Whatsappi24News got it wrong, but that didn’t stop other outlets from running with the item before reading the article on which it was based.
(May 11, 2025 / JNS)
Non-Shabbat-observant Israelis awoke on Saturday to fake news that, in Winston Churchill’s witty words, “got halfway around the world before the truth had a chance to put its pants on.”
The baloney began with coverage by i24News of an item that appeared in The Jerusalem Post. So much of the Hebrew channel’s morning broadcast was devoted to what it was touting as a huge deal that other outlets picked it up and ran with it.
Ditto for social media, of course.
The trouble is that everything about the bulletin was wrong, starting with an inaccurate attribution of its origin. Indeed, anybody who bothered to check could see that the piece in the JPost was a reprint of a write-up in The Media Line.
Perhaps one could chalk the mix-up to lazy journalism. But the depiction of the story’s content—about U.S. President Donald Trump’s imminent trip to the Middle East—doesn’t warrant even that much of an ill-deserved pass.
The chyron of the TV segment was: “Report: Trump to recognize a Palestinian state.”
Naturally, a flurry of panic or glee ensued, depending on the views of those highlighting the “scoop.” Yet all one had to do was peruse the article to realize that there’s “no there there.”
It isn’t until the fifth paragraph that the author, Ali Hussain, mentions the controversial topic. The passage, which opens with a question in bold letters (“Will Donald Trump recognize a Palestinian state?”), reads as follows:
“A Gulf diplomatic source, who declined to be named or disclose his position, told The Media Line, ‘President Donald Trump will issue a declaration regarding the State of Palestine and American recognition of it, and that there will be the establishment of a Palestinian state without the presence of Hamas.’
“The source also added, ‘If an announcement of American recognition of the State of Palestine is made, it will be the most important declaration that will change the balance of power in the Middle East, and more countries will join the Abraham Accords.’”
An anonymous source from an unnamed country surmising about something that hasn’t happened isn’t news. Nor does Hussain claim that it is.
In fact, he goes on to cite others—on the record—refuting the above. One is U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, who “denied the statements made by this source on X/Twitter Saturday afternoon, saying that Israel has no better friend than the U.S.”
Another is former Gulf diplomat Ahmed Al-Ibrahim, who “told The Media Line, ‘I don’t expect it to be about Palestine. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and King Abdullah II of Jordan have not been invited. They are the two countries closest to Palestine, and it would be important for them to be present at any event like this.’”
It would behoove i24News to issue an apology for instigating a phony brouhaha, based either on indolence or political slant. Meanwhile, viewers of both sides of the spectrum would do well to pause before jumping to conclusions based on hot air.
A case in point is a post that’s been circulating on X about a response to the report by White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt.
The tweet claims she said, “Contrary to the lies being spread, there will be no recognition of a Palestinian state at all.”
Nice. As it happens, however, a search for such a comment in this context comes up empty.
Competing for clickbait may be hard to avoid in the current climate. Credibility, on the other hand, is a more valuable commodity in the long run.
