Rabbi Leo Dee rejects CNN apology: 'It’s not enough’
The rabbi is seeking real change to the media’s portrayal of Israel, after his wife and daughters were brutally murdered in a terror attack
The tragic story of the Dee family members murdered in a terrorist attack last month doesn’t seem to stop. Hours after Rabbi Leo Dee spoke with i24NEWS about his efforts to obtain a public apology from Christiane Amanpour for her coverage on CNN News of the attack, she made a short on-air statement.
The CNN host had initially written him a private letter to apologize for her phrasing when she referred to the terror attack as a "shootout." Dee responded by saying that the apology was “not worth the paper it’s printed on,” and demanded not just a public apology, but most importantly “that they [CNN] change their attitude towards Israel.”
“The fact that they said they were killed and not brutally murdered by evil Palestinian terrorists funded by Iran is the typical ‘CNN-ism,’ where they basically try and make this a comparison between the victim and the terrorists,” the bereaved father and husband told i24NEWS.
After a week of outcry, Amanpour apologized on-air in less than 30 seconds, saying: “On April 10, I referred to the murders of an Israeli family: Lucy, Maia, and Rina Dee, the wife and daughters of Rabbi Leo Dee.”
“I misspoke and said they were killed in a ‘shootout’ instead of a shooting. I have written to Rabbi Leo Dee to apologize and make sure that he knows that we apologize for any further pain that may have caused him.”
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Previously, the rabbi had said he wanted to ask the terrorists, and later their families, “What did they expect to achieve with this attack? And what is their vision of a better humanity and a better world?”
In his latest interview with i24NEWS, Rabbi Dee stated that was exactly what he wanted from CNN too, that they change their portrayal of Israel and the “moral equivalence” presented between terror victims and the terrorists.
As a response to Amanpour's apology, Dee commented: "They continue to tell anti-truths about Israel," and added that he is consulting with legal experts about pursuing a case against the U.S. network.
The outspoken rabbi-turned-advocate recently confirmed that he was offered a role as a special envoy by Israel's Foreign Minister Eli Cohen after he was invited to recite the traditional mourner's prayer at the state ceremony for Independence Day.
“I heard his eulogy for his wife, and you could not help but be moved by it,” Cohen remarked, particularly highlighting Dee's plea for unity.