Sky News Anchor Under Fire Over ‘Astonishing’ Question to Israel Spokesman on Value of Palestinian Lives
“But really, 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 press here in the United States has been predictably biased and generally insufferable when it comes to reporting on the Hamas-instigated war with Israel. But the European media, in my opinion, has been even worse, with a Sky News interview from earlier this week being the latest example.
Kay Burley is a presenter for a morning program on Sky News, and one of her guests Thursday was Eylon Levy, a spokesman for the Israeli government.
During the segment, they talked about the ongoing hostage release negotiations, which were being delayed at the time because Hamas was busy doing the things that terrorist groups do.
Burley then brought up who she says was a “hostage negotiator” she spoke to who she said compared the number of hostages under discussion for release – 50 Israeli hostages for 150 Palestinian prisoners – and alleged in the form of a question that the ratio was indicative of how little Israel valued Palestinian lives.
Understandably, the question shocked Levy, who responded accordingly:
“I was speaking to a hostage negotiator this morning,” the presenter told Levy during the televised interview. “He made the comparison between the 50 hostages that Hamas has promised to release as opposed to the 150 prisoners that are Palestinians that Israel has said it will release. And he made the comparison between the numbers and the fact that does Israel not think that Palestinian lives are valued as highly as Israeli lives?”
Visibly taken aback, Levy described her question as “an astonishing accusation,” declaring that “if we could release one prisoner for every one hostage we would obviously do that.”
“We are operating in horrific circumstances. We’re not choosing to release these prisoners who have blood on their hands. We are talking about people who have been convicted of stabbing and shooting attacks,” Levy said.
“Notice the question of proportionality doesn’t interest Palestinian supporters when they’re able to get more of their prisoners out. But really, 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.”
Watch:
The first question that left me speechless (but only for a second): pic.twitter.com/P4Bh0SKtl9
— Eylon Levy (@EylonALevy) November 23, 2023
Levy also addressed the issue in a tweet response to one Twitter user’s suggestion that to solve the supposed “undervalued Palestinian lives” problem only one Palestinian prisoner gets released for all the Israeli hostages:
Honestly, we'd be happy to release 0 Palestinian prisoners for all the Israeli hostages, especially if releasing more Palestinian terrorists than we get innocent hostages makes them feel undervalued. https://t.co/QuAdHtlEyN
— Eylon Levy (@EylonALevy) November 24, 2023
There was also this proposal from another Twitter user, which probably was not made in jest:
I propose that Hamas sends the hostages back to Israel and in exchange, the UK sends the worst BBC and Sky News reporters to Hamas where they can continue their propaganda for them.
— Chris Rose (@ArchRose90) November 24, 2023
For her part, Burley tried to defend herself by claiming she was simply taking the “some people said something” interview approach:
Morning everyone,
We often put one side of an argument to a guest so they can offer a counterclaim
Yesterday, I raised a controversial view from an earlier guest to allow another to respond
Each morning we’re dedicated to presenting fairly the news of this war#IsraelHamasWar
— Kay Burley (@KayBurley) November 24, 2023
Others, like British Jews Board of Deputies Public Affairs Director Daniel Sugarman, were skeptical though, and pointed to a short video Burley shared on Twitter where she had an odd reaction to the mention of the Israeli hostages:
This is from Kay Burley’s own Twitter. Watch what happens when the woman who I presume is her producer mentions the hostages held by Hamas, at around 0:28.
— Daniel Sugarman (@Daniel_Sugarman) November 24, 2023
Sugarman later gave her the benefit of the doubt, suggesting he didn’t think the issue was that Burley was anti-Israel, just a terrible representative for Sky News:
Contrary to a number of comments on here, I absolutely don’t think that Kay Burley hates us at all. She has previously done fundraisers for Jewish organisations.
I just don’t think her reporting over the last few days has been done in a manner that brings credit to Sky News.
— Daniel Sugarman (@Daniel_Sugarman) November 24, 2023
Burley, I should point out, is absolutely representative of much of the “news” coverage the network has given of the Israel-Hamas war:
I’m sorry to say that a lot of the coverage today has been abysmal. The constant, suggested equivalence between Israeli toddlers and Palestinian teenagers who had carried out attempted murder was too much. @MarkRegev was right to be angry. But kept polite pic.twitter.com/wLllVtHiic
— Jake Wallis Simons (@JakeWSimons) November 24, 2023
No, @SkyNews, Hamas isn’t releasing hostages *despite* the military pressure.
It’s releasing them *because* of Israel’s unrelenting military pressure.
My eyebrows are tired. pic.twitter.com/cuE8xteeho
— Eylon Levy (@EylonALevy) November 24, 2023
ACCORDING TO FUCKING HAMAS!!
Why do @skynews reporters find that so hard to understand??? https://t.co/ZLRraFwDep
— We Stand With Israel (@SussexFriends) November 23, 2023
First group of #Palestinian prisoners – women and children – will also be released from #Israeli jail on Friday. Many have been incarcerated without charge or jailed for raising Palestinian flag or throwing stones at Israeli soldiers
— Alex Crawford (@AlexCrawfordSky) November 23, 2023
Sky News journalist.
They don't care, because there's no professional let alone interpersonal cost to journalists any more for being wrong, as long as they were trying to win the news cycle for the home team. The home team for them right now is Hamas. pic.twitter.com/cGOaE7fqSi
— Omri Ceren (@omriceren) November 24, 2023
Are Sky News in a competition with the BBC to see who can be more pro Hamas? https://t.co/r5mvkLmvZ9
— Dennis Noel Kavanagh (@Jebadoo2) November 24, 2023
In the race to the bottom, my thought at the moment is that it’s Sky News who is winning, though the BBC is not far behind.
— Stacey Matthews has also written under the pseudonym “Sister Toldjah” and can be reached via Twitter. —
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Comments
Lives having infinite value is classical but it doesn’t mean large value. It means that you can’t calculate with them. “No boundaries”
There’s no question that Jews are better people though, if that’s the question.
Infinite certainly means “large” – large beyond large. You can’t get any larger than “infinite” (putting transinfinites aside for a lay discussion).
It just means goes on forever. Like an infinite line of trees. It’s the lack of a boundary (L finis, boundary). There’s also infinitely small.
“Lack of a boundary” is a different concept from “infinite”. There are many things that lack boundaries that are not infinite and there are many things that are infinite that are bounded. Infinity is, specifically, a measure of number and it is :LARGE. The smallest infinity is the set of whole numbers, which is a “countable infinity”.
The idea that “infinite” means “goes on forever” died with Georg Cantor and his formalization and manipulation of the very concept. One of the greatest bursts of human genius ever.
“Infinitely small” is “infinitesimal”.
The repertoire of the word doesn’t come from Cantor. It comes from Latin.
Here’s even a mathematical use with the meaning no boundary
705. Dirichlet’s conception of a function is only possible where it does not seek to express an infinite rule by a list, for there is no such thing as an infinite list.
(Wittgenstein, Zettel)
I always liked Sky News Australia. Is there a difference between their counterparts in Europe I suppose?
This lady can’t even comprehend how much more I value Israeli lives over the barbarians.
It looked to me, however, that at :28 her reaction was more like “darn, I forgot with all the other stuff” not like she didn’t care at all. Her question to the Israeli spokesman was ridiculous and his reaction was exactly right. Why would she use the “some are saying” schtick with something like that in the first place?
Look at how Jews do their best to help their children achieve their full potential.
Now look at Arabs in Palestine do with their children.
Is there any reason others should value their children when they do not?
This is sort of funny. THe trade certainly means that Palestinian lives are worth less than Israeli lives, but it is Hamas that is the one doing the valuation. But it’s only a 3x proportion because hamas desperately needs Israel to stop attacking them for a few days. The other swaps that Israel has done with the fakestinians have been trades like 1000 dirtbag criminal fakestinians for 2 Israeli corpses (corpsmen, in Barky-speak). Israeli lives are certainly worth more than 1000 to 1 fakestinians … even Israeli corpses. But if it were up to Israel they would value the fakestinians much more and only exchange 1 fakestinian prisoner for 200 hundred Israeli hostages … but the market determines value, not the wishfulness of a trader.
Frankly, Israel should not have let itself be sucked in, once again, to even negotiating anything with hamas. It will only cost more in the future – as in the whole reason that hamas specifically set out to capture hostages this time was because they know Israel would then play their game.
And someone needs to burn Gutter/Qatar to the ground right before moving on to take the gas and oil fields from Iran and putting an end to all threats emanating from Iran. This is what it all comes down to.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/11/breaking-hamas-transfers-second-set-hostages-via-egypt/
So, no Americans released as yet. I suppose Hamas is holding out for ca$h. The going rate was what $1.2 billion per?
Biden didn’t negotiate for the release of Americans. Unless you’re a left wing basketball player and you can make it a racial issue, your life overseas is completely worthless to the state department.
That’s very true. Traitor Joe was just looking for a mechanism to use to give Iran lots of cash and the hostages fit the bill for him. Traitor Joe would have given Iran $6 billion for a few parakeets and a rabbit.
Of course, to Democrats Americans’ lives aren’t worth anything in America, either. They would enslave all Americans to work and feed and clothe their invasion of third-world hordes. They are trying very hard to do that, now.
Europe generally and the UK specifically have an antisemitism problem with their native population in a way that FAR exceeds any lingering antisemitism in the native US population. But, the British press really seems to go out of its way to over-represent that antisemitic cohort in its on-air talent. If you only looked at the kind of comments against Jews that are routinely made in the British press, you might begin to wonder if the Nazis didn’t really win that war.
Uk doesn’t have much of an issue with its “old” natives these days but it sure does with the newly arrived “natives”.
“We often put one side of an argument to a guest so they can offer a counterclaim”
Ooh, ooh, some watcher posted on Stormfront that Jews bake Christian babies and drink their blood! Ask him about that and get his counterclaim!
Translation: “We often give a bullhorn to terrorists we support so they can say the things we want to say without us having to take responsibility for it.”
https://twitter.com/EpochTimes/status/1728117527966859578
Climate activist Greta Thunberg chants “Krossa Sionismen” (Crush Zionism) with the crowd at a pro-Palestinian rally in Stockholm on Nov. 23.
I would like to remind everyone Sky News is not associated with or connected to Sky News Australia or Fox News, it is just a clone of the BBC.
Is Scottish First Minister @HumzaYousaf
inadvertently funding terrorism? A Hamas terrorist has been found with an UN Agency for Palestine Refugees
@UNRWA ID.
The..total given to assist relief efforts in Gaza via the UN Relief & Works Agency’s Flash Appeal (UNRWA) to £750,000.
https://tinyurl.com/24vdaxzk Twitter link. Photo of armor and UN ID.
Go over that man’s history and you will find the answer is he has a very racial agenda and wouldn’t view Hamas as terrorists.
Remember a Jew who has lived in the Middle East forever is white, his Arab neighbor who looks jus as white is Black despite having white skin.
Shaun King aka Talcum X telling news source that Israel does not care about any of its citizens being held hostage.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/gBxGzmkirR0
Given it is Hamas demanding the high ratio of terrorists to be traded for innocent hostages, isn’t it more logical to conclude that it is Hamas rather than Israel that values life cheaply?
And note too that it is Hamas that chooses to hide its military infrastructure, weapons, launch platforms etc behind human shields thereby forcing Israel to decide whether to meekly accept being attacked and their civilians killed, or to respond and potentially kill Gazan civilians. Note this doesn’t take into account that Hamas is the body releasing the alleged Gazan casualty figures and their claims are worth less than the ink used to write them.
I’m going to have to side with her on this one. He completely missed the point she was making, which was not that Hamas has suddenly turned humanitarian, and is releasing hostages “despite” the bombing, but that despite the bombing Sinwar is still in charge and is deciding who is released and who remains in captivity. She’s asking, how have you not managed to kill this guy? How can you call your campaign a success when this guy is still running the show over there?
Now that may not be a fair question. It’s not always possible to kill a specific enemy commander; you can be sure Israel has tried. And the campaign is having many other successes. But rather than answer like this, the question went right past him.
So just ask that f88king question.
The problem here isn’t what she said. The problem is that is all the f99king media ever says and then hides behind the both sides of the argument bullshit.
She did ask that question. And he completely missed it.
This interview was not an exercise in subtlety. There are not multiple levels of meaning. No need for deconstructing the words. She is not that smart. And there is no reasonin this context to write a comment here solely for the sake of argument.
There is no deconstruction involved. One only has to listen to her question to understand it. What she asked is very clear, but he missed it, and you are not even bothering to listen to it.
She very clearly said that despite the bombing Sinwar is still calling the shots, and asked how that can be called a success. She never said or implied what Levy went off at her for.
So many levels to this nonsense. For simplicity sake it boils down to this: other Nations can point to Israel and to a lesser degree the USA, as the last gasp of ‘colonialism’. They can burnish their woke credentials with their (growing) domestic population of woke leftists and for some play to the virulent pre-existing antisemitism by demeaning and criticising Israel at every turn. Same for the USA to a lesser extent.
The entirety of the DEI/CRT framework is an anti western civilization endeavor. These ideologues have replaced ‘class’ with race/ethnicity/sexual preference/trans in their neo Marxist propaganda. They substitute one group identity, class, with others but its still the same melody of anti western civilization and the rejection of individual rights/individual responsibility which puts group/tribal ID to the fore.
Yes, the exchange rate is surprising. But not for the reason she thinks.
I have commented before about how who dislikes someone can be a good indication that they have merit. That principle often applies to groups, including countries.
I have commented about CAIR bashing Steve Emerson, the creator of Jihad in America: The Grand Deception (2007), and then contacting him. CAIR’s actions made me think that Emerson probably had merit, he did.
Less value?
What idiocy.
If I only have to pay 1 dollar for 20 of the things I REALLY want and you have to pay 20 dollars for one of the things you really want
And we both want those things exactly the same amount, who’s getting screwed by this bargain?
Hint –it’s not Hamas.
The reason it’s being framed this way by the pro-Hamas legacy media is to make Hamas look like the victim while they’re being paid in blood and flesh for the hostages they abducted, tortured and raped.