Viral Israeli spokesman discusses ‘frustrating’ media narrative following deadly Oct. 7 terrorist attack
Eylon Levy said that 'when you say something very specific and have that twisted against you as evidence of the complete contrary, that can be very frustrating.'
An Israeli government spokesman, who went viral for his reaction to a question he was asked about the value of Palestinian versus Israeli lives in the hostage swap with Hamas, spoke with Fox News Digital about the uphill battle Israel has faced from much of the media following the October 7 terrorist attack.
During an interview on Sky News, interviewer Kay Burley suggested to Eylon Levy that because Israel would get back 50 hostages taken by Hamas last month in exchange for 150 Palestinian prisoners in the agreed-upon temporary cease-fire deal, it placed less value on Palestinian lives.
"I was speaking to a hostage negotiator this morning," Burley said. "He made the comparison between the 50 hostages that Hamas promised to release, as opposed to the 150 prisoners that are Palestinians that Israel has said that it will release."
"And he made the comparison between the numbers and the fact that does Israel not think Palestinian lives are valued as highly as Israeli lives?" she asked.
Levy raised his eyebrows in utter shock and told Burley that that was "an astonishing accusation." The video has since garnered over 16 million views since Levy shared it on social media.
"If we could release one prisoner for every one hostage, we would obviously do that," he added. "We are operating in horrific circumstances."
"Notice the question of proportionality doesn't interest Palestinian supporters when they are able to get more of their prisoners out," he said. "It is outrageous to suggest that the fact that we are willing to release prisoners who are convicted of terrorism offenses, more of them than we are getting our own innocent children back, somehow suggests that we don't care about Palestinian lives? Really, that's a disgusting accusation."
The Sky News reporter appeared unfazed by Levy's response and immediately pivoted to another question.
Levy told Fox News Digital that the experience served as an example of the difficult circumstances faced by a spokesperson for the Israeli government, especially in the weeks following the October 7 terror attack by Hamas, which killed more than 1,200 people and was the single worst slaughter of Jewish people since the Holocaust.
After he shared the clip on social media, Levy said he was blown away by the public response, which he said demonstrated the moment clearly hit a nerve with many people about the way the media has covered the Israel-Hamas War.
"A lot of people around the world and especially in Israel, where we suffer from this most, feel a deep sense of frustration with the way that the media covers this conflict, parts of the media, the way that sometimes the evidence of our humanity and our morality gets twisted and used against us," he explained. "The sense that sometimes there's nothing we can do that will possibly be right and this was just such an absurd example."
"This is really one of the most frustrating things of trying to be a spokesperson in a situation like this, which is where sometimes the good things we do, the evidence of our humanity, the evidence of our morality, gets completely twisted against us into something completely unrecognizable," he said.
"In this instance, we had a story of Israel's willingness to release violent criminals from jail in order to get our children back, in order to get women back from the captivity of the people who on October 7th burned, beheaded and raped people across southern Israel … [to] have that twisted against us, as if that means we undervalue human life is upsetting and frustrating," he added.
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Levy said he has faced similar situations with the media in recent weeks. In an interview with the BBC, he discussed Israel's plans to give Hamas "the mother of all thumpings" after it violated the terms of the hostage release pause and resumed rocket fire against Israel on December 1.
"The first question I get from the BBC is that the ‘mother of all thumpings’ doesn't sound like it's consistent with a precise and targeted campaign against Hamas," he said. "I have to reply, excuse me, I said, 'Hamas is going to get the mother of all thumpings because we're targeting Hamas.'"
"In the same press conference, I'm explaining the lengths that Israel is going to get civilians out of harm's way," he added. "So sometimes when you say something very specific and have that twisted against you as evidence of the complete contrary, that can be very frustrating."
While Levy said it isn't up to him to tell off the media and journalists who are trying to do their job, he said there is a huge range between the media who are still covering the atrocities of October 7th and who are telling the story of this war in the context of Israel having suffered the deadliest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust and those in the media who are not.
"Therefore, we have no choice but to defend ourselves and the media that tries to downplay the context and present this as Israel continuing to attack Palestinians, seemingly for no reason, and that's very frustrating because there is a cause and there is an effect."
"There is a cause: Hamas perpetrated the October 7th massacre and there is an effect: The Israeli military response," he added. "Fighting has just resumed. There is a cause. Hamas decided not to release the women it had promised to release and to continue firing rockets at Israel. And there is an effect, the Israeli response."
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He said that when the media twists the order of events and states Israel continues to attack Palestinian targets after Hamas fires a rocket or they "hide" somewhere at the bottom of an article that Hamas violated the terms of the pause that was already in existence, it serves as evidence of "poor journalism."
"Journalism is supposed to report the facts, not take sides [and] to understand the proper story and the proper context that everything is happening in," he said. "It can be very frustrating when people have a story in their head, and they take the facts, and they simply fit the facts to try to fit the story that already makes sense in their head."
"This isn't another round of tit-for-tat or another round of violence," he added. "There is a context here, and you have to understand that context."
While he believes the media should be fair and balanced in the way they cover things, Levy said this "doesn't mean that in every story there are two equal sides."
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"Here you have on the one side children who are brutally abducted from their beds on October 7th while they were doing nothing more than sleeping in their beds and on the other side … they committed violent offenses, including attempted stabbings, attempted shootings, affiliations with terrorist organizations, offenses involving explosives … so to see people say, 'Oh, look, an Israeli family is happy to get its kids back, a Palestinian family is happy to get its kids back,' creates this false moral equivalence."
"October 7th was a moment of real moral clarity," he said. "Are you on the side of humanity or on the side of savagery? On the side of civilization or the side of barbarism? Because that's what we are fighting against. We're fighting for humanity, for the most basic right of our children to sleep in their beds and not be abducted by masked terrorists … so when people somehow equate them and make them the same, that's outrageous."