Incomplete Data Creates Bias
Jo Meszaros asked Chat GPT if foreign governments routinely kill American citizens. The answer Meszaros shared with us in the Valley News is that 10 Americans have been killed and 9 have been at the hands of Israel.
I also asked AI if other governments routinely kill Americans. I found several examples that Jo Meszaros didn’t mention. The list was long so I will only enumerate a few of the other examples. This is not a complete list. I am merely offering some balance to the situations Meszaros highlighted.
• October 2015: Iran-backed Hamas terrorists killed an American citizen and his wife in a drive-by shooting in the West Bank.(1)
• November 2022: An IRGC captain orchestrated the killing of an American citizen in Baghdad. (2)
• October 2023: Iran-backed Hamas terrorists killed 46 Americans and kidnapped at least 12 Americans in the October 7th massacre. (3)
Please note that Hamas has been the recognized de facto government in Gaza since 2007.
I also asked AI to give me an analysis of the number of civilian foreign nationals who have been killed by US government agencies and military while they were in the United States. The answer: 371 people have died as a result of encounters with US Customs and Border Protection between 2010 and 2026
• 76 were due to direct use of force
• 126 from vehicle collisions
• 108 from inadequate medical attention.
Singling out Israel and holding them to a higher standard than you hold other governments to is antisemitism. Why do you consider the 9 Americans killed by Israel more significant than the 371 foreigners killed by the United States or the 46 Americans killed by Hamas on a single day, October 7, 2023? While Meszaros honors the nine Americans killed by Israel in the last 26 years by naming them, the Valley News doesn’t allow enough space on this page for me to list the names of the 419 people referenced above.
It’s time to stop singling out Israel.