It seems like there are a lot of people trying to make an equivalence between innocent hostages -- including a ten-month-old baby -- kidnapped by Hamas and Palestinian prisoners held by Israel for committing crimes. Eight out of the 39 Palestinian prisoners released had been convicted of attempted murder.
There isn't an equivalence.
There certainly has been a lot of propaganda flying around to try to make the prisoners and Hamas look better. As I noted earlier, we even saw an effort trying to paint Hamas as being kind and their victims being appreciative of that alleged kindness from a purported "journalist," She treated the experience as though it was all just a pleasure jaunt that they were kidnapped and put through horror.
Now comes the spinning about the prisoners released by Israel. If you didn't already distrust the media, the NY Times' description of one of the released prisoners provides you with a good reason. It is something else, and leaves out something rather important. They describe a "disfigured woman" -- seemingly trying to paint her as a victim or in a sympathetic light -- but she was convicted in an attempted bombing and got an 11-year sentence. The injuries are from that crime.
The real victim was the cop who stopped her and was severely injured.
The Times does have in their story that Israel "said" it had been an act of terrorism, but they leave out that she was convicted.
Here's what Haaretz said about her crime, which The NY Times did not include.
Another prisoner released, Israa Jaabis, was convicted, in a plea deal, of attempted battery with aggravated intent. Jaabis, 39, of East Jerusalem, blew up a gas canister in her car at a checkpoint near Ma’aleh Adumim in 2015, lightly wounding a police officer.
According to the indictment, traffic policeman Moshe Chen stopped Jaabis for driving in a public transit lane, and when he approached her car she shouted “Allahu Akbar,” opened the gas spigot, and lit it. As a result, the indictment said, “fire ignited, causing a powerful explosion which hurled the policeman toward the separation barrier. The policeman sustained burns to his face and chest.”
Her attorney tried to spin that it was an intended "suicide by cop" due to depression rather than a terrorist effort. I'm guessing the "Allahu Akbar" thing probably killed that excuse.
But now Hamas supporters and anti-Israel folks are claiming that it was all an accident.
If that wasn't bad enough, a Gaza activist pushed one heck of a whopper.
That was completely untrue.
But this is all about portraying the Gaza side and even Hamas as the "victims" and the Israelis as the evil oppressors.