Newsmax Goes to Israel | The American Spectator

It is no secret that Newsmax is on the rise as America’s favorite television network. The ratings have poured in, along with its climb in the financial markets.

But as was made clear when Newsmax CEO Chris Ruddy led a group of Newsmax personnel on a weeklong trip to Israel, there can be no doubt that the network (and full disclosure, I am a Newsmax contributor) has fans there. In fact, the Israeli government went all out to play host to its visiting American journalist friends.

That included — but was not limited to — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Across the week, Israeli officials meeting with the visiting Newsmax staff included various members of the Israeli Knesset, Israel’s President Isaac Herzog, Amir Ohana, the Speaker of the Knesset, and Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar. Also greeting the group and making presentations were various Israeli journalists and military officials.

For certain, it is safe to say that most Americans have no idea of the deep and lasting impression the October 7th, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel has made on the Israeli population. The assault was so brutal and murderous that the only thing comparable to it in America is 9/11.

To review:

• The attack came on the Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah.  
• Over 4,000 rockets were fired into Israel. They targeted military bases and civilians alike in over 20 communities. Over 1,000 Israelis were slaughtered. The toll included women and children along with men.
• Our tour guides took us to the site of the Nova music festival, where on that day, a concert was ongoing as the terrorists raided the grounds and massacred almost 400 concert attendees. The American Spectator, being a family publication, I will not link to the Wikipedia Entry on the Nova festival as it contains extremely graphic footage of Israeli soldiers arriving after the attack and finding the place strewn with dead bodies. By the time of our visit, the place had been cleaned up, and it was filled with smiling photos and memorabilia associated with the slaughtered concert goers.
• Also, that day, we saw the place where the terrorist group Hezbollah attacked a soccer field where young Israeli kids were playing soccer. The rockets hit the soccer field directly, instantly killing twelve kids.

We were taken to other sites, such as a kibbutz that was attacked and burned, its residents murdered. On the history side, we were taken on a walking tour of Old Jerusalem, seeing incredibly historical sites like where Christ was crucified and where his body was prepared for burial. Also pointed out the stones of various streets placed there by the Romans.

As I noted, Americans look back to the 1620 landing of the Pilgrims in America and think of that as old history. In Jerusalem history dates back thousands of years. Enough to give a visitor the chills.

I could go on. But it is safe to say that it is no wonder that October 7, 2023, has made such a vivid impression on Israelis. Often, it is said that this was the worst attack on Jews since the Holocaust. Reminders of the day were seen everywhere we went, replete with signs and photos of the victims.

Also, everywhere are posters of the hostages held by Hamas. They read: “Bring them home.”

The question that looms, of course, is what to do.

And without question, in this corner, I would suggest  Prime Minister Netanyahu has a very Reagan-esque view on this.

President Reagan, in 1979 — a full year before winning his 1980 election — was asked by Richard Allen, who would later become his first national security adviser — what his view of the then-raging Cold War was. At the time, there was amongst the American left a call for co-existence with the Soviet Union in order to calm the international waters. Reagan disagreed, and his answer to Dick Allen was short and sweet. Reagan’s view, said Reagan himself, was quite simple: “We win, they lose. What do you think of that?”

It is very safe to say that this is exactly Prime Minister Netanyahu’s view of dealing with Hamas and terrorism in general. And with reason.

It takes nothing to understand this from the Hamas Charter: “Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam invalidates it, just as it invalidated others before it.”

Understanding this clearly — that the Hamas objective is to wipe Israel and Jews off the face of the earth — the Prime Minister is determined to follow that Cold War view of Reagan’s. “We win, they lose.”

As Netanyahu also said recently:

Those who are calling for an end to the war today without defeating Hamas, are not only hardening Hamas’s stance and pushing off the release of our hostages, they are also ensuring that the horrors of  October 7 will recur again and again, and that our sons and daughters will need to fight again and again in an endless war. Therefore, both to advance the release of our hostages and to ensure that Gaza will never again constitute a threat to Israel, we must complete the work and defeat Hamas.

But in doing that, Israel needs more than military might. As Newsmax noted, getting the word out — the accurate word — of Israel’s actions is seriously important,

The Prime Minister noted it this way, saying:

“Thank you, Newsmax, for helping us on the eighth-front war: seven fronts against Iran and its proxies, the eighth front — the battle for truth,” Netanyahu said.

“And, Newsmax, you have let the truth circle the globe against the lies that have circled it before and continue to do so.

“There’s only one way to beat the lies, and that’s with the truth.”

Netanyahu said that fighting misinformation is now an “eighth front” in the war, alongside military and humanitarian efforts.

Netanyahu criticized international media outlets, singling out The New York Times for publishing misleading images to support famine allegations.

Without question, here in the first quarter of the 21st century, with the “media” encompassing not just the Big Media of the old three television networks but now also social media, the Internet and more, the importance of getting out the seriously real news — the accurate news — of what is happening in Israel is critically important.

Among the untruths? Here are but two of the headlines smearing Israel: “Amnesty accuses Israel of deliberately starving Palestinians in Gaza” and “UN Commission finds war crimes and crimes against humanity in Israeli attacks on Gaza health facilities and treatment of detainees, hostages.”

The Israeli response was blunt, as noted here in The Times of Israel: “‘Blood libel’: Israel slams UN report claiming it committed ‘genocidal acts’ in Gaza.”

Israel on Thursday denounced as a “blood libel” a new United Nations report that accused the country of perpetrating “genocidal acts” against Palestinians in the war started by the Hamas onslaught of October 7, 2023, and that claimed Israeli forces systematically destroyed women’s healthcare facilities and used sexual violence as a war strategy.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, women’s groups and Israel’s mission to the UN rejected the report as unfounded and antisemitic, saying it attempted to equate Israel’s conduct during the fighting in the Gaza Strip with the horrific acts of sexual violence committed by Palestinian terrorists during the Hamas-led atrocities that sparked the war. The Foreign Ministry called it “one of the worst cases of blood libel the world has ever seen.”

And Newsmax, as demonstrated by this trip to Israel and its reception by Netanyahu and other officials, is playing a critical role in getting the truth out there. The media and messaging are, as the PM said, the “eighth front” of this war, and, to say the least, Newsmax is in the trenches.

Doubtless, there will be more on this subject as time moves on. But for Newsmax to make a point of getting its own people to Israel to see first hand and with accuracy what has been going on in Israel, and to listen and talk to both Israel’s leaders and its people has been an invaluable asset in understanding the reality of what has been going on in Israel and the larger Middle East, both historically, right now and going into the future.

As Prime Minister Netanyahu has quite accurately stated, fighting misinformation is now an “eighth front” in the war, alongside military and humanitarian efforts.

So it is. And Newsmax is on the job.

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