November 2023: An Israeli soldier helps to provide incubators to Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza. Photo: Screenshot

While the world is mostly focused on Iran, it’s important to remember the war in Gaza continues. On Sunday, Israeli security forces recovered the bodies of three more hostages — 71-year-old Ofra Keidar, 21-year-old Yonatan Samerano, and 19-year-old Staff Sergeant Shay Levinson. They had been murdered and their bodies held hostage since October 7, 2023 — the day Hamas, Iran’s proxy, launched its war on Israel.

For 625 days, their remains were held as trophies to be traded in a grotesque negotiation tactic. Many struggle to grasp the depravity of using corpses as bargaining chips. But this failure to understand the nature of Israel’s enemies has led to Israel being vilified, even as it defends itself against those sworn to its destruction.

The global narrative shifted with shocking speed away from the atrocities of October 7, 2023, to a focus on what Israel would do in response to the darkest day in its history.

The massacre of 1,200 people and abduction of over 250 became a footnote, while the suffering of Gazan civilians — a significant number of whom either took part in or celebrated the massacre — became the world’s main concern.

Israel found itself fighting not just a regional war on seven fronts, but also an information war in which not a single bullet was fired, yet the potential damage was even greater.

From the outset, as always with wars involving Israel, the first casualty was truth.

On October 17, 2023, headlines screamed of an Israeli airstrike on Gaza’s al-Ahli Baptist Hospital, supposedly killing more than 500 people. The claim came from Hamas’ health ministry, within minutes of the explosion at the site.

This Hamas-produced story was instantly broadcast by media giants like The New York Times and the BBC.

But no one asked how 500 deaths could possibly be confirmed that quickly amidst the chaos of war. It later emerged that the explosion was caused by a misfired Palestinian Islamic Jihad rocket that hit the hospital carpark, killing dozens, not hundreds. The media outlets issued corrections, but the lie had already circled the globe.

Nevertheless, that single incident set the tone for what would follow: a readiness to accept at face value the claims of a terror group that just days earlier raped, mutilated, and burned Israeli families alive.

On November 15, 2023, a BBC anchor falsely claimed that Israel was targeting medical teams and Arabic speakers in Gaza. The BBC later apologized — but once again, the damage was done.

In March 2024, Al Jazeera aired a video in which a woman accused the IDF of raping and murdering women at Shifa Hospital. She later admitted she had lied. The video was quietly deleted — but only after the lie went global.

In May of this year, Tom Fletcher, the UN’s chief aid officer, claimed 14,000 babies would be dead within 48 hours without aid. He later admitted it was false, saying that he should have been more “precise” with his language. He later claimed 10,000 aid trucks were waiting to be allowed into Gaza — another lie in which he was not “precise” with his language. Perhaps choosing truth over deception might help him to be more “precise.”

These weren’t innocent mistakes. They were reckless or deliberate lies designed to shape the narrative. Israel stands falsely accused of genocide, of deliberately targeting civilians, of starving Gaza — despite facilitating more than 1.7 million tons of aid since the war began.

Some media commentators have now berated Israel for not providing the exact civilian casualty count, as if any army could do so in an active warzone where terrorists deliberately hide behind civilians, in homes, schools, and hospitals. The British and American armies certainly couldn’t when they operated in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Recently, as the new Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) began operating — bypassing Hamas and corrupt UN aid channels — Israel was accused of firing on hungry Gazans. In fact, video showed Hamas operatives shooting at civilians trying to reach food, resulting in clashes with rival local Palestinian gunmen. A recently released IDF recorded conversation with a Gazan civilian verifies this.

These are just some examples of many, but the problem is when false stories spread — be it fabricated massacres, manipulated death tolls, or bogus claims of Israel targeting civilians — they embed themselves in public consciousness. Retractions, if they come at all, are too little, too late. The lie has already done its job. The truth becomes irrelevant.

No one denies that Israel, like any country, can and does make mistakes during war, as do some soldiers. Yet to refuse to preference the integrity of a democracy fighting for its existence over the savagery and deceptions of a genocidal death cult fighting to destroy that democracy is both foolish and shameful.

Fake news is not a joke — it has real consequences, and as we have seen in Washington D.C., and in Boulder, Colorado, people are dying because of it.

Ofra, Yonatan and Shay, after a period of unbearable pain for their families, will finally be buried in Israel. But what we cannot bury is truth. Because without it, this war — and its lies — will never end.

Justin Amler is a policy analyst at the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC).

The post The War in Gaza Continues: Food, Lies, and Video Tapes first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

An image showing some of the damages sustained by Colel Chabad’s daycare center in Be’er Sheva as a result of an Iranian missile strike on June 20, 2025. Photo: Colel Chabad/Chabad.org.

President Trump is calling it the 12-Day War, a nod to Israel’s lightning Six-Day War of 1967, but adjusted for inflation, as one netizen quipped Tuesday morning, shortly after the ceasefire was first triumphantly announced by Trump on social media.

As is often the case with ceasefires in this region, there was immediate confusion about whether one had actually begun. This one was scheduled to take effect at 7:00 a.m. Israel time (midnight ET) — but in the hours leading up to it, the Iranian regime launched several missile barrages at Israeli cities, including one that struck an apartment block in Beersheba, killing at least four and injuring more than 20.

Then, just minutes after the 7 a.m. ceasefire deadline, as sirens were expected to fall silent, they wailed again. More missiles. More shelters. More destruction. Iran had apparently violated the ceasefire it had just agreed to.

Israel did what it always does when a ceasefire is violated: it struck back. This, it seems, is the part the media never quite understands.

Because also par for the course — almost as predictable as a missile barrage — is the media’s Pavlovian instinct to accuse Israel of breaking the ceasefire.

Take Sky News, for example. The outlet appeared to cast doubt on Israel’s account, implying that the regime’s post-ceasefire launch was either fabricated or exaggerated, perhaps just a convenient excuse for another strike.

The Islamic Republic breaks the ceasefire by launching a missile at Israel’s north.@SkyNews treats the violation as an Israeli “accusation” while implying Israel’s response is the cause of the ceasefire breakdown.

Typical Sky News: blame Israel for everything. pic.twitter.com/osNQo4bRsD

— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) June 24, 2025

NPR opted for a more classic dodge: pretend it didn’t happen. According to their reporting, both sides had simply “exchanged attacks up to the final moments.” No mention of the firing after the last minute by Iran.

The BBC, which has an entire team based in Israel yet somehow still can’t confirm when missiles land, went with a headline that read: “Israel defense minister accuses Iran of violating ceasefire and orders ‘powerful strikes’ on Tehran.”

One might think that if your correspondents are physically present in a country under attack, they’d be able to confirm whether a missile had, say, audibly screamed through the air and slammed into a residential building. Apparently not.

Perhaps the BBC’s Verify team needs a bit more time to trawl social media before they can be absolutely sure.

Meanwhile, The Telegraph, reporting on Iran’s pre-ceasefire barrage, appeared to offer a tacit justification for the targeting of the city. Beersheba, according to Global Health Security Editor Paul Nuki, has a “heavy military presence.” This, in reference to a civilian city of 210,000 people.

APPALLING: At least 4 Israelis have been murdered in an Iranian missile strike in Beersheba.

They were civilians. They lived in a civilian neighborhood. The city is a civilian target.

So no, @PaulNuki, @Telegraph, there is not a “heavy military presence living in the area.” pic.twitter.com/SZTbvoNNQB

— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) June 24, 2025

Israel responded to a blatant ceasefire violation. It has since held its fire. Whether the ceasefire holds is anyone’s guess. But if it breaks again, we already know who’ll be blamed, facts be damned.

And if it holds? Brace yourself for a week of op-eds agonizing over Israel’s decision to target military sites in Iran, plus the usual handwringing over how terribly unfair it is that Israel maintains a nuclear deterrent while Iran is somehow expected not to build an arsenal of its own to obliterate the world’s only Jewish state.

In fact, we’ve already had a preview. The BBC is fretting about “essential infrastructure” destroyed (code for nuclear facilities).

The Independent, meanwhile, laments that Israel’s suspected nuclear weapons continue to get a “free pass,” as though Jerusalem routinely threatens to wipe countries off the map, rather than defend itself from those that do.

This is what @BBCNews calls analysis?

Israel did not “bombard” or target the Iranian population; it warned them to evacuate in advance.

And the “essential infrastructure?” That’s the regime’s nuclear facilities & the assets it uses to threaten its neighbors & its own people. pic.twitter.com/mb8y47Xxc8

— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) June 24, 2025

The 12-Day War might be over. But for the media, the real battle has only just begun; how to frame Iran as the aggrieved party without quite saying it outright.

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.

The post Iranian Missiles Break 7am Ceasefire, and Media Mystified Why Israel Fired Back first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

Candidate Zohran Mamdani speaks during a Democratic New York City mayoral primary debate, June 4, 2025, in New York, US. Photo: Yuki Iwamura/Pool via REUTERS

Columbia University’s flagship newspaper, The Columbia Daily Spectator, has endorsed a far-left New York City mayoral candidate who has been accused of antisemitism and made anti-Israel activism a cornerstone of his political career.

The Spectator’s editorial board issued the endorsement of Zohran Mamdani, a representative in the New York State Assembly, in a rare moment of summer activity, as most of the university’s student body is on holiday. It comes as the university’s leadership is reportedly taking steps to deal with a surge of campus antisemitism that captured national attention and led the Trump administration to pull federal funding over the school’s alleged failure to combat the crisis.

“Our endorsements reflect the consensus opinion of the editorial board, but we recognize that voters may weigh these issues differently,” the paper said on Tuesday. “As Spectator‘s editorial board, we endorse Zohran Mamdani as our top choice for New York City Mayor. Currently ranked second in most polls, the New York State Assembly member and his campaign have resonated with New Yorkers who have been repeatedly disappointed by the current administration.”

It added, “The Democratic Socialist has grounded his campaign in bread-and-butter issues such as universal child care, free public transportation, and affordable housing, echoing Sen. Bernie Sanders’ brand of economic populism.”

The paper’s choice of Mamdani prompted a slew of responses on social media. A native of Uganda born to parents from India, one of whom is an Oscar nominated filmmaker, Mamdani has refused to recognize the Jewish state of Israel, advocated adoption of the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel, and suggested that New York City — home to the world’s largest Jewish community outside of Israel — will divest from the country if he is elected.

Earlier this month, he refused to distance himself from the phrase “globalize the intifada,” a slogan that is believed to have inspired a wave of anti-Jewish violence which culminated in the murder of two young Israeli diplomats outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, DC in May. The Democratic mayoral candidate went as far as comparing the phrase to the motivations behind the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, prompting a rebuke from the US Holocaust Memorial Museum.

“I think what’s difficult is that the very word has been used by the Holocaust Museum when translating the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising into Arabic, because it’s a word that means struggle,” Mamdani said on the Bulwark podcast. “And as a Muslim man who grew up post-9/11, I’m too familiar in the way in which Arabic words can be twisted, can be distorted, can be used to justify any kind of meaning.”

The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was an effort by Jews in Nazi-occupied Poland to fight back as they were set to be deported to concentration camps and killed during the Holocaust. In contrast, the slogan “globalize the intifada” references previous periods of sustained Palestinian terrorism against Jews and Israels known as intifadas, or uprisings.

On another occasion, years before he emerged as a candidate for mayor, Mamdani appeared to threaten that a “third intifada” was forthcoming.

Following the Spectator’s declaration of support for his campaign, Columbia University professor Shai Davidai charged that the paper had violated laws which prevent nonprofit entities, such as the Spectator, from entering the fray of electoral politics.

“The Columbia Spectator has just breached its non-profit status by endorsing a political candidate,” Davidai said. “Please join me in filing a formal complaint with the IRS against the Spectator Publishing Company. It’s time to make our colleges a partisan-free space for education.”

Elisha Baker, who studies Middle East History at Columbia University, said in a statement shared with The Algemeiner and other outlets that the Spectator is essentially throwing its support behind a surge of antisemitic violence called for by anti-Zionists of Mamdani’s mold.

“Zohran Mamdani is a threat to Jews in NYC and Americans everywhere. He marches with the antisemitic and anti-American mob,” Baker said. “A vote for Mamdani is a vote for antisemitism and continued pro-terror chaos on our streets. Especially since the tragic attacks in DC and Boulder, a vote for Mamdani is nothing short of a vote for Jews to stay inside.”

New York City will ultimately determine the merit of the case against the mayoral candidate, who would be the favorite to win the November general election if he prevails over his Democratic opponents, including former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, during Tuesday’s primary.

During the campaign, Cuomo criticized Mamdani’s links to the anti-Zionist movement.

“Yesterday when Zohran Mamdani was asked a direct question about what he thought of the phrase ‘globalize the intifada,’ he dismissed it as ‘language’ ‘that is subject to interpretation,’ Cuomo said in a statement earlier this month. “That is not only wrong – it is dangerous. At a time when we are seeing antisemitism on the rise and in fact witnessing once again violence against Jews resulting in their deaths in Washington DC or their burning in Denver – we know all too well that words matter. They fuel hate. They fuel murder. As the US Holocaust Museum so aptly said, all leaders or those running for office must condemn the use of this battle cry. There are no two sides here.”

Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.

The post Columbia University Newspaper Endorses Mamdani for New York City Mayor first appeared on Algemeiner.com.