Ignoring 11 Months of Hezbollah Attacks on Israel, Media Paints Israel as Aggressor

Ignoring 11 Months of Hezbollah Attacks on Israel, Media Paints Israel as Aggressor

Media fixates on Israel’s strikes against Hezbollah while disregarding or downplaying the terror group’s attacks on Israeli citizens.

By Chaim Lax, HonestReporting

On Monday, September 23, hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah escalated as the IDF struck hundreds of terror targets in southern Lebanon and Beirut. Meanwhile, the Iran-backed terror group launched volleys of rockets, missiles, and drones deep into northern and central Israel.

Israel’s strikes targeted Hezbollah’s terror infrastructure, marking the latest in a week-long effort to halt the group’s relentless bombardment of northern Israel since October 8. The operation aims to stop the barrage and enable tens of thousands of displaced Israelis to return home along the Lebanese border.

To minimize Lebanese civilian casualties, the IDF issued warnings through text messages, phone calls, and radio alerts, urging civilians to evacuate areas where Hezbollah hides its weapons.

Yet, despite the precision of Israel’s operations, multiple news outlets ran headlines framing the strikes as indiscriminate, casting Israel as the primary instigator of tensions along its northern border.

For example, The Washington Post’s headline described Israel’s precision strikes on Hezbollah’s terror infrastructure as “Hundreds of Israeli airstrikes pound Lebanon,” while its subheading placed equal blame on both Israel and Hezbollah for escalating the conflict. This framing conveniently ignored that Hezbollah initiated the violence by launching rockets at northern Israel on October 8.

Similarly, headlines by Voice of America and NBC News reported on Israeli strikes against Lebanon, giving the misleading impression that Israel was targeting the Lebanese state as a whole, rather than focusing on the terror organization that controls southern Lebanon.

Headlines from the Associated Press, Los Angeles Times, and Politico focused solely on Lebanese casualties, omitting the fact that these numbers included Hezbollah fighters. They also failed to mention that Israel’s strikes were aimed at Hezbollah’s weapon caches and personnel.

Anyone reading these headlines would be left with the false impression that Israel was conducting an indiscriminate bombing campaign against innocent Lebanese civilians, devoid of any clear tactical objective.

 

 

In another headline, the Associated Press accused Israel of “escalating” the conflict, conveniently ignoring Hezbollah’s months-long campaign of rocket attacks on northern Israel and the recent intensification of its strikes on Israeli civilian areas.

One of the most egregious headlines came from Sky News, which accused Israel of “provoking” Hezbollah into fully deploying its arsenal.

In the bizarre worldview of Sky News and its international affairs editor, Dominic Waghorn, Israel is painted as an irrational aggressor while Hezbollah is portrayed as a rational, restrained entity. Only by completely disregarding Hezbollah’s actions over the past 11 months could such a tone-deaf headline be justified.

It’s not just the headlines causing issues. CNN’s ongoing coverage of the escalating hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah has consistently pushed a narrative that Israel shows little concern for civilians caught in the crossfire. CNN has largely placed the blame for rising tensions on Israel, downplaying Hezbollah’s role in initiating the conflict 11 months ago and its relentless bombardment of northern Israel ever since.

By fixating on Israel’s strikes against Hezbollah positions while disregarding or downplaying the terror group’s central role in this conflict, the media not only undermines Israel’s legitimate acts of self-defense in the court of public opinion but also provides cover for Hezbollah to continue its aggression against the Jewish state.

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