Sky News has outdone itself this time
Since the start of Israel's war with Hamas, Eylon Levy and his British-accent-laced English have been working to explain Israel's position to foreign media as part of the Prime Minister's Office's National Pubic Diplomacy Directorate. And he has been asked a lot of stupid questions. But the look on his face, after the question a Sky News anchor posed on Thursday, says it all.
More stories:
The anchor said that a hostage negotiator had pointed out to her that Israel is releasing 150 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for just 50 hostages, "and he made the comparison between the numbers and the fact that does Israel not think that Palestinian lives are valued as highly as Israeli lives?"
Levy said in a post on the X platform that it was the "first question that left me speechless (but only for a second)."
He definitely recovered, calling it "an astonishing accusation."
"If we could release one prisoner for everyone hostage we would obviously do that," he continued, reminding the Sky News anchor that Israel is not "CHOOSING to release these prisoners who have blood on their hands."
He pointed out that many of the prisoners who are slated to be released have perpetrated stabbing and shooting attacks against Israelis. "Notice the question of proportionality doesn't interest Palestinian supporters when they're able to get more of their prisoners out," he pointed out.
Levy called the suggestion that Israel is willing to release terrorists in large numbers to "get our own innocent children back" because it does not care about Palestinian lives "outrageous" and "disgusting."
One X user who responded to the post suggested that Israel has become less racist since it exchanged 1,024 Palestinian prisoners for one Israeli hostage, Gilad Shalit, a decade ago. Another noted that "we are literally surrounded by morons."
The spokesman's reaction to the question has taken on a life of its own on social media, including a gif of his startled look.
Levy has appeared frequently on Sky News since October 7. Last month, a Sky News anchor, discussing a rocket that landed in the parking lot of a Gaza hospital, which later turned out to be a Hamas rocket, told Levy: "If you were not bombing Gaza, then people, I suppose, would not be taking sanctuary in the car park of a hospital."
Levy replied: "That is a very fair point, and if Hamas had not invaded on the morning of the 7th of October, if it hadn't butchered 1,400 people, maimed 4,000, taken 200 hostages in the worst terror attack in world history since 9/11 - we would not be in this war. This isn't a war that we wanted, it's not a war that we started, it's not a war that we expected. It is a war that Hamas has dragged us into with the war crime of the October 7 massacre and it is a war that we are determined to win because we have no choice. We can no longer exist with this ISIS-style terror organization on our border. We're going to win, and we're going to win decisively."