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‘The IDF is Worse Than Hamas’: Jessica Burbank’s Anti-Israel Disinformation Campaign
An aerial view shows the bodies of victims of an attack following a mass infiltration by Hamas gunmen from the Gaza Strip lying on the ground in Kibbutz Kfar Aza, in southern Israel, Oct. 10, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Ilan Rosenberg
“Rising” is a popular online news program produced by The Hill, which features hosts and commentators from across the political spectrum discussing current events at home and around the world.
Since Hamas’ brutal invasion of Israel on October 7, and the subsequent Israeli war against the Gaza-based terrorist organization, the Middle East has been a consistent topic of discussion on Rising, with some defending the Jewish State and others opposing its military activities.
One of the most vocal anti-Israel commentators on Rising over the past few months has been Jessica Burbank, one of the program’s co-hosts.
In various segments, Burbank has spread a litany of falsehoods and misrepresentations of Israel, the IDF, and Hamas, that are based on unfounded statistics, misleading statements, and absurd analyses.
In a recent Rising piece about a New York Times article that chronicled the use of sexual violence by Hamas during the October 7 attack, Jessica Burbank quipped that the report “feels like intentional propaganda,” as the Times amplifies these claims against Hamas but doesn’t do the same for “very well-documented accounts of sexual abuse and violence by Israelis on Palestinians.”
According to Burbank, “One in 10 women in Gaza have experienced some kind of abuse from Israeli soldiers. And it’s even higher in younger age women, where it’s as high as 23 percent [who] have experienced sexual abuse from Israeli soldiers in the occupied territory.”
While Burbank presents these statistics as established fact, a Google search for the source of these numbers was unable to turn up any reference to these specific claims at all.
What did turn up were several articles on the rarity of sexual violence between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian women.
This is not the only time that Jessica Burbank has represented unfounded statistics as fact.
Later in that same segment, she claimed that “43 babies died in the [Al Shifa Hospital] NICU when Israeli forces decided to raid and attack that hospital.”
This seems to be based on mid-November reports that 39 premature babies were at risk as the IDF prepared to enter Shifa hospital in order to rout the Hamas fighters who were using it as a base. However, only days later, it was announced that 31 of these babies had successfully been moved from Gaza City to a safe hospital in the southern city of Rafah, with 12 being further moved to Egypt for treatment.
Not only did the vast majority of these babies not die, as Burbank claims, but the precise number of 43 seems to be entirely made up.
In another segment, Jessica Burbank repeatedly made the outlandish claim that Israel killed “31,000 civilians” during the Great March of Return in 2018. At one point, she even referred to those partaking in the March as “peaceful protesters who were protesting their land being stolen by Israel.”
In fact, according to the UN’s high estimate, between March 2018 and April 2019, 279 Palestinians had been killed. And, despite Burbank’s presentation of these Palestinians as “peaceful protesters,” it is believed that between 50% to 80% of those killed were members of Hamas or another Gaza-based terror organization.
However, it’s not surprising that Burbank might consider a Hamas member to be a “peaceful protester.”
After all, in her analysis, Burbank is dismissive of Hamas’ genocidal intent, preferring to view Israel and the IDF as the much greater enemy of peace in the region.
In one segment, Burbank put it as bluntly as saying that, “The current Israeli government is a terrorist organization. If you want to call Hamas a terrorist organization, the Israeli government is that times 10.” Further in the piece, she doubled down by claiming that “The IDF is far worse as a terrorist organization [than Hamas].”
In another segment, Burbank echoed former US President Jimmy Carter’s false assertion from 2015 that Hamas leaders were more in favor of peace than Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
It should be clear to any viewer that any opinion by Jessica Burbank on the issue of Hamas should be taken with heaps of salt, as she is dismissive of the brutality of Hamas’ terrorism and rationalizes the October 7 atrocities.
In reference to October 7, Burbank remarked, “Yes, they have killed 1,400 innocent people. Violence is always bad. But we have to understand it in the context of the Israeli government committing acts of terrorism.”
In another piece, she expanded on this, claiming that “What we have now is the culmination of many years of an apartheid state, of an occupation, and of peace not being present.”
Alongside her rationalization of Hamas’ terrorist activities, she has also shamelessly diminished the weight of this terrorism, claiming that, in contrast to Hamas, Israel is holding the “entire population of Gaza hostage.” To put it in Burbank’s cruelly simplistic words, “You want to talk about the 50 hostages that Hamas took versus the 1.1 million people living in Gaza right now…”
Burbank’s general understanding of Hamas and Israel seems to be so flawed that she once claimed that “Hamas doesn’t even operate” in the West Bank, something that any amateur analyst of the region could tell you is factually incorrect.
And Hamas is not the only organization whose violence Jessica Burbank prefers to whitewash.
Regarding harassment of international shipping in the Red Sea by the Yemen-based Houthi movement, Burbank remarked, “When I think about what the rebels are doing, I mean, Israel has the support of the US military. You know, Palestine does not. And so, Yemen seems to be one of the only countries that is actually supporting Palestine on this side of the war.”
She then went on to compare the Houthis to anti-Israel protesters who attempted to block Israel-bound ships in US docks, finishing with “I can see anyone interested in peace wanting to prevent weapons from getting in the hands of the people who are using them the most.”
Aside from her soapbox on Rising, Jessica Burbank also spreads her misinformation and derogatory view of the Jewish state on social media.
Two days after the October 7 attack, Burbank tweeted, “US propaganda machine doing a hell of a job convincing people it’s justified to condemn Russian expansion and support Ukrainian resistance while simultaneously supporting Israeli expansion and condemning Palestinian resistance,” falsely comparing Israel to Russia.
A few weeks later, she tweeted that the sole purpose of putting up posters of Israeli hostages around the world is for “drama” and to record people tearing them down.
For Jessica Burbank, it is unreasonable to assume that the posters are for awareness purposes, and there must be some nefarious reason behind it.
Burbank uncritically shared a now-discredited piece by the Middle East Eye that claimed that Israel was going to “flood Hamas tunnels with nerve gas under US navy supervision.”
A week later, she tweeted that Israel was committing a “genocide” in Gaza and that she was “sick of hearing ‘Israel has a right to defend itself’ while not affording that same moral permission to Palestinians,” grossly equating a state army with an internationally-recognized terrorist organization.
I’m sick of hearing “Israel has a right to defend itself” while not affording that same moral permission to Palestinians. Thousands of people dying and leaders call for a pause. Not an end. A pause in a genocide. This statement is not brave nor just. It’s sad. And it’s complicit. https://t.co/wp0OUBTGGO
— Jessica (Ka) Burbank (@JessicaLBurbank) November 4, 2023
In late December, Burbank also retweeted a post which spread the unsubstantiated claim that Israel was engaging in organ harvesting of Palestinians in Gaza.
On TikTok and in her substack, Jessica Burbank has also perpetuated a conspiracy theory tying the 1956 Suez War (which Israel fought in order to erase the threat of Egyptian-backed Palestinian terrorists crossing over and killing Israeli civilians — a fact that Burbank ignores), and the current Gaza conflict to a 1960s US plan to build a canal through Israel, connecting the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea.
As Fathom Journal has pointed out, the plan was rejected in the 1960s and this notion of Israel acting on behalf of a 60-odd-year US imperialist scheme has sprung up recently as just another anti-Israel conspiracy. This has not stopped Burbank from spreading it as fact online.
There is nothing wrong with a news program sharing multiple points of view on a topic as contentious as the current war between Israel and Hamas.
However, by providing a platform to Burbank, The Hill is legitimizing the spread of her disinformation, which is propped up by blatantly false statistics and misleading analysis.
As her popularity on Rising grows and she becomes more influential, Burbank’s alternative view of reality becomes all the more dangerous.
The author is a contributor to HonestReporting, a Jerusalem-based media watchdog with a focus on antisemitism and anti-Israel bias — where a version of this article first appeared.
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Harvard Faculty Oppose Deal With Trump, Distancing From Hamas Apologists: Crimson Poll
Harvard University president Alan Garber attending the 373rd Commencement Exercises at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, US, May 23, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Brian Snyder
A recently published Harvard Crimson poll of over 1,400 Harvard faculty revealed sweeping opposition to interim university President Alan Garber’s efforts to strike a deal with the federal government to restore $3 billion in research grants and contracts it froze during the first 100 days of the second Trump administration.
In the survey, conducted from April 23 to May 12, 71 percent of arts and sciences faculty oppose negotiating a settlement with the administration, which may include concessions conservatives have long sought from elite higher education, such as meritocratic admissions, viewpoint diversity, and severe disciplinary sanctions imposed on students who stage unauthorized protests that disrupt academic life.
Additionally, 64 percent “strongly disagree” with shuttering diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs, 73 percent oppose rejecting foreign applicants who hold anti-American beliefs which are “hostile to the American values and institutions inscribed in the US Constitution and Declaration of Independence,” and 70 percent strongly disagree with revoking school recognition from pro-Hamas groups such as the Palestine Solidarity Committee (PSC).
“More than 98 percent of faculty who responded to the survey supported the university’s decision to sue the White House,” The Crimson reported. “The same percentage backed Harvard’s public rejection of the sweeping conditions that the administration set for maintaining the funds — terms that included external audits of Harvard’s hiring practices and the disciplining of student protesters.”
Alyza Lewin of the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law told The Algemeiner that the poll results indicate that Harvard University will continue to struggle to address campus antisemitism on campus, as there is now data showing that its faculty reject the notion of excising intellectualized antisemitism from the university.
“If you, for example, have faculty teaching courses that are regularly denying that the Jews are a people and erasing the Jewish people’s history in the land of Israel, that’s going to undermine your efforts to address the antisemitism on your campus,” Lewin explained. “When Israel is being treated as the ‘collective Jew,’ when the conversation is not about Israel’s policies, when the criticism is not what the [International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism] would call criticism of Israel similar to that against any other country, they have to understand that it is the demonization, delegitimization, and applying a double standard to Jews as individuals or to Israel.”
She added, “Faculty must recognize … the demonization, vilification, the shunning, and the marginalizing of Israelis, Jews, and Zionists, when it happens, as violations of the anti-discrimination policies they are legally and contractually obligated to observe.”
The Crimson survey results were published amid reports that Garber was working to reach a deal with the Trump administration that is palatable to all interested parties, including the university’s left-wing social milieu.
According to a June 26 report published by The Crimson, Garber held a phone call with major donors in which he “confirmed in response to a question from [Harvard Corporation Fellow David M. Rubenstein] that talks had resumed” but “declined to share specifics of how Harvard expected to settle with the White House.”
On June 30, the Trump administration issued Harvard a “notice of violation” of civil rights law following an investigation which examined how it responded to dozens of antisemitic incidents reported by Jewish students since the 2023-2024 academic year.
The correspondence, sent by the Joint Task Force to Combat Antisemitism, charged that Harvard willfully exposed Jewish students to a torrent of racist and antisemitic abuse following the Hamas-led Oct. 7 massacre, which precipitated a surge in anti-Zionist activity on the campus, both in the classroom and out of it.
“Failure to institute adequate changes immediately will result in the loss of all federal financial resources and continue to affect Harvard’s relationship with the federal government,” wrote the four federal officials comprising the multiagency Task Force. “Harvard may of course continue to operate free of federal privileges, and perhaps such an opportunity will spur a commitment to excellence that will help Harvard thrive once again.”
The Trump administration ratcheted up pressure on Harvard again on Wednesday, reporting the institution to its accreditor for alleged civil rights violations resulting from its weak response to reports of antisemitic bullying, discrimination, and harassment following the Oct. 7, 2023 massacre.
Citing Harvard’s failure to treat antisemitism as seriously as it treated other forms of hatred in the past, The US Department of Educationthe called on the New England Commission of Higher Education to review and, potentially, revoke its accreditation — a designation which qualifies Harvard for federal funding and attests to the quality of the educational services its provides.
“Accrediting bodies play a significant role in preserving academic integrity and a campus culture conducive to truth seeking and learning,” said Secretary of Education Linda McMahon. “Part of that is ensuring students are safe on campus and abiding by federal laws that guarantee educational opportunities to all students. By allowing anti-Semitic harassment and discrimination to persist unchecked on its campus, Harvard University has failed in its obligation to students, educators, and American taxpayers.”
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
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Balancing Act: Lebanese President Aoun Affirms Hope for Peace with Israel, Balks At Normalization
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun attends a joint press conference with French President Emmanuel Macron at the Elysee Palace in Paris, France, March 28, 2025. REUTERS/Sarah Meyssonnier/Pool
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun on Friday carefully affirmed his country’s desire for peace with Israel while cautioning that Beirut is not ready to normalize relations with its southern neighbor.
Aoun called for a full Israeli withdrawal from Lebanese territory, according to a statement from his office, while reaffirming his government’s efforts to uphold a state monopoly on arms amid mounting international pressure on the Iran-backed terror group Hezbollah to disarm.
“The decision to restrict arms is final and there is no turning back on it,” Aoun said.
The Lebanese leader drew a clear distinction between pursuing peace and establishing formal normalization in his country’s relationship with the Jewish state.
“Peace is the lack of a state of war, and this is what matters to us in Lebanon at the moment,” Aoun said in a statement. “As for the issue of normalization, it is not currently part of Lebanese foreign policy.”
Aoun’s latest comments come after Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar expressed interest last month in normalizing ties with Lebanon and Syria — an effort Jerusalem says cannot proceed until Hezbollah is fully disarmed.
Earlier this week, Aoun sent his government’s response to a US-backed disarmament proposal as Washington and Jerusalem increased pressure on Lebanon to neutralize the terror group.
While the details remain confidential, US Special Envoy Thomas Barrack said he was “unbelievably satisfied” with their response.
This latest proposal, presented to Lebanese officials during Barrack’s visit on June 19, calls for Hezbollah to be fully disarmed within four months in exchange for Israel halting airstrikes and withdrawing troops from its five occupied posts in southern Lebanon.
However, Hezbollah chief Sheikh Naim Qassem vowed in a televised speech to keep the group’s weapons, rejecting Washington’s disarmament proposal.
“How can you expect us not to stand firm while the Israeli enemy continues its aggression, continues to occupy the five points, and continues to enter our territories and kill?” said Qassem, who succeeded longtime terrorist leader Hassan Nasrallah after Israel killed him last year.
“We will not be part of legitimizing the occupation in Lebanon and the region,” the terrorist leader continued. “We will not accept normalization [with Israel].”
Last fall, Israel decimated Hezbollah’s leadership and military capabilities with an air and ground offensive, following the group’s attacks on Jerusalem — which they claimed were a show of solidarity with the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas amid the war in Gaza.
In November, Lebanon and Israel reached a US-brokered ceasefire agreement that ended a year of fighting between the Jewish state and Hezbollah.
Under the agreement, Israel was given 60 days to withdraw from southern Lebanon, allowing the Lebanese army and UN forces to take over security as Hezbollah disarms and moves away from Israel’s northern border.
However, Israel maintained troops at several posts in southern Lebanon beyond the ceasefire deadline, as its leaders aimed to reassure northern residents that it was safe to return home.
Jerusalem has continued carrying out strikes targeting remaining Hezbollah activity, with Israeli leaders accusing the group of maintaining combat infrastructure, including rocket launchers — calling this “blatant violations of understandings between Israel and Lebanon.”
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Peace Meals: Chef José Andrés Says ‘Good People’ On Both Sides of Gaza Conflict Ill-Served By Leaders, Food Can Bridge Divide
Chef and head of World Central Kitchen Jose Andres attends the Milken Institute Global Conference 2025 in Beverly Hills, California, US, May 5, 2025. Photo: Reuters/Mike Blake.
Renowned Spanish chef and World Central Kitchen (WCK) founder José Andrés called the Oct. 7 attack “horrendous” in an interview Wednesday and shared his hopes for reconciliation between the “vast majority” on both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian divide who are “good people that very often are not served well by their leaders”
WCK is a US-based, nonprofit organization that provides fresh meals to people in conflict zones around the world. The charity has been actively serving Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank since the Oct. 7 massacre in southern Israel. Since the Hamas attack, WCK has served more than 133 million meals across Gaza, according to its website.
The restaurateur and humanitarian has been quoted saying in past interviews that “sometimes very big problems have very simple solutions.” On Wednesday’s episode of the Wall Street Journal podcast “Bold Names,” he was asked to elaborate on that thought. He responded by saying he believes good meals and good leaders can help resolve issues between Israelis and Palestinians, who, he believes, genuinely want to live harmoniously with each other.
“I had people in Gaza, mothers, women making bread,” he said. “Moments that you had of closeness they were telling you: ‘What Hamas did was wrong. I wouldn’t [want] anybody to do this to my children.’ And I had Israelis that even lost family members. They say, ‘I would love to go to Gaza to be next to the people to show them that we respect them …’ And this to me is very fascinating because it’s the reality.
“Maybe some people call me naive. [But] the vast majority of the people are good people that very often are not served well by their leaders. And the simple reality of recognizing that many truths can be true at the same time in the same phrase that what happened on October 7th was horrendous and was never supposed to happen. And that’s why World Central Kitchen was there next to the people in Israel feeding in the kibbutz from day one, and at the same time that I defended obviously the right of Israel to defend itself and to try to bring back the hostages. Equally, what is happening in Gaza is not supposed to be happening either.”
Andres noted that he supports Israel’s efforts to target Hamas terrorists but then seemingly accused Israel of “continuously” targeting children and civilians during its military operations against the terror group.
“We need leaders that believe in that, that believe in longer tables,” he concluded. “It’s so simple to invest in peace … It’s so simple to do good. It’s so simple to invest in a better tomorrow. Food is a solution to many of the issues we’re facing. Let’s hope that … one day in the Middle East it’ll be people just celebrating the cultures that sometimes if you look at what they eat, they seem all to eat exactly the same.”
In 2024, WCK fired at least 62 of its staff members in Gaza after Israel said they had ties to terrorist groups. In one case, Israel discovered that a WCK employee named Ahed Azmi Qdeih took part in the deadly Hamas rampage across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Qdeih was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza in November 2024.
In April 2024, the Israel Defense Forces received backlash for carrying out airstrikes on a WCK vehicle convoy which killed seven of the charity’s employees. Israel’s military chief, Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, said the airstrikes were “a mistake that followed a misidentification,” and Israel dismissed two senior officers as a result of the mishandled military operation.
The strikes “were not just some unfortunate mistake in the fog of war,” Andrés alleged.
“It was a direct attack on clearly marked vehicles whose movements were known by” the Israeli military, he claimed in an op-ed published by Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharonot. “It was also the direct result of [the Israeli] government’s policy to squeeze humanitarian aid to desperate levels.”
In a statement on X, Andres accused Israel of “indiscriminate killing,” saying the Jewish state “needs to stop restricting humanitarian aid, stop killing civilians and aid workers, and stop using food as a weapon.”
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