Israeli antisemitism envoy: Conservatives, like Israel, are mistreated by media
Noa Tishby’s ‘eyes get as big as saucers’ as Fox News panelists raise allegation press downplayed Pelosi’s husband’s DUI, claims ‘mainstream media’ ignored plot to kill Kavanaugh
Actress Noa Tishby, Israel’s special envoy for combating antisemitism and the delegitimization of Israel, appeared Tuesday on a Fox News panel that covered the arrest of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband and used the platform to liken American media’s treatment of conservatives to the press’s alleged anti-Israel bias.
While appearances on Fox News or other politically slanted networks are not out of the ordinary for Israeli officials, participation in a one-sided panel focused on internal American politics is more unusual.
Tishby, who was appointed in April, is not a paid government employee, but she was prepped for the show by the spokesperson for Israel’s Consulate in New York, who said she used the opportunity to discuss antisemitism.
The four conservative co-hosts of the Fox show, “Outnumbered,” had other issues on their minds, though, discussing the “liberal privilege” enjoyed by the House speaker’s husband, Paul Pelosi, and claiming that mainstream media was ignoring his recent DUI arrest and that police dragged their feet in releasing his mugshot.
Co-host Julie Banderas noted her surprise that Pelosi was not more careful behind the wheel due to his involvement in a crash 65 years ago in which his brother was killed.
At this point, co-host Harris Faulkner pulled Tishby into the conversation, remarking that the Israeli envoy’s “eyes went wide like saucers” and that she had a “visceral reaction” to the Pelosi story.
The Israeli envoy clarified that she had not been aware of the 1957 crash, before arguing that the media’s coverage of Paul Pelosi’s arrest is part of the “obvious double standard [of] the media.”
She pointed to the alleged plot to kill conservative US Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, claiming that too had “hardly been talked about in mainstream media.”
“I noticed this all too well as an Israeli because — talk about the double standard when it comes to covering Israel and covering the conflict in the Middle East,” she continued, claiming that the mainstream media focused on Israeli actions during the 2021 Gaza war, rather than Hamas’s firing of over 4,000 rockets.
“It’s something that needs to be addressed and called out, whether it’s a local American or international topic,” Tishby said.
Later in the show, Tishby weighed in on a discussion about US President Joe Biden’s age and how that might impact his chances for reelection, before arguing that the economy would be the main issue of the next presidential election.
“As a regular Joe, I am looking at gas prices and thinking to myself that this should be a problem Democrats should look into, as well as Republicans,” said Tishby, an Israeli-born former soap opera star turned TV producer who moved to Los Angeles and became an outspoken supporter of Israel on social media.
Itay Milner, the Israeli Consulate spokesman who prepped Tishby for the show, defended the appearance amid criticism on social media, tweeting, “Antisemitism is an important enough issue to raise in any panel, especially one with millions of viewers.”
He declined to respond to a query as to whether Tishby was aware of the discussion topics before she appeared on the Fox panel.
