RSS
Big Surprise: The Media Uses Its Platform to Side with Iran’s Terrorist Regime Over Israel
Firefighters work at the scene of a damaged building in the aftermath of Israeli strikes, in Tehran, Iran, June 13, 2025. Photo: Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
Below is a troubling timetable of how the media reported the first few days of the war between Israel and Iran:
Thursday, June 12 – Friday, June 13: A Multi-Pronged Assault to Cripple Iran’s Nuclear Program
In the early hours of Friday, June 13, Israel launched Operation Rising Lion, a sweeping, coordinated offensive against Iran’s nuclear infrastructure and the officials overseeing it.
The operation marked a decisive move against the Islamic Republic’s military capabilities, unfolding as a bold, surgical campaign whose execution appears to have been years in the making, with final preparations reportedly completed during the past eight months.
The IDF, Mossad, and Israel’s defense industries collaborated on a meticulously synchronized, three-pronged assault deep inside Iranian territory.
In the hours before the strike, the global media fixated on rising tensions following a damning report from the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), confirming Iran’s violation of key non-proliferation obligations. In defiance, Tehran responded not with restraint, but with escalation, announcing a new uranium enrichment facility and the activation of advanced centrifuges designed to accelerate weapons-grade production.
Despite Israel’s patience and precautions and Iran’s brazenness, much of the international media framed Israel’s actions as destabilizing.
Media Briefings, Misdirection, and a Green Light
The media’s false judgment of Israel relied on reports that President Donald Trump had urged Israeli restraint in the days leading up to the assault, preferring renewed nuclear diplomacy.
CNN reported that Trump had warned Prime Minister Netanyahu to “stop Iran threats,” claiming the US was “ramping up pressure” on Israel to hold off on any military action.
The New York Times echoed this, framing Israel as “ready to attack Iran” in a move that could, they claimed, “further inflame” the region and derail US diplomacy.
The Washington Post ran with the headline “Fears of an Israeli Strike on Iran,” citing unnamed US intelligence officials who were “increasingly concerned” that Israel would act “without the consent of the United States,” a move they claimed would doom diplomatic efforts and provoke Iranian retaliation against US assets in the region.
Oddly, those same outlets also reported Iranian threats, including a warning by Defense Minister Aziz Nasirzadeh that it could strike US bases if talks collapsed — yet these were treated with far less alarm.
What none of the reporting made clear at the time, but has since been confirmed, is that these supposed leaks and briefings about US reluctance were part of a coordinated misdirection campaign designed to mislead Tehran.
In an interview with Reuters on Friday, President Trump pulled back the curtain: “We knew everything,” he said, calling the Israeli strikes “excellent” and “very successful.” Israeli officials confirmed the US had been briefed in advance and had given quiet approval, though it withheld direct military support.
Friday, June 13: Media Cries “Rogue Israel” Before Iran Responds by Targeting Civilians
Despite the confirmation from Trump, much of the media clung to the narrative of a defiant, unilateral Israel.
CNN’s Kevin Liptak, for example, published an analysis claiming Israel had “ignored direct warnings” from Trump and acted without US involvement, describing the strikes as “against the president’s publicly stated wishes.” The irony, of course, is that these “publicly stated wishes” were never meant to reflect the truth — they were part of the ruse. Liptak, like many others, appeared to mistake strategic misdirection for a diplomatic breakdown.
The Conversation published a breathless analysis accusing Israel of “defying Trump” and “risking a major war.” One is left to wonder: what exactly does The Conversation consider a risk? Iran stockpiling enriched uranium, threatening regional annihilation, and publicly vowing to strike Israel apparently doesn’t meet their threshold. Only Israel’s preemptive attempt to stop it does.
Bloomberg took a similar line, claiming Israel had “expressly disregarded the wishes of Trump” — even as Trump himself, just hours later, confirmed US foreknowledge and praised the mission’s success.
At approximately 9:00 p.m. Friday, Iran responded, not with a measured military reply, but with indiscriminate missile barrages targeting civilian centers.
And yet, media coverage remained locked on the same refrain: that Israel was the destabilizing party, even as missiles rained down on apartment buildings, while the regime responsible for launching them was portrayed as merely the victim of someone else’s war.
Saturday, June 14 – Sunday, June 15: Israel Continues, and Iranian Missiles Kill More Civilians
Operation Rising Lion continued through Saturday, with US officials reportedly assessing the strike on Iran’s Natanz nuclear facility as “extremely effective.” On June 14, Israel expanded its campaign, targeting weapons sites and critical energy infrastructure, aiming to degrade Iran’s ability to fund, fuel, and sustain its nuclear and military operations.
Once again, the Iranian regime responded not with military countermeasures, but with another wave of indiscriminate missile attacks on Israeli population centers — Bat Yam, Rishon Lezion, and Haifa.
And yet, this simple fact — this fundamental asymmetry — has been ignored, downplayed, or erased by many in the global media.
This is not a war between two belligerent nations targeting one another’s cities. It is a preemptive strike by a democracy against the world’s most prolific state sponsor of terrorism, and the inevitable response from that regime: the mass targeting of Israeli civilians, just as it has always promised to do.
The New York Times, which has devoted entire front pages to Gazan casualty figures, often sourced solely from Hamas, could not find space for a single headline acknowledging Israeli deaths. Not one. An entire homepage dedicated to the war, and no room for Israeli victims.
10 Israelis are dead. 200 are injured.
But you won’t see that in any @nytimes headlines today.
Because Israeli casualties evidently don’t count for The New York Times. pic.twitter.com/56jpVqwhAz
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) June 15, 2025
The Washington Post, The Guardian, and wire services like AFP have leaned heavily on the language of equivalency — describing “trading strikes,” “tit-for-tat attacks,” and an “exchange of missiles.”
What they omit is that one side (Israel) is striking military targets. The other (Iran) is deliberately targeting children in their homes.
This is not two sides “trading strikes.”
While Israel targets the Iranian regime, the Islamic Republic fires its missiles at Israeli civilians.
Enough with the moral equivalence, @washingtonpost. pic.twitter.com/cUxjPJP8ZX
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) June 15, 2025
The Guardian even speculated that Israel might expand its operations “beyond” the nuclear program, ignoring that Israel has been transparent about its objectives and precise in how it has carried them out.
Newsweek accused Israel of “escalating” the conflict for conducting precision strikes on underground nuclear facilities and weapons depots — but didn’t say anything about Iran, which launched ballistic missiles at apartment buildings.
The Context Matters
Yes, Israel struck first –but this was a preemptive strike against a regime that has made no secret of its ambition to destroy the Jewish State.
Just two days before Israel acted, the United Nations confirmed Iran was violating its nuclear obligations and moving closer to weapons-grade enrichment. Tehran responded by threatening to attack US forces in the region.
This is the same regime that funds and arms terrorist proxies across the Middle East: Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis — all of which have escalated attacks on Israel since October 7, 2023, and all of which are also openly committed to Israel’s destruction.
It is also the same regime that has targeted Western civilians. In 2022, the head of the UK’s MI5 revealed that British authorities had foiled more than 20 Iranian-backed plots targeting UK citizens. These plots, he said, frequently involved Iran’s use of international criminals as proxies — a tactic seen across Europe.
The Bottom Line
This war was not inevitable. It was engineered by a regime that has spent decades plotting Israel’s destruction, funding terror across the region, and defying every international safeguard against nuclear proliferation.
Israel’s strike was not reckless. It was necessary, strategic, and aimed entirely at military infrastructure and personnel. Iran’s response, true to form, has been to fire missiles indiscriminately at Israeli civilian centers.
Yet much of the global news media has recast this as a clash between moral equals, drawing a false equivalence that erases the line between aggression and defense, between terrorism and counterterrorism.
The world’s most dangerous regime is watching closely to see whether its atrocities will be condemned or excused. And thanks to most of the media, it may already have its answer.
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 Big Surprise: The Media Uses Its Platform to Side with Iran’s Terrorist Regime Over Israel first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Jews, Israelis Targeted in Austria Amid Surge in Antisemitic Incidents; Local Jewish Community Calls for Action
Illustrative: Pro-Palestinian protesters shout slogans and hold flags during a demonstration against Israel’s military action in the Gaza strip, in Vienna, July 20, 2014. Photo: REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger
Austria is facing a sharp rise in antisemitic incidents and anti-Israel rhetoric, prompting outrage from the country’s Jewish community and urgent calls for authorities to take swift action against growing anti-Jewish hatred.
On Saturday, a group of pro-Palestinian activists burst into the opening of the Salzburg Festival — one of the world’s premier events for opera, music, and drama — waving Palestinian flags and shouting antisemitic slogans.
As Austrian Vice-Chancellor Andreas Babler began his opening speech at the event, six individuals stormed the stage, aggressively waving Palestinian flags and shouting “Blood on your hands!” along with other antisemitic slurs.
The Salzburg Festival.
A frenzied white Austrian on stage, screaming in German about those bloody J*ws.
I’m sure we’ve seen that before… pic.twitter.com/b6oNyTwZRT
— Joo
(@JoosyJew) July 28, 2025
The incident raised alarming questions about the event’s security, as the six protesters gained easy access while wearing fake, misspelled staff IDs with fictitious names, revealing a clear failure in background checks.
According to festival director Lukas Crepaz, security measures and control checks have been significantly strengthened. The six activists were arrested, and authorities continue to investigate the incident.
Elie Rosen, president of the Jewish Community (IKG) of Salzburg, Styria, and Carinthia, condemned the incident, calling the disruption of the Salzburg Festival’s opening a “targeted political provocation, carried by openly anti-Israel rhetoric.”
“Jewish life in Austria must not become the collateral damage of political agitation,” Rosen said in a statement. “We often hear powerful statements at commemorative events condemning antisemitism.”
“But where are Israel’s outspoken supporters when real solidarity is needed? Antisemitism takes many forms and frequently starts with the silence of the majority,” she continued. “Hatred toward Israel is not a legitimate form of protest.”
In a separate incident last week, an Israeli couple was denied access to a campsite in Ehrwald, a village in western Austria, after attempting to make a reservation to celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary.
According to local media, the couple attempted to register at the campsite, but after revealing their Israeli passports, they were denied entry and asked to leave, forcing them to find alternative accommodations.
“We have no place for Jews here,” the campsite operator reportedly told them.
When asked for comment, the campsite operators told the German newspaper Jüdische Allgemeine, “These people should much rather take care of the many children in Gaza. Otherwise, there is nothing to say.”
In another incident last week, a group of well-known Israeli classical musicians reported being refused service at a pizzeria in Vienna after staff overheard them speaking Hebrew.
One of the musicians recounted that while they were ordering their food, the waiter asked them which language they were speaking. When they replied Hebrew, the waiter allegedly told them, “In that case, leave. I’m not serving you food.”
“The initial shock and humiliation were profound. But what struck us even more deeply was what came next – or rather what didn’t. The people around us were clearly startled, some offered sympathetic glances … and then, quietly, they went back to their dinners, their conversations, their wine – as though nothing had happened,” one of the musicians wrote in a post on X.
RSS
‘All of Our Strength’: Over 1,000 Pro-Israel Activists Gather in DC for Solidarity Conference
2025 Israel on Campus Coalition National Leadership Summit. Photo: ICC.
Over 1,000 Jewish students, faculty, and activists amassed in Washington, DC on July 27-29 to attend the Israel on Campus Coalition’s annual National Leadership Summit (NLS), an electric event which achieved creating the atmosphere of both a festival of Jewish elation and an academic conference.
Founded in 2002, the Israel on Campus Coalition (ICC) is a nonprofit organization that describes its mission as inspiring college students to defend and hold pride in the state of Israel. One of its major initiatives is the “microgrants” program, which helps pro-Israel campus groups organize events about Israeli culture and society. Another, the ICC Community Impact Fellowship, awards college students a $1,000 stipend for completing a leadership seminar in which they are trained in civic engagement, coalition building, and rapidly responding to antisemitic and anti-Israel events on their campuses.
Demand for a spot at this year’s 2025 conference exceeded the nonprofit’s capacity to host the thousands of students who signed up to be a conferee at what is recognized as the largest gathering of pro-Israel students in the country. Hundreds were waitlisted and encouraged to reapply next year. Those whom ICC did select were flown out to DC and billeted at the Capital Hilton, all expenses paid. They were joined – for the first time ever – by a delegation of faculty from the Academic Engagement Network (AEN) and staff from most major Jewish organization in the US, from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) to StandWithUs (SWU).
“We just ultimately believe that we’re better when we use all of our strength as a movement,” ICC chief executive Jacob Baime told The Algemeiner on Monday during an interview. “And we’re not the only ones who feel that way. The other side does as well, having mounted a highly professionalized coalition, well-funded, well-coordinated effort with many groups involved. We need our partners and the different perspectives they hold too.”
When The Algemeiner last attended NLS, the world was not yet one year removed from Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel, the deadliest day in modern Jewish history since the Holocaust. Jewish students and ICC staff, many of whom have family members and friends who were affected by the atrocities or were later drafted into the war it precipitated, were still laboring to comprehend what had become a new and unprecedented world – one in which classic antisemitic tropes had resurfaced to corrupt public debate, anti-Jewish violence occurred daily across the world, and anti-Zionist groups were taking over college campuses and converting them into outposts of antisemitic hate.
As such the event aimed to inspire Jewish students “take back the campus,” an effort advanced by an infantry of social media influencers.
This year’s NLS leaned more heavily into supplying students with information, facts, and statistics curated and presented by the most accomplished Middle East scholars, government leaders, and nonprofit executives in the global pro-Israel community. Social media influencers and celebrities took the stage as well, showcasing their strengths as spirited advocates who remind students why the issues under discussion relate to their contemporary experiences as young people and consumers.
Speakers included Alyza Lewin, president of the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law; Col. Miri Eisin of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), Jonathan Schanzer, executive director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies; Ilya Shapiro, senior fellow and director of constitutional studies at the Manhattan Institute; Miriam Elman of the Academic Engagement Network; and Dr. Ayal Feinberg, director of the Center for Holocaust Studies and Human Rights. On offer as giveaways were Douglas Murray’s recently published polemic On Democracies and Death Cults: Israel and the Future of Civilization and Dina Powell McCormick and David McCormick’s co-authored book, titled Who Believed in You?: How Purposeful Mentorship Changes the World.
“We wanted students to engage with ideas that touch on the entirety of the campus ecosystem and the subjects they may be asked to comment on,” Baime explained to The Algemeiner. “Oct. 7, the war, and its aftermath have changed the American pro-Israel movement forever.”
The obverse side of the conference’s educational objectives was wholesome fun for the 800 college aged conferees in attendance. They were treated to a buoyant concert in the Hilton’s Presidential Ballroom featuring the jazz-pop fusion act “All of the Above” and the rapper Duvbear, an 18-year-old who is emblematic of what Generation-Z calls “rizz.” Celebrities such as former NBA player Meta World Peace, former NFL linebacker Emmanuel Acho, and professional boxer George Foreman III afforded the students quick meet and greets and selfies. Capital Hilton staff carted out pounds of food – Latin, Asian, and Kosher – from its kitchens every several hours, fostering opportunities for socializing and being photographed on an ICC-themed “red carpet.”
University of California, Davis rising junior Toby Jacob told The Algemeiner that the nonprofit’s strength is its staff.
“The staff here is so knowledgeable and so capable,” Jacob said. “It can feel really scary when you’re dealing with these like large scale issues in your student government, with your administration – and to have people who have the resources to walk you through it is vital.”
Tessa Veksler, an NLS 2025 moderator who became the most recognizable pro-Israel activist of Generation-Z after being elected the first Shabbat-observant president of the University of California, Santa Barbara’s student government, agreed.
“When I was on campus going through the worst of the worst, I knew that ICC had my back and that I could count on the staff and the organization to be there at a moment’s notice,” Veksler said. “They exceptionally equip students with the tools to be able to lead themselves, and so there is an expectation that if you are an ICC fellow that you take the tools ICC gives and put in the work to go and become involved in student government and be the person to make the impact.”
She continued, “It’s a remarkable thing, and there’s a reason why I have stayed as involved as I am.”
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
RSS
‘Devastated’: Wesley LePatner, Killed in Manhattan Mass Shooting, Was a Jewish Communal, Philanthropic Leader
A man holding a rifle walks into an office building at 345 Park Avenue shortly before a shooting that killed several people, in the Midtown Manhattan district of New York City, US, July 28, 2025, in a still image taken from surveillance video. Photo: Surveillance Camera/Handout via REUTERS
Wesley LePatner, an executive at Blackstone and a Jewish communal leader, was one of the victims of the mass shooting in Midtown Manhattan on Monday that killed four people and wounded a fifth in addition to the shooter, who died by suicide.
LePatner, 43, was an active member of the Jewish community and served on the UJA Federation of New York’s board of directors, which said it is “devastated by the tragic loss.”
“Wesley was extraordinary in every way — personally, professionally, and philanthropically,” the federation wrote in a statement on Tuesday. “An exceptional leader in the financial world, she brought thoughtfulness, vision, and compassion to everything she did. In 2023, we honored her with the Alan C. Greenberg Young Leadership Award at our Wall Street Dinner, recognizing her commitment to our community and her remarkable achievements, all the more notable as a woman in a traditionally male-dominated field.”
In her acceptance speech, LePatner said, “Never in my wildest imagination could I have believed that I would be up on this stage two decades later [after attending her first UJA Wall Street dinner]. UJA has many super-powers, but its most important in my view is its power to create a sense of community and belonging, and that ability to create a sense of community and belonging matters now more than ever.”
She also explained that “UJA stepped in early and fixed my feeling out of place by connecting me with senior Goldman Sachs women who were further along in their careers and personal lives, but equally committed to their Jewish community and identity.”
“I was an American,” she said, “but I was first and foremost Jewish.”
LePatner was also a supporter of Israel, leading a solidarity mission with UJA after Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, invasion of and massacre across southern Israel.
“In the wake of Oct. 7, Wesley led a solidarity mission with UJA to Israel, demonstrating her enduring commitment in Israel’s moment of heartache,” the UJA Federation of New York said in its statement. “She lived with courage and conviction, instilling in her two children a deep love for Judaism and the Jewish people.”
In addition to serving on the board of directors of the New York UJA, she was also on the board of trustees at The Abraham Joshua Heschel School — a pluralistic Jewish day school in New York. The Forward reported that school representatives wrote in an email that “there are no right words for this unfathomable moment of pain and loss.”
“It was a rare z’chut, a rare privilege, to know Wesley and to learn from her. She was a uniquely brilliant and modest leader and parent, filled with wisdom, empathy, vision, and appreciation,” they continued.
David Greenfield, CEO of the Met Council, posted on X that “Wesley was an amazing person who was also tremendously talented leader. She volunteered with her kids [at the Met Council] to feed those in need.”
LePatner graduated from Yale summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, and met her husband on the first day of school in 1999.
She is survived by her husband and two children.