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Sickening: Why Did Western Media Outlets Praise Hassan Nasrallah?
“Charismatic.” “Revered.” A grandfatherly figure?
According to many media outlets, Hezbollah’s former leader, Hassan Nasrallah, was all “live, laugh, and love.”
But let’s not get it twisted. Nasrallah was an evil terrorist with blood on his hands — and not just of Jews.
Major media outlets are describing Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah as “charismatic” and “shrewd,” even using smiling photos to soften his image. But Nasrallah’s real legacy? Deadly bombings, rocket attacks, and civilian deaths—including the U.S. Embassy bombing and the Buenos… pic.twitter.com/YH1tleNo5P
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) September 28, 2024
Despite his track record of killing Americans, Israelis, Lebanese (including the country’s former president), Sky News chose to memorialize the butcher of Syria’s Sunni population with a sweet, smiling picture of him:
Hey, @SkyNews, do you always use stock images of terrorist leaders that make them look like benign grandfatherly figures? Or is it only when they’ve been eliminated by Israel? pic.twitter.com/VFEhakqlkB
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) September 28, 2024
The same thing happened with the media’s coverage of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh’s assassination.
Some of the world’s most evil and oppressive figures are receiving moments of silence and fawning obituaries in commemoration of their lifetime achievements — and it’s being done by the biggest media outlets in the world.
Distortion of facts and truth is a common thread:
Hezbollah has been committing terrorist attacks against Americans and the west for decades. The “region” launched a genocidal war against Israel 12 months ago.
Fighting back doesn’t create a “region full of people who hate them.” The mere existence of Israel does. https://t.co/0R4Js4aBun
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) September 28, 2024
Needless to say, reactions across the social platform X (formerly Twitter) called out this complete distortion of the truth.
The Associated Press has since changed its headline, but not before it was exposed:
.@AP I’m sorry for your loss.
“Charismatic and shrewd…. an astute strategist… considered a pragmatist… idolized by his Lebanese Shiite followers… respected by millions across the Arab and Islamic world… ” https://t.co/bezopcUSTe
Maybe next time, speak to his victims. pic.twitter.com/qUb3EbRMri
— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) September 28, 2024
The Guardian did not hold back either. This tweet sums up how we all feel while reading this sentence:
Also the @guardian: “Adolf Hitler was a gifted painter, compelling public speaker and competent organizer.” pic.twitter.com/tcDrMF5HA3
— Arsen Ostrovsky (@Ostrov_A) September 28, 2024
This profile on Nasrallah by The New York Times, may as well be a love letter. Since its publication, words have been changed to appear vague, but are still rather favorable towards a killer:
He often referred to Israel as “the Zionist entity” and maintained that Jewish people who arrived from other countries over decades should return to their nations of origin, and said that Israel should be replaced by the state of Palestine, with equality for all residents.
The writer was caught portraying Nasrallah as a believer in coexistence for one state for Jews, Christians, and Muslims in “Palestine,” and framed as a responsible leader concerned with the needs of his people:
Are you kidding me, @nytimes? pic.twitter.com/XL08ksucoD
— Eitan Fischberger (@EFischberger) September 29, 2024
Unfortunately, the bizarre obituary did not stop there. It is filled with respectful descriptions of Nasrallah and his popularity amongst the suffering Shiite Lebanese population. Almost as if he was progressive:
He came across as less dour than most Shiite clerics, partly because of his roly-poly figure, a slight lisp and a propensity to crack jokes. He never pushed hard-line Islamic rules, like veils for women in the neighborhoods that Hezbollah controls. Analysts attributed that to his exposure in his youth to many of Lebanon’s 17 religious sects and his desire not to isolate Lebanese outside of Hezbollah’s religious Shiite base.
And publications like Le Monde came out with an obituary describing his features almost lovingly, and accentuating his “heroic” nature. It almost seems cool to be Israel’s biggest adversary, and the Middle East’s “object of fascination.”
With his black turban, reserved for descendants of the Prophet, thin glasses and thick salt-and-pepper beard, Hassan Nasrallah has been the face of Hezbollah for over three decades. At the head of this militia dedicated to armed struggle against Israel, which has become a state above the Lebanese state, the Shiite leader has held the fate of the country in his hands, in war and in peace.
But quite frankly, it’s embarrassing to read.
Nasrallah, an evil murderer, was granted obituaries he didn’t deserve. While he may have been seen as a heroic and revered figure by his followers, why should this matter when he has so much blood on his hands over the course of decades?
The author is a contributor to HonestReporting, a Jerusalem-based media watchdog with a focus on antisemitism and anti-Israel bias — where a version of this article first appeared.
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Iranian Media Claims Obtaining ‘Sensitive’ Israeli Intelligence Materials
FILE PHOTO: The atomic symbol and the Iranian flag are seen in this illustration, July 21, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
i24 News – Iranian and Iran-affiliated media claimed on Saturday that the Islamic Republic had obtained a trove of “strategic and sensitive” Israeli intelligence materials related to Israel’s nuclear facilities and defense plans.
“Iran’s intelligence apparatus has obtained a vast quantity of strategic and sensitive information and documents belonging to the Zionist regime,” Iran’s state broadcaster said, referring to Israel in the manner accepted in those Muslim or Arab states that don’t recognize its legitimacy. The statement was also relayed by the Lebanese site Al-Mayadeen, affiliated with the Iran-backed jihadists of Hezbollah.
The reports did not include any details on the documents or how Iran had obtained them.
The intelligence reportedly included “thousands of documents related to that regime’s nuclear plans and facilities,” it added.
According to the reports, “the data haul was extracted during a covert operation and included a vast volume of materials including documents, images, and videos.”
The report comes amid high tensions over Iran’s nuclear program, over which it is in talks with the US administration of President Donald Trump.
Iranian-Israeli tensions reached an all-time high since the October 7 massacre and the subsequent Gaza war, including Iranian rocket fire on Israel and Israeli aerial raids in Iran that devastated much of the regime’s air defenses.
Israel, which regards the prospect of the antisemitic mullah regime obtaining a nuclear weapon as an existential threat, has indicated it could resort to a military strike against Iran’s installations should talks fail to curb uranium enrichment.
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Israel Retrieves Body of Thai Hostage from Gaza
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz looks on, amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, in Jerusalem, Nov. 7, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
The Israeli military has retrieved the body of a Thai hostage who had been held in Gaza since Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack, Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Saturday.
Nattapong Pinta’s body was held by a Palestinian terrorist group called the Mujahedeen Brigades, and was recovered from the area of Rafah in southern Gaza, Katz said. His family in Thailand has been notified.
Pinta, an agricultural worker, was abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz, a small Israeli community near the Gaza border where a quarter of the population was killed or taken hostage during the Hamas attack that triggered the devastating war in Gaza.
Israel’s military said Pinta had been abducted alive and killed by his captors, who had also killed and taken to Gaza the bodies of two more Israeli-American hostages that were retrieved earlier this week.
There was no immediate comment from the Mujahedeen Brigades, who have previously denied killing their captives, or from Hamas. The Israeli military said the Brigades were still holding the body of another foreign national. Only 20 of the 55 remaining hostages are believed to still be alive.
The Mujahedeen Brigades also held and killed Israeli hostage Shiri Bibas and her two young sons, according to Israeli authorities. Their bodies were returned during a two-month ceasefire, which collapsed in March after the two sides could not agree on terms for extending it to a second phase.
Israel has since expanded its offensive across the Gaza Strip as US, Qatari and Egyptian-led efforts to secure another ceasefire have faltered.
US-BACKED AID GROUP HALTS DISTRIBUTIONS
The United Nations has warned that most of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is at risk of famine after an 11-week Israeli blockade of the enclave, with the rate of young children suffering from acute malnutrition nearly tripling.
Aid distribution was halted on Friday after the US-and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said overcrowding had made it unsafe to continue operations. It was unclear whether aid had resumed on Saturday.
The GHF began distributing food packages in Gaza at the end of May, overseeing a new model of aid distribution which the United Nations says is neither impartial nor neutral. It says it has provided around 9 million meals so far.
The Israeli military said on Saturday that 350 trucks of humanitarian aid belonging to U.N. and other international relief groups were transferred this week via the Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza.
The war erupted after Hamas-led terrorists took 251 hostages and killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, in the October 7, 2023 attack, Israel’s single deadliest day.
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US Mulls Giving Millions to Controversial Gaza Aid Foundation, Sources Say
Palestinians carry aid supplies which they received from the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in the central Gaza Strip, May 29, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ramadan Abed/File Photo
The State Department is weighing giving $500 million to the new foundation providing aid to war-shattered Gaza, according to two knowledgeable sources and two former US officials, a move that would involve the US more deeply in a controversial aid effort that has been beset by violence and chaos.
The sources and former US officials, all of whom requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, said that money for Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) would come from the US Agency for International Development (USAID), which is being folded into the US State Department.
The plan has met resistance from some US officials concerned with the deadly shootings of Palestinians near aid distribution sites and the competence of the GHF, the two sources said.
The GHF, which has been fiercely criticized by humanitarian organizations, including the United Nations, for an alleged lack of neutrality, began distributing aid last week amid warnings that most of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is at risk of famine after an 11-week Israeli aid blockade, which was lifted on May 19 when limited deliveries were allowed to resume.
The foundation has seen senior personnel quit and had to pause handouts twice this week after crowds overwhelmed its distribution hubs.
The State Department and GHF did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Reuters has been unable to establish who is currently funding the GHF operations, which began in Gaza last week. The GHF uses private US security and logistics companies to transport aid into Gaza for distribution at so-called secure distribution sites.
On Thursday, Reuters reported that a Chicago-based private equity firm, McNally Capital, has an “economic interest” in the for-profit US contractor overseeing the logistics and security of GHF’s aid distribution hubs in the enclave.
While US President Donald Trump’s administration and Israel say they don’t finance the GHF operation, both have been pressing the United Nations and international aid groups to work with it.
The US and Israel argue that aid distributed by a long-established U.N. aid network was diverted to Hamas. Hamas has denied that.
USAID has been all but dismantled. Some 80 percent of its programs have been canceled and its staff face termination as part of President Donald Trump’s drive to align US foreign policy with his “America First” agenda.
One source with knowledge of the matter and one former senior official said the proposal to give the $500 million to GHF has been championed by acting deputy USAID Administrator Ken Jackson, who has helped oversee the agency’s dismemberment.
The source said that Israel requested the funds to underwrite GHF’s operations for 180 days.
The Israeli government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The two sources said that some US officials have concerns with the plan because of the overcrowding that has affected the aid distribution hubs run by GHF’s contractor, and violence nearby.
Those officials also want well-established non-governmental organizations experienced in running aid operations in Gaza and elsewhere to be involved in the operation if the State Department approves the funds for GHF, a position that Israel likely will oppose, the sources said.
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