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Israel vs. Islamic Jihad: Top 5 Media Mess Ups

Operation Shield and Arrow has concluded with a ceasefire following over 1,400 rockets fired at Israel by Islamic Jihad in Gaza. It’s time to round up the worst examples of media coverage. 1. CNN’s Confused…

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Operation Shield and Arrow has concluded with a ceasefire following over 1,400 rockets fired at Israel by Islamic Jihad in Gaza. It’s time to round up the worst examples of media coverage.

1. CNN’s Confused Reporting

CNN repeatedly insisted the fighting erupted when the IDF took out Islamic Jihad infrastructure. This effectively erased Islamic Jihad’s responsibility for sparking the conflict when it launched 104 rockets at Israel in response to the death of one of its senior commanders, Khader Adnan, in an Israeli prison as a result of a hunger strike.

Other news outlets that persistently adopted a timeline designed to turn Israel into the aggressor included the Associated Press, AFP and The Guardian:

2. WaPo ‘Profiling’ Islamic Jihad

The Washington Post played it fast and loose with the truth in a piece that attempted to delve into the background of Islamic Jihad and explain why Israel is “targeting” the group.

HonestReporting was forced to call out the newspaper on a number of incorrect or misleading points in the article, including the nature of the blockade on Gaza and a failure to distinguish between combatants and civilians.

The most problematic of the WaPo’s profile, though, was its omission of the very ideological foundation upon which Islamic Jihad was formed: the total destruction of the Jewish state.

Like CNN, the publication also erroneously reported that the conflict “began” with the launch of Israel’s military operation and not the first attack by Islamic Jihad the week previously, despite the Washington Post actually covering the rocket fire at the time.

3. New York Times’ Terror PR

The NYT’s Raja Abdulrahim profiled Islamic Jihad, ignoring the group’s proscription as a terrorist organization by the US, UK, Canada, Australia, EU, and Japan in favor of describing them as simply an “armed group” and suggesting Islamic Jihad’s opposition to Israel is largely a territorial issue (see here for HonestReporting’s analysis of the piece).

Abdulrahim’s blatant distortion of the group’s motives was brought into sharp focus when the NYT published a rewritten version of the explainer that gave readers the unvarnished truth about Islamic Jihad: “It rejects Israel’s right to exist, as does its primary backer, Iran. The group’s goal is to establish an Islamic state in all the territory of historic Palestine, which includes modern Israel.”

4. Reuters Reports ‘Both Sides’

It should go without saying that Israel cannot be compared to Islamic Jihad considering the latter is a terrorist group that seeks to maim and murder civilians.

However, Reuters unwittingly suggested there is some kind of moral equivalence between the two when it said that some Israeli ministers oppose the formation of a Palestinian state.

5. Sky Strips Agency From Terrorists

Sky News decided to excise terrorists from one of its headlines about the conflict, instead writing as though the physical land mass that is the Gaza Strip had fired rockets at Israel, as opposed to actual people.

Reporting that “Gaza launche[d] more than 600 rockets” the outlet stripped all agency from the actual terrorists responsible, while also neglecting to inform readers that an Israeli civilian had been killed.

When They Get it Right…

Responsible news coverage of Operation Shield and Arrow needed to include certain facts. CBS News’ Robert Berger was spot on in his reporting, quickly and concisely giving viewers all the facts they needed: Islamic Jihad fired the first rockets, Israel’s response was mild, the IDF took time planning a precision raid to take out senior Islamic Jihad leaders.

Another conflict between Israel and Palestinian terrorist groups that are hellbent on destroying the Jewish state is nothing short of inevitable.

But the media’s slanted reportage need not be.

Liked this article? Follow HonestReporting on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok to see even more posts and videos debunking news bias and smears, as well as other content explaining what’s really going on in Israel and the region.

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Rachel O'Donoghue
Rachel O'Donoghue
Born in London, England, Rachel O'Donoghue moved to Israel in April 2021 after spending five years working at various national newspaper titles in the UK. She studied law at the University of Law, London, and gained a master's degree in multimedia journalism at the University of Kent.
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