Dan Senor’s execrable take on the growing numbers of babies and children being killed in Gaza

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By Deji Komolafe, Deputy Editor-in-Chief

Dan Senor, former Bush foreign policy advisor and co-author of a new book called "The Genius of Israel: The Surprising Resilience of a Divided Nation in a Turbulent World”, recently joined Fareed Zakaria on the latter s long running Sunday morning show on CNN, Fareed Zakaria GPS.

Here is a transcript of their conversation regarding the ever growing death toll in the Israeli siege on Gaza, especially with regard to children. 

ZAKARIA: How long -- if this campaign goes on for another month or two, more and more civilian casualties, will -- you know, the memory of the Hamas attack fades and the reality of pictures of Palestinians dying increases, how long do you think he has? 

SENOR: It depends how he frames this. If President Biden frames this accurately that Hamas is responsible for Israeli civilian casualties and Palestinian civilian casualties, that the reason Palestinians are being killed is because Hamas has chosen to wage its offensive military capabilities in hospitals, in U.N. run schools, near mosques.

[10:45:04]

Israel doesn't get to choose and the U.S. doesn't get to choose where Hamas fights. Hamas chooses where it wants to fight and is deliberately choosing it. It would be like -- the analogy I recommend President Biden give is it would be as though Russia located a missile launcher next to a Russian orphanage and was firing at Ukraine, and Ukraine responded and accidentally killed the -- they took out the Ukrainian orphanage.

The U.S. wouldn't blame Ukraine for that. It would obviously be Putin's decision. It was a strategic decision. And, I think, President Biden needs to start framing things in those terms and -- then I think the American public's tolerance for the images coming out of Gaza will be, you know, higher.

Dan Senor’s response is truly instructive as it shows an unfortunate reality regarding the subjective value of human life in this conflict. 

No amount of political engineering or public relations branding should ever compromise the humanity of ALL to call things exactly as they are. I am confident that the tolerance of the American people will never get higher for the gruesome images of babies, children and mothers being collectively slaughtered. 

Source: CNN

FLASHBACK: Tucker Carlson said he lies on TV out of 'weakness' and when he gets 'really cornered'

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Fox host Tucker Carlson said he tries not to lie on TV but does it sometimes when he's "really cornered" or "out of weakness." 

Carlson made the comment on September 12 while speaking to conservative show host Dave Rubin on an episode of the "The Rubin Report." In the episode, Rubin questioned how CNN anchors Chris Cuomo and Brian Stelter live with themselves "when they just lie again and again and we have the internet to expose the lies."

In response, Carlson told Rubin what he does to get out of a tight spot.

"I mean, I lie if I'm really cornered or something," Carlson said. "I lie. I really try not to. I try never to lie on TV. I just don't — I don't like lying. I certainly do it, you know, out of weakness or whatever."

But, Carlson went on to claim, there's a difference between what he does and what happens on CNN. Carlson said CNN hosts lie "systematically" to protect powerful people like billionaires Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates.

"How dare you do that? How dare you use your power to protect and guard the powerful, even as you put your boot on the neck of the weakest people?" Carlson added. 

"There have been many times in the 25 years I've been on TV where I think, you know, are we using this very substantial power that we have to put pictures on the screen to hurt weak people? And I have done that inadvertently over the years, because I got carried away. But I really try not to," Carlson said, saying he only hits "upward" at those richer, more powerful, and stronger than himself.

Carlson's comments to Rubin come one year after Fox News won a court case by arguing that no "reasonable viewer" could take Carlson seriously.

Carlson has made a series of controversial and often baseless statements throughout his time as the host of "Tucker Carlson Tonight," which has been on air since 2016, including a slew of comments in recent months. In August, Carlson said Afghan refugees will "invade" the US and claimed without evidence that "millions" of refugees could be resettled in American neighborhoods in the coming months.

In July, Carlson — who has repeatedly refused to reveal if he has gotten a COVID-19 vaccine — contradicted his Fox colleagues who encouraged people to take the COVID-19 vaccine and told his viewers to ignore the medical advice they see on television. Carlson also recently claimed, without providing evidence, that the National Security Agency was illegally spying on him, an allegation the agency is now looking into.

Carlson's representatives and CNN did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider.

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