Crickets from the ‘Cease-Fire Now’ Brigade

By Brittany Bernstein

Monday, October 13, 2025

 

Welcome back to Forgotten Fact Checks. This week, we look at the Left’s response — or lack thereof — to the Israel-Hamas cease-fire deal brokered by President Trump and cover more media misses.

 

Democrats Struggle with Trump’s Role in Achieving Progress Toward Peace in the Middle East

 

The first part of the Trump-brokered Israel-Hamas cease-fire deal was carried out on Monday, as Hamas released the remaining 20 living Israel hostages who were taken on October 7, 2023.

 

But despite the first real promise of peace in the Middle East after 737 days of war, those on the left who had previously advocated a cease-fire either ignored President Trump’s role in brokering it or stayed silent on the agreement altogether. (Israeli lawmakers, for their part, gave Trump a standing ovation on Monday.)

 

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D., N.Y.) both released statements that failed to mention Trump or his administration.

 

And in fact, one former Biden administration official actually took partial credit for the deal, leading to outcry from conservatives on social media.

 

“It’s good that President Trump adopted and built on the plan the Biden Administration developed,” said Biden’s secretary of state, Antony Blinken, as part of a twelve-post thread on X.

 

On CNN, host Abby Phillip pressed Democratic Representative Dan Goldman of New York to acknowledge that Trump was owed the credit for the peace deal between Israel and Hamas.

 

Phillip asked Goldman why achieving peace was “not doable when President Biden was in office.”

 

“I think the biggest problem that President Biden had is there was no pressure from Qatar, from Turkey, from Egypt. They were actually facilitating in many ways what was going on. And that is really ultimately how it all came together,” Goldman said.

 

“So I mean, but I think by saying that, it’s sort of an acknowledgment Trump has changed that dynamic. I mean, he’s clearly changed that,” Phillip replied.

 

“Yeah, no, I think that—, I don’t know how he—, and I think there’s a lot that remains to learn about what prompted that change, but I do agree. Yes, somehow, some way that changed,” Goldman said. “What also changed is that there was a humanitarian aid blockade under Trump’s administration, which Biden never allowed to happen, and that really set Israel back significantly.”

 

Meanwhile, left-wing celebrities who have spent months accusing Israel of committing a genocide in Gaza largely remained silent on the cease-fire agreement.

 

Pro-Israel actor and comedian Michael Rapaport called out several celebrities over their silence, including Mark Ruffalo, John Cusack, Lorde, Hannah Einbinder, and Javier Bardem.

 

“CEASEFIRE is NOW, where are these people?” Rapaport asked in a social media post. “The war in Gaza is ending. The so-called ‘genocide’ is over.”

 

“Because it was never about peace. It was about performance,” he added.

 

Einbinder, who wore an “Artists4Ceasefire” pin to the Emmys and then used her acceptance speech to say, “Free Palestine and f*** ICE,” did later share a post about the peace deal. “We are elated by the Gaza ceasefire news,” the post read, in small type. In a larger font, it adds, “Now the world must hold Israel to account for 2 years of genocide.” Bardem, for his part, later posted extensively about the deal on Instagram, including celebratory videos of the hostages’ release from Hamas captivity. He did, however, post clips questioning why the cease-fire was not reached sooner and suggesting the Trump peace plan is “another way of continuing the occupation” of Gaza.

 

The New York Post called attention to the silence from Hacks comedian Meg Stalter, who sported a black handbag with a large piece of tape with the word “Ceasefire” written on it at the Emmys, as well as Representative Rashida Talib and Swedish activist Greta Thunberg. Thunberg has remained focused on posting about her failed Gaza flotilla.

 

Former MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan, meanwhile, expressed reservations about the cease-fire.

 

“I said yesterday that my biggest fear was that Israel uses this deal to get back their remaining hostages and then restarts the bombing and genocide,” Hasan wrote in a post on X last week. “And here is the Israeli financial minister confirming that is exactly what he wants.” (The Israeli finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, actually said only that he felt “a tremendous responsibility” to strive for the “true eradication of Hamas and the genuine disarmament of Gaza.” It’s also worth noting that the finance minister is not the one calling the shots of the Israeli government.)

 

And while reasonable people celebrated the return of the hostages after two years, CNN chief international anchor Christiane Amanpour took the opportunity to suggest the hostages were “probably being treated better than the average Gazan” while in captivity.

 

But as National Review’s Kamden Mulder reported today, the hostages faced “brutal treatment”:

 

Hostages were often confined to underground tunnels, where they underwent physical abuse and psychological torture. There was little access to basic necessities, such as fresh air, water, or sunlight. There are reports of hostages, if even given medical treatment, undergoing procedures without anesthesia.

 

Starved, beaten, and at times forced to do backbreaking labor, hostages suffered greatly while held in captivity. One hostage who was released in the spring detailed a 120-square foot tunnel shaft that he and three other hostages were held in for more than 200 days. The hostages struggled to breathe because of the lack of oxygen.

 

Headline Fail of the Week

 

The Washington Post brings us another round of hard-hitting news: “He’s gay. She’s straight. They’re happily married.”

 

“A new crop of couples are making content about their mixed-orientation marriages, divorced from sexual attraction but not love,” the subheading explains.

 

One of the subjects of the story tells the outlet that his gay-straight marriage is actually “taking the sanctity of marriage to a whole new level.”

 

“He’s not bisexual. She’s not in denial. That hasn’t stopped them from being in a committed monogamous relationship for nearly 10 years,” the article observes.

 

Media Misses

 

• Former Daily Show host Trevor Noah recently joked about Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk’s assassination, while performing at a Saudi comedy festival. “The guy was shot while defending guns. Do you understand how — I’m not even writing that as a joke — as a human, you have to admit that is an incongruous funny thing that happens,” Noah argued. “You are there. You’re onstage, like, ‘Let me tell you why people should have guns.’ Wa-pow!” Kirk was answering a question about mass shootings involving transgender people when he was fatally shot.

 

• An MSNBC panel on Thursday was asked to consider whether California gubernatorial candidate Katie Porter is receiving backlash over her bullying behavior, which was caught on camera on two separate occasions, just because of a “double standard” against women in politics. In one clip, she berates a CBS reporter during an interview and in a second she shouts at a staffer to “get out of my f***ing shot” during a video interview from 2021.

 

“Look, it’s uncomfortable to watch, as was the first one,” MSNBC host Chris Jansing said about the clip. “But here’s my question: Would the reaction be different if the candidate was a man? Is there still a double standard for women in politics, or is this just bad?” Former Lincoln Project adviser Tara Setmayer said the clip was “bad all around” but that there was “absolutely” a double standard for women in politics.

 

“All you have to do is look at how Hillary Clinton was treated when she ran for president versus Donald Trump,” Setmayer said.

 

• Former CBS News anchor Dan Rather wrote on his Substack that Bari Weiss’s appointment as editor in chief of his former network marked a “dark day in the halls of CBS News.” Rather was also critical of the network’s coming under the control of Trump ally David Ellison.

 

“The American people will pay the price for this move, as will the journalists of CBS News who can no longer credibly serve as watchdogs because the ones they are meant to hold to account are signing their paychecks and hobnobbing with the president,” he wrote.