Why So Many Get the Gaza War Wrong

Observers of Israel’s war who are not experts are likely to notice very different things than the professionals. Brian Cox, who served in the U.S. Army for 22 years and is currently a professor at Cornell where he studies international law and the laws of armed conflict, found what he was reading about the Gaza war unsettling: photographs that looked like the aftermath of any urban conflict held up as proof of “genocide,” descriptions of war crimes that display no knowledge of the laws of war, and reports of famine absent any evidence of starvation. In this two-part conversation, Cox explains what people misunderstand about international law, why the media get the story so wrong, and how NGOs launder Hamas propaganda and present it as fact to reputable news outlets. (Audio, 42 minutes.)