Did Trump
give Israel 1 million face masks despite coronavirus
equipment shortages in the US?
An Israeli press report claiming the US Department of
Defense shipped one million face masks to Israel have
angered Americans, causing some to question the Trump
administration's priorities
By The New Arab
April 08, 2020 "Information
Clearing House"
-
An Israeli press report claiming the US Department of
Defense had shipped one million face masks to
Israel to help protect
Israeli soldiers has angered Americans, causing some to
question the
Trump administration's
priorities amid the coronavirus pandemic amid reports of
shortages of protective equipment for US health workers.
The Pentagon's alleged shipment was initially reported
by the Jerusalem Post, however mention of
American involvement was later scrubbed, raising
suspicions that US public anger may have forced Israeli
military censors to act.
Israel's army is
notorious for tightly monitoring media output, having
barred or redacted over 2,000 stories just last year,
according to the Movement for Freedom of Information.
"US
Department of Defense give 1 million masks to IDF for
coronavirus use," read a headline published by the
Jerusalem Post on Wednesday, referring to the
shipment that had arrived at Ben-Gurion Airport on
Tuesday night.
The original article
said: "A plane carrying
over a million surgical masks for the IDF landed in
Ben-Gurion airport Tuesday night, in an operation run by
the US Department of Defense’s Delegation of
Procurement".
Curiously, the headline was later
revised to: "Israel
brings 1 million masks from China for IDF soldiers" but
traces of the old headline can be seen in the article's
URL.
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All mention of the US Department of Defense's
alleged involvement also appear to have been
removed, with no reason given in the updated
article for the revision or official retraction
posted.
A yet-to-be-deleted tweet by the Jerusalem
Post official account
still shows the
original introduction (screenshot
here).
The New Arab has reached out to the
Department of Defense
Defense Logistics Agency
for comment but did not receive a response at
the time of publication.
Israel's spy agency
Mossad has been
involved in a frantic effort to secure
protective gear as Tel Aviv scrambles to respond
to a major coronavirus outbreak.
The initial headline mentioning US involvement
in the shipment sparked fury on social media,
where users highlighted America's own struggles
to contain the coronavirus outbreak.
"American hospitals are begging for protective
gear, this is sickening," wrote one Twitter
user, referring to US medical workers who have
complained about reported shortages of
protective gear for frontline workers.
"While
frontline American health workers go without &
Palestinians are told to use their socks, Trump ships a
million masks to israel's army," wrote another,
referring to reports that
Palestinian prisoners
were told by Israeli authorities to use socks as face
masks.
The delivery of
US supplies to support Israel's military comes just days
after a US Navy captain was removed for alleging that
the Pentagon had given inadequate attention to a
Covid-19 outbreak on the USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft
carrier.
Brett Crozier wrote a letter that was leaked to the
media describing the virus-struck vessel's dire
situation.
Following Crozier's removal, US Acting Navy Secretary
Thomas Modly resigned on Tuesday over his mishandling of
the affair and the heavy-handed approach towards the
navy captain.
The Crozier
affair was just the latest in a string of missteps by
the Trump administration amid the coronavirus pandemic,
drawing sustained criticism from the American public.
US President
Donald Trump initially downplayed the virus, which he
likened to an ordinary flu and said was under control in
the United States, before later accepting that it was a
national emergency.
More than
12,000 Americans have now died from Covid-19.
"Source"
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