A shaky ceasefire brokered on Saturday night put a stop to days of intense cross-border fighting between the Israel Defense Forces and Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip, restoring relative calm after the Iran-backed terrorist organization launched over 1,400 rockets at Israeli territory, with some missiles reaching as far as the Tel Aviv and Jerusalem areas.
Here’s how the press covered the days leading up to and immediately following the truce. Spoiler alert: Once again, they found a way to make Israel out to be the aggressor.
Related Reading:
Getting the Timeline Wrong to Turn Israel Into the Aggressor
In our initial May 11 roundup, we called out The New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Voice of America and other publications for failing to provide readers with crucial context and background information. However, as Islamic Jihad expanded its firing range to the suburbs of Jerusalem over the weekend, the global media assault against Israel also expanded.
For instance, several prominent outlets, including CNN, Reuters, and Agence France-Presse, in their recap articles asserted that the conflict started on May 9 when the IDF announced Operation Shield and Arrow and neutralized three Islamic Jihad commanders, as well as some of their infrastructure, in defensive airstrikes across the Gaza Strip.
“The latest flare-up began on Tuesday, with the IDF launching strikes on Islamic Jihad, a Palestinian militant group it accuses [sic] of planning attacks against Israel,” CNN wrote on Sunday, in editorial copy that echoed similar accusations by the two wire services.
Yet these pieces omitted altogether that Islamic Jihad had already fired 104 projectiles the week before, following the death of one of its imprisoned senior leaders, Khader Adnan, as a result of a protracted hunger strike that saw him refuse medical treatment. Three people were wounded in Israel from the rocket fire prompting the IDF response.
Seriously, @CNN?
🔴This didn't begin on Tuesday with Israeli strikes.
🔴Islamic Jihad wasn't targeted for allegedly "planning attacks"; the terror org had fired 104 rockets at Israeli civilians in the previous week.
🔴Stop making Israel the aggressor & terrorists into victims. https://t.co/XnZkbuZL7Y pic.twitter.com/3gWZK5c9pl— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) May 15, 2023
Left: @AP (albeit too briefly) mentions the previous week's Islamic Jihad rockets that sparked the latest conflict.
Right: @Reuters simply claims it all began with Israeli air strikes.
🛑Reuters, stop blaming Israel by erasing Islamic Jihad's role in initiating the violence. pic.twitter.com/GlADz27seX
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) May 15, 2023
A Faulty Casualty Count
Fox News likewise disregarded Islamic Jihad’s May 2 war crimes against Israeli civilians, simultaneously promoting the factually inaccurate claim that “Israeli forces killed 33 Palestinians last week in five days of fighting that followed Israel’s killing of three top members of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group.”
In actuality, 28 Gazans are confirmed to have died in Israeli airstrikes. Among other terror operatives, the IAF took out Jihad Ghanem, a key official in Islamic Jihad’s military council, Ali Ghali, commander of the group’s rocket launching force, and Jahed Ahnam, who coordinated weapons and money transfers with Hamas. The latter earned infamy for masterminding the 2004 murder of Tali Hatuel, her unborn baby, and four daughters.
Meanwhile, four more Palestinian were likely killed when Palestinian rockets, fired from densely populated civilian neighborhoods, fell short inside the Gaza Strip. A fifth casualty, 4-year-old Tamim Daoud, reportedly suffered a heart attack caused by the stress of living through yet another Islamic Jihad-initiated military conflict.
No, @FoxNews, Israel did not kill 33 Palestinians.
4 of those were likely killed by Palestinian rockets that fell short inside Gaza, while a fifth casualty reportedly suffered a heart attack caused by the stress of the conflict.
Please correct the error. https://t.co/WQjFQiVH9S pic.twitter.com/24v2IbW7Q1
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) May 15, 2023
Related Reading:
Israel Ceases, The Palestinians Fire
The terms for the ceasefire with Islamic Jihad were clear: quiet would be answered with quiet. Nevertheless, within 90 minutes after the deal was reached late Saturday, Israelis again scrambled for shelter as Islamic Jihad fired several volleys of rockets into the Jewish state. Then, on Sunday night, a projectile from Gaza hit an open area near Ashkelon. But some journalists shockingly equated Israel’s restrained response with the Palestinian’s blatant breach of the ceasefire understanding.
In the most glaring example, BBC anchor Rachel Burden told viewers of the broadcaster’s Breakfast show on Sunday that “a ceasefire between Israel and Islamic Jihad militants in the Gaza Strip appears to be holding despite reports of minor breaches on both sides.” [Emphasis added]
HonestReporting’s followers on social media furthermore pointed out that the British public broadcaster seemingly attempted to mislead viewers by showing B-roll video of an Iron Dome interceptor missile being fired, directly followed by footage of a missile impact in Gaza. To be clear: Iron Dome is an air defense system, and its Tamir interceptor missiles are solely used to save lives by intercepting rockets before they can cause mass casualty events.
.@BBCBreakfast, Israel's terms for the ceasefire with Islamic Jihad were pretty clear: quiet would be answered with quiet.
Yet 90 minutes into the ceasefire, the terror group continued to fire rockets at Israeli cities.
So how did Israel breach the ceasefire, @rachelburden? pic.twitter.com/teVhlwGLx7
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) May 15, 2023
An Appalling Moral Equivalence
HonestReporting called out both The New York Times and Washington Post for whitewashing the reality of Islamic Jihad’s extremism.
While Reuters at least did acknowledge the terror organization’s desire to destroy Israel, it created a moral equivalence between Islamic Jihad and some members of the Israeli government.
Whatever you might think about Israel's government, there is no moral equivalence between the policies of some of its ministers and the Islamic Jihad terrorist organization.
Why is @Reuters conflating the two?https://t.co/yEcQLzJbxE pic.twitter.com/1e4piNZTW6
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) May 14, 2023
When will the media forgive Israel for defending its citizens against unrelenting attacks by Iranian terror proxies?
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Featured Image: Flash 90 / Atia Mohammed / Liron Moldovan / Yossi Aloni
