‘Story of the hostages must be heard….every second counts in race to get them home,’ Israeli President Herzog tells foreign media

JERUSALEM, ISRAEL – On a cold and rainy evening in Israel’s capital Jerusalem on Monday, representatives of the foreign press gathered for a special event organized by the Government Press Office (GPO) titled, “Israel and the Foreign Media in the October 7th War.”

Reporters and producers from around the world – some, like a senior BBC producer, attending in person, others watching via livestream – had the opportunity to hear briefings from Israeli civilian and military officials, hostage families, and fellow journalists.

ISRAEL’S PRESIDENT URGES MEDIA TO DO MORE TO HELP HOSTAGES

The highest-profile speaker was Israeli President Isaac Herzog, who spoke via video.

Herzog thanked the media for broadcasting the stories of the Israeli hostages and their families but urged them do to more because time for the hostage to come home alive and safe is quickly running out.

“Dear members of the foreign media, I want to take a moment to say thank you,” Herzog began.

“I know how many of you have done so much to bring to the world the voices of the families of the hostages and the stories of the hostages themselves, to tell the stories of the victims, to shed light on the darkness of October 7th.”

“The story of the hostages must be heard time and time again until they are brought home,” Herzog insisted.

“They’re being held in barbaric conditions, in dungeons, without basic medical care, without sufficient food and water, without access to the Red Cross, in a crazy situation.”

“Every second they are held in captivity by these Hamas rapists and murderers is another crime against humanity – and every second counts in the race to get them home healthy and free.”

“Dear members of the press, I deeply respect your bravery and dedication in reporting from war arenas,” Herzog said.

HERZOG: PALESTINIANS IN GAZA SUFFERING BECAUSE OF HAMAS

Herzog noted that Palestinians in Gaza are suffering because “this war has been forced upon them by Hamas who uses them as human shields and steals humanitarian aid.”

The president added, “I do not shy away from the difficult and painful reality in Gaza, and it is important to hear the voices of innocent people in Gaza.”

“But at the same time, the world – and the media especially – must not swallow the fabrications and false news of Hamas. We cannot rely for the lies of terrorists who have no regard for international law, no regard to the rules of engagement, and no regard for human life.”

HERZOG VOWS TO ALWAYS DEFEND FREEDOM OF THE PRESS

Herzog told the journalists that he deeply respects their bravery and dedication to reporting on this war under very difficult conditions.

“While I do not pretend to agree with every word of youre reporting,” Herzog said to laughter, “I will continue to fight for your right to report freely and safely. Israel will always stand firm on freedom of speech and the press, a core pillar of democracy.”

“We gathered here to bring foreign media journalists…to meet the hostages’ families and to make sure that their stories about what really happened…won’t be forgotten on the screens of foreign media around the world,” Nitzan Chen, director of Israel’s Government Press Office – a division of the Prime Minister’s Office – told ALL ISRAEL NEWS.

“The foreign media has a major role in this battle,” Chen added.

Brigadier General (ret.) Gal Hirsch, Israel’s coordinator for the hostages and the missing in the aftermath of Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre, presented an overview of the efforts to return the hostages, and praised members of the Israeli media, and some in the foreign media, who have been, in his words, ““responsible” in their conduct during the war.

“The Israeli media has not surrendered to the terror theatre,” he said, noting that the held off publishing the names of the hostages that stood to be released during the hostage release deal between Hamas and Israel last November before they were really safely back on Israeli soil and the government could confirm that fact to their families.

TWO “EISENHOWER MOMENTS” IN THIS OCTOBER 7th WAR

IDF International Spokesman Lt.-Col. Richard Hecht explained how he and his team are working every day to explain to the foreign media what the Israeli military is doing and why it is important.

In his speech, Hecht focused on two defining “Eisenhower moments” of the war, which he said highlighted “the power of images in traditional and social media.”

The first such moment came when Hecht’s unit worked to open up the blood-soaked Israeli communities along the Gaza border – places like Kfar Aza – to the foreign media soon after Oct. 7th so reporters could see first-hand the bullet-ridden, burned, and beheaded bodies Israeli Jews and their devastated homes.

Hecht compared this to U.S. President Eisenhower’s decision to open up to reporters Nazi extermination camps like Auschwitz so journalists could personally witness the horrors of the Holocaust, photograph them, document them, and explain them so that the world would know and believe that genocide against the Jews had, indeed, taken place.

The second moment, Hecht said, came when President Biden ordered the U.S.S. Eisenhower and another U.S. carrier strike group to the Middle East to deter other countries from attacking Israel.

Images of those American carrier groups sent a powerful message to Iranian and Hezbollah terror leaders not to escalate the war in Gaza to a terrible new level.

“This is not just a war with the IDF against Hamas," said Hecht, "This is a war of good against evil… a regional war.”

ALL ISRAEL NEWS FOUNDER INTERVIEWS HOSTAGE FAMILIES

Following the keynote speeches, a panel of journalists and Israeli spokesmen shared their experiences and struggles covering the war.

Eylon Levy, a spokesman in Israel’s Public Diplomacy Directorate,  said that one of the most difficult things he has to deal with during interviews are insinuations that Israel chose to start the war in Gaza.

“We don’t want this war but we have to fight it and we have to win it,” Levy stressed.

Chris Mitchell, the Jerusalem bureau chief for the Christian Broadcasting Network, talked about the importance to him of praying every day and throughout the day for the Lord to give him the strength to keep going, and the wisdom to know what’s true and what he and his team should report that day.

The second panel was moderated by ALL ISRAEL NEWS Editor-in-Chief Joel Rosenberg.

He interviewed representatives of four Israeli hostage families, as well as the father of Urija Bayer, a German-Israeli special forces commando and devout Evangelical Christian, who was killed in battle in Gaza.

The death of Bayer generated huge headlines and lots of attention in Israel because the family is not Jewish and Israeli have been both fascinated with – and touched by – the notion that a German Evangelical Christian family loves Israel and the Jewish people so much that they would not only live and work here in Israel but serve in the Israeli Defense Forces and lay down their adopted homeland.

“Three months after the massacre…some of the foreign media forgot who started this war,” GPO director Chen said. “We want to remind them who are the enemies who we are dealing with.”

“In this, what happened on October 7, we are not objective,” Chen told ALL ISRAEL NEWS. “We want Israel to win. Hamas are our enemies, and we want to make sure that the coverage from your outlet will cover this story objectively and make sure that Israel will win this battle.”

EVENT HOST URGES BIDEN TO BOMB IRANIAN OIL FACILITIES

Mike Evans, an American author and pro-Israel activist, hosted the event with the GPO at the Friends of Zion Museum, which he founded in 2015.

Evans made an impassioned appeal for the United States to support Israel by standing decisively against the Islamic Republic of Iran, which he said supports terrorism against Israel, and is responsible for the horrors of Oct. 7.

In light of repeated Iranian-backed terror attacks against Americans – including the one in Jordan this week, Evans urged President Joe Biden to bomb Iran’s oil facilities located on Kharg Island to send a strong message to the terror masters in Tehran.