Matthew Cassel, in his own words, is a “critic of Zionism” who “supports the Palestinian struggle against occupation.” This is how the multimedia journalist and documentary filmmaker, who comes from a Jewish-American background, introduces himself in an Al Jazeera documentary.
The film claims to examine “why so many American Jews defend Israeli policies regardless of the issue or cost,” but ultimately pushes accusations that Israel is guilty of ethnic cleansing and apartheid.
It also features rants from individuals like Mondoweiss editor Philip Weiss, who says, “What does it mean to be a Zionist today? Zionism is […] getting as much land with as few non-Jews on it as possible.”
Cassel has previously contributed to several well-known news organizations, including The New Yorker, NBC News, and the BBC. His work with Al Jazeera and VICE News earned him nominations for major journalism awards, including an Emmy.
But most recently, his byline has appeared in The New York Times, where, in just the past week, he’s produced four video packages centered on Israeli airstrikes against Hezbollah. One of these, titled “Shock and Uncertainty in Beirut After Nasrallah’s Death,” serves as little more than a platform for Hezbollah sympathizers to mourn their murderous leader, featuring statements like, “For me, Nasrallah is right after God.”
Meet filmmaker & journalist Matthew Cassel. In his own words, he “supports the Palestinian struggle against occupation” & is a “critic of Zionism.”
He’s also written for the antisemitic Electronic Intifada.
So why is @nytimes employing him to cover the Israel-Hezbollah war? pic.twitter.com/Hd01JvMRJN
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) October 1, 2024
In addition to vaguely claiming that Israeli strikes on Hezbollah are “killing many people”—though curiously managing to tally “more than 100 injured” with a bit more precision—Cassel’s foray through Hezbollah strongholds paints a very distinct picture of Israel’s precision strikes: IDF jets bombing Lebanese villages, with families fleeing in terror, children in tow.
Cassel’s anti-Israel leanings have also led him to contribute to none other than the extremist pro-terror outlet Electronic Intifada, co-founded and executive edited by Ali Abunimah, a BDS activist known for likening Israel to Nazi Germany.
Among his Electronic Intifada submissions are pieces in which he glorifies Hezbollah as “the most effective military resistance force against Israel to date” and offers a wildly revisionist take on the 2006 Lebanon War, claiming that “Israel was defeated after 34 days of all-out war on Lebanon.” A historically illiterate interpretation, to say the least.
Perhaps it’s no surprise, then, that Cassel conveniently omits his Electronic Intifada exclusives from the biography on his official website. One has to wonder—did he share that little detail with The New York Times?
So now, reporting on Israel’s conflict with an internationally proscribed terrorist group is a journalist who has not only legitimized Hezbollah as a “resistance movement,” but has also made his opposition to Israel’s existence as a Jewish state abundantly clear.
Such standards are, sadly, what we’ve come to expect from America’s so-called Newspaper of Record.
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Credit: Screenshot from Al Jazeera
