We’ve released a few episodes on Honestly for the anniversary of October 7. Today, we’re bringing you one more conversation with someone who has been breaking news on the ground every single day of this war: journalist Trey Yingst.
On the morning of October 7, Trey was in Israel’s south, reporting on the massacre as it unfolded. He saw bodies dragged into vehicles, mothers trying to save their children, and the bloodshed—unlike anything he had ever seen—in the communities and kibbutzim. He reported these stories live on Fox—in many instances while rockets rained down on him and his crew, who often didn’t have time to take shelter. He remembers those early hours and days as “a true horror movie.”
That was just the beginning of his reporting on the unfolding war, which has taken him into Gaza and more recently on an embed with Israeli troops into southern Lebanon. He tells these stories in his new book Black Saturday, which chronicles his reporting over the last year and the very real human stories of this war, both from the perspective of Israelis and Palestinian civilians in Gaza.
Trey is the chief foreign correspondent for Fox News. He has reported from the front lines in Ukraine, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, and since 2018, he’s been based in Israel. He says he tries to talk to everyone involved in the conflict, and he’s gone a long way toward doing so. He’s interviewed the leaders of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, and he’s sat down on the Israeli side with everyone from Benjamin Netanyahu to Yoav Gallant.
If you’re someone listening who holds stereotypes about what a Fox correspondent might sound like, Trey will surprise you. Trey has unconventional and strongly held views about the future of the region, about whether Hamas can ever be defeated, and about what should happen next in the war. Most of all, he has an unwavering commitment to a kind of old-school journalism that tells stories of human beings in times of war, whatever side of the border they fall on.
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Trey talks about an environment before the war where the Gazans had little and so could be easily radicalized. But the international community was sending hundreds of millions of dollars into Gaza. Hamas stole this money and used it for its perverse objectives.
So if Hamas is eliminated, the money being sent to Gaza should at last create a situation where the Gazans have more and won't be easily radicalized. Consequently, I'm confused about why he doesn't agree that eliminating Hamas as an entity that can assert itself violently within Gaza will lead to a peaceful coexistence.
I bought Trey's book, but one thing that bothered me about his perspective is what he asked himself after the 10/7 massacre about a possible confrontation with Hamas: "Would I have tried to reason with the gunmen before they killed me? Would I have tried to explain in Arabic that I was a journalist? Would they have murdered me anyway?"
These are extremely narcissistic questions to ask, and casts doubt on whether I can trust his perceptions of Hamas.
Why would terrorists who hunted down, gang raped, and shot a bunch of kids at a concert for peace take pity on Trey, just because he said he was a journalist? Why would "reason" stop terrorists who slaughtered whole families in their beds?
Why does Trey think he's so special that Hamas would spare him while mercilessly slaughtering so many innocent civilians?
His arrogance in even thinking that he - in his greatness - could reason with Hamas, and they would spare his life after having so gleefully and sadistically slaughtering so many innocents, makes me wonder if he is cozy with Hamas or Qatar. I no longer trust him.