Headline Abuse Continues as Israel Portrayed as Aggressor

The Palestinian wave of terror is misrepresented in biased media headlines as Israeli aggression towards Palestinians.

By Simon Plosker October 18, 2015

The horrible headlines continue to flood the media. Despite Israelis coming under attack from a wave of Palestinian terror, for many media outlets the story is all about Palestinian “victims” of Israel.

Here are some of the latest examples of headline bias that we’ve seen.

MORAL AMBIGUITY

This CNN headline displays a shocking moral equivalency between the two sides:

 

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NPR also manages to reduce the situation to a simple conflict where attacks and deaths take place between two morally equivalent sides:

 

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ISRAEL AS THE AGGRESSORS

You wouldn’t know from these headlines that it’s the Palestinians initiating the violence.

It’s all about Israelis killing Palestinians.

Take this headline from the Daily Telegraph:

 

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The Irish Independent republished the Telegraph’s story but gave the article it’s own appalling headline:

 

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Are Israeli forces behaving like death squads, wandering the streets gunning down Palestinians at random? Could the Irish Independent have come up with a more inappropriate headline?

It’s just as simple for USA Today where Israelis are simply killing Palestinians:

 

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For Sky News, those Palestinians are being shot dead in “alleged” knife attacks:

 

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All of the above are contributing to a prevailing narrative that portrays Israel as the aggressors despite the violence being initiated by Palestinians.

 

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© Divuach Ne’eman R”A, 2025

Simon Plosker

Simon Plosker

With over two decades of experience in various non-governmental organizations in the UK and Israel, Simon Plosker returned to HonestReporting in October 2022 as Editorial Director having previously been part of the organization’s management team from 2005 to 2020.

Prior to his first spell at HonestReporting, Simon worked in Israel for NGO Monitor, BICOM, and served for a short period in the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit. He was Managing Editor of the Geneva-based NGO United Nations Watch for two years before moving back to the frontline defending Israel from media bias.

Simon has a BSoc.Sc in International Studies and Political Science from the University of Birmingham and an MSc in History of International Relations from the London School of Economics. He immigrated to Israel in 2001 from London.

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