going to hurt them," provided them with medicine and "shared with them the same food that Hamas was eating." Israel has spent the past week accusing Hamas of being a baby-beheading, baby-raping, ISIS-style killing machine that rapes pregnant woman, cuts their babies out on film and inflicts horrors on their victims "worse than the Holocaust."

"They gave us pitta bread, hard cheese, some low fat cream cheese, and cucumber and that was our food for the entire day."
Freed Hamas hostage Yocheved Lifshitz recounts her experience saying "there were people there who took care of all the needs." ? https://t.co/ViphYGDoVz pic.twitter.com/FNxgBznX0F — Sky News (@SkyNews) October 24, 2023

Sharone Lifschitz, the daughter of freed hostage Yocheved Lifshitz, recounts her mother's experience of being taken hostage by Hamas.
She says Hamas militants were "friendly" and describes how another hostage was treated by a paramedic. https://t.co/w3Jr8XxEZs ? Sky 501 pic.twitter.com/AjyPjXqgiP — Sky News (@SkyNews) October 24, 2023

"Each person had a guard watching him or her. They took care of all the needs. They talked about all kinds of things, they were very friendly."
Yocheved Lifshitz details what it was like while being held hostage by Hamas. ? https://t.co/ViphYGDoVz ? Sky 501 and YouTube pic.twitter.com/lSs5io56uH — Sky News (@SkyNews) October 24, 2023

?HAMAS RELEASE FOOTAGE OF HOSTAGE RELEASE pic.twitter.com/SWPXTIDNqM
— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) October 23, 2023

From The Times of Israel, "Lifshitz press conference panned as disastrous for Israel, PR win for Hamas":

Criticism is pouring in after freed hostage Yocheved Lifshitz appeared to praise her Hamas captors and criticize Israel at a press conference earlier in the day. The Kan public broadcaster reports that Israeli PR experts are calling the decision to put Lifshitz in front of cameras a "mistake." The station notes that international media is now reporting on Hamas's kindness in taking care of the hostage's needs. In Israel Hayom, columnist Eddie Rothstein calls the interview a "propaganda win for Hamas." "What a brave and enlightened woman, the kind we thought they no longer make in Israel, and what clumsy handling of the event," he writes. "The truth is you don't need to be a PR expert to know you can't have a press conference like this live on TV." "There's no doubt that Lifshitz's statement could have been managed better," tweets Channel 12 reporter Daphna Liel, who adds that her descriptions were still pretty shocking. "Anyone sane should understand that medical attention she was given was intended to keep their bargaining chips alive and not from the kindness of their hearts." The channel's Dana Weiss calls the press conference a "disaster," noting the lack of state intervention in managing her appearances. ToI's Tal Schnieder takes aim at the hospital's spokesperson, who put Lifshitz in front of the cameras, rather than just her family members, and then bragged about his ability to get a "wow factor" for journalists on Instagram. "From a professional point of view, this is an embarrassment for the hospital," she writes on X.

The "embarrassment" in this case is that Lifshitz was allowed to tell the public the truth. If these "PR experts" got their hands on her, we'd be hearing about how they raped elderly women atop a pile of dead babies and chopped their heads off for a laugh while screaming "Allahu Akbar." Contrast the way Lifshitz's describes the treatment of captives under Hamas with the way Palestinians taken captive by Israel described how they were treated in a shocking story released last week by the Israeli media outlet Haaretz:

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