We may never know why they protested outside that ((hospital))

Expressing your outrage over Israeli government policies by (checks notes) targeting buildings with Jewish-sounding names.

After someone opened fire during a service at Joel Osteen’s megachurch in Houston - and this time actually was taken out by “good guys with guns,” thank God - the internet had a field day with this headline:

I am second to none in my contempt for mealy-mouthed media coverage when a sacred narrative comes under potential threat, but I have to defend ABC News on this one.

The shooter’s gun may indeed have been emblazoned with the word “Palestine,” and the Israel-Hamas conflict - or outright hatred of Jews - may indeed have inspired the attempted rampage. (ABC appears to have updated the story, including that headline, to acknowledge as such.)

But people do crazy things for all kinds of reasons, and just because they’re passionate about one highly charged issues doesn’t necessarily mean that belief is what prodded them into a violent crime. On far too many occasions I’ve jumped to conclusions about a seemingly “obvious” news story, only to be forced into a humiliating retreat when more facts emerge.

And I’m just some rando on the internet. A professional news organization has to be even more cautious.

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To that end, I guess it’s possible there are reasons other than blatant antisemitism - sorry, anti-Zionismᵀᴹ - which led to these appalling scenes in Canada’s largest city:

Mount Sinai hospital was literally founded as a refuge for Jewish doctors and patients who experienced discrimination at other health care facilities in the city. Thankfully, those days are long gone.

Or so we thought.