CNN’s Gotkine: Media Coverage Blaming Israel Means It Won’t Matter if Israel Proves Its Innocence in Hospital Blast

On Tuesday’s “CNN Newsroom,” CNN Journalist Elliott Gotkine said that even if Israel is able to prove that the explosion at a Gaza hospital wasn’t caused by an Israeli strike, but rather by a Palestinian Islamic Jihad rocket, it won’t matter because “the world has already seen the initial headlines that came out saying — even if it was attributing to Palestinian officials in the Gaza strip, which, of course, is run by Hamas — saying that was an IDF strike.”

Gotkine stated that while Israel is set to present evidence that the explosion was caused by a Palestinian Islamic Jihad rocket, “to your point about whether this matters, I think, first of all, the world has already seen the initial headlines that came out saying — even if it was attributing to Palestinian officials in the Gaza strip, which, of course, is run by Hamas — saying that was an IDF strike. And I think as far as Palestinians are concerned, as far as the Arab street is concerned, it really doesn’t matter what the Israelis or the Americans come out and say right now, because they will simply be seeing these images of possibly hundreds of people being killed in a strike on the hospital. They will automatically be blaming Israel, whether it was the Israelis or whether it wasn’t. And they will also be — by definition, they will also be blaming the Americans for supporting the Israelis in its war with Hamas.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett