RSS
CBS Slanders Israel in Digusting Piece on ’60 Minutes’

Funeral of Youssef Ziadna, who was killed in Hamas captivity in Gaza, in Rahat, Israel on Jan. 9, 2025. Photo: Taken by author
On January 12, 2025, CBS News’ investigative program 60 Minutes aired a 13-minute segment on three former US State Department officials who resigned from their posts in response to American support for Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza following the October 7, 2023, atrocities.
While the departure of State Department employees in protest of American foreign policy is newsworthy, this segment presents its audience with an imbalanced report by omitting certain salient facts about its interviewees, obscuring important information about Israel’s conduct during the war, and injecting subtle notes of bias throughout the presentation.
Josh Paul & Hala Rharrit: Anti-Israel Voices Within the State Department
The bulk of the report is based on interviews with three State Department officials who resigned over American support for Israel’s war against Hamas: Josh Paul, Hala Rharrit, and Andrew Miller.
While their resignations were portrayed as the result of moral outrage at Israel’s war conduct, 60 Minutes withheld that two of these interviewees have a history of anti-Israel activism and associations with anti-Israel organizations.
Josh Paul, who served as a director in the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, was the first State Department official to resign post-October 7, a mere 10 days after the Hamas atrocities and before Israel undertook a full ground operation in the Gaza Strip.
In his resignation letter, Paul condemned both Hamas’ attack and Israel’s response, criticized America’s “one-sided” support for Israel, compared the Hamas kidnapping of Israeli children from kibbutzim with Israel’s detainment of Palestinians involved in violence, and implicitly accused Israel of “ethnic cleansing” and “apartheid.”
Since leaving the State Department, Paul has joined DAWN (Democracy for the Arab World Now), an advocacy organization that promotes boycotts of Israel, opposes the Abraham Accords, and supports international sanctions against the Jewish state.
DAWN’s executive director is Sarah Leah Whitson, an anti-Israel activist who dabbles in anti-Israel stereotypes and conspiracy theories and who was credited with cultivating Human Rights Watch’s shift to an anti-Israel paradigm. Nihad Awad, the executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and who has openly voiced support for Hamas, serves on DAWN’s board of directors.
It is also interesting to note that while in his position, Paul was responsible for facilitating the transfer of arms to Saudi Arabia during its bloody fight against the Houthis in Yemen. Even though he opposed this action, and spoke against it in official memos, he did not resign his role in the State Department. It was only Israel’s response to the deadliest day in Jewish history since the Holocaust that caused Paul to leave his position.
Josh Paul now works for @DAWNmenaorg, whose chairman is Nihad Awad, the head of CAIR who infamously praised the Oct. 7 massacre.
Which means Josh Paul and Hala Rharrit—two former State Dept. officials who were just platformed by 60 Minutes—have ties to CAIR. Not a coincidence. https://t.co/g8snbYQFFq
— Eitan Fischberger (@EFischberger) January 13, 2025
Another interviewee whose animus towards the Jewish state was obscured by 60 Minutes is Hala Rharrit, a former Arabic spokesperson who resigned in April 2024.
Since leaving the State Department, Rharrit has served as a speaker at several CAIR events, including as the guest speaker at a fundraising gala for CAIR Connecticut.
While presenting as a civil rights organization, CAIR has a history of its leaders supporting Hamas, spreading antisemitic rhetoric, and denouncing Jewish communal organizations.
In the wake of the October 7 attack, several CAIR leaders justified it as “legitimate” resistance, with executive director Nihad Awad even saying that he was “happy” on the day of the invasion of southern Israel.
When not speaking on behalf of CAIR, Rharrit has also publicly accused Israel of ” attempted ethnic cleansing” and an “unfolding genocide”; has disregarded the role that Hamas’ use of civilian infrastructure plays in Palestinian deaths in Gaza; and has extended support towards those who have been arrested for their anti-Israel activism.
By failing to disclose this information, 60 Minutes has falsely portrayed Josh Paul and Hala Rharrit as impartial observers instead of the anti-Israel activists that they truly are.
More info on Hala Rharrit, the former State Dept. official who hobnobs with CAIR and is being platformed by 60 Minutes:
She’s a fan of Hamas Colonel Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya.
The very first post she uploaded to her new Instagram account is an interview she did for the… https://t.co/4BL1aQKgsF
— Eitan Fischberger (@EFischberger) January 13, 2025
2,000-Pound Bombs & Other Context-Free Allegations
The 60 Minutes segment highlights one specific Israeli attack on a Hamas tunnel in Gaza City near the beginning of the war, which it claims likely used 2,000-pound bombs (based on sources who spoke to the program) and which killed 81 women and children (based on information by the British organization Airwars).
According to Dr. Brian Cox (an American law professor who formerly served in the Israeli military), 60 Minutes is only presenting half the story to its viewers, showing the damage from the possible use of 2,000-pound bombs without explaining any practices undertaken by the IDF to mitigate civilian harm (such as the likely use of delayed fuses) and what strategic calculations were undertaken prior to the alleged deployment of such munitions.
In effect, 60 Minutes is using the 2,000-pound bombs as a bogeyman to sway American public perception and influence future transfers of offensive weapons from the United States to Israel.
Breaking Down Misleading News Coverage of Gaza — @60Minutes Edition
Subject: Request by @Israel for @POTUS Biden Administration to Deliver 2,000 Pound Bombs
Read on for a
presenting in-depth analysis of this spectacularly misleading segment posted today by 60 Minutes. 1/8 https://t.co/ROgzBaCeVA
— Dr. Brian L. Cox (@BrianCox_RLTW) January 13, 2025
Along with this context-free discussion of 2,000-pound bombs, 60 Minutes also leaves out several salient facts about Airwars’ casualty figures.
Aside from the organization’s past use of questionable methodology, in this specific case, 60 Minutes fails to inform its viewers that Airwars concedes there were likely secondary explosions (a signal that Hamas weapons were targeted) at the site of the bombing, that Airwars largely bases its reports on social media posts and not official statistics, and that the report features a caveat that the organization “has quantified the youngest generation of each family as children based on available images due to the lack of ages found for the victims.”
Without this information, viewers are left with the false impression that Airwars’ statistics are based on official numbers, and that all killed were victims of Israel recklessly using disproportionately sized bombs in an urban environment.
8/8 Posts above address substantive points raised in this @60Minutes segment. To conclude, let’s zoom out to consider broader context reflected in segment.
Main point of segment is to emphasize & reinforce concern related to prospective transfer of 2,000 lb bombs by USA to… pic.twitter.com/fv7FarZo2q
— Dr. Brian L. Cox (@BrianCox_RLTW) January 13, 2025
60 Minutes’ Subtle Biases
Aside from the above issues, this 60 Minutes segment is also replete with instances of subtle bias that, when joined together, work to skew the viewer’s impression of Israel’s war against Hamas and Israeli-American relations.
Some instances of this bias include:
- Citing a controversial Lancet study that claims that there are 70,000 Palestinian casualties in Gaza (20,000 more than the official casualty numbers provided by Hamas). As HonestReporting has previously noted, this study is marred by its questionable methodology, reliance on faulty figures, and a lack of impartiality on the part of the study’s authors.
- Insinuating that American taxpayers are funding a potential genocide in Gaza with billions of dollars in military aid to Israel. No mention is made of the fact that most of this money is used in American industry and not directly sent to the Jewish State. On the contrary, 60 Minutes gives an impression that American taxpayers are practically throwing free weapons at Israel.
- Erroneously asserting that Israel has “continually blocked aid to the people of Gaza.”
- The unsubstantiated claim by Hala Rharrit that Israel’s actions are counter to American interests and have placed a “target” on America’s back. This assertion disregards the threats that the United States has faced from Islamist terror organizations prior to October 7 and places the blame on Israel for terrorism rather than on the terrorists themselves.
- The claim that there is “widespread dissent” in the State Department due to American support for Israel’s actions in Gaza. According to 60 Minutes, a “record number” of officials have sent cables to the secretary of state concerning this support. However, in a recent interview with the New York Times, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that he has received only “20 or so” such cables about Gaza.
From hiring a Gaza producer with terror ties to forcing journalists to apologize for fair questions, @CBSNews is losing trust. Their refusal to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and daily bias show an agenda. Will they choose integrity over activism? pic.twitter.com/wy3LftDOmw
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) November 17, 2024
Since October 7, there have been numerous instances of CBS News exhibiting anti-Israel bias in its coverage of the war.
This bias includes the network’s employment of producer Marwan Al-Ghoul, who has close ties to the PFLP terrorist organization, the official directive not to refer to Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, the reprimanding of anchor Tony Dokoupil over his questioning of author Ta-Nehisi Coate’s latest screed against the Jewish State, and disregarding certain facts in order to discredit Israeli actions.
This latest piece by 60 Minutes can, sadly, be added to CBS News’ repertoire of institutional bias and misinformation.
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 CBS Slanders Israel in Digusting Piece on ’60 Minutes’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Russia, China Maintain Cautious Diplomacy Amid Israel-Iran Conflict, Despite Deepening Ties With Tehran

Smoke billows following missile attack from Iran on Israel, at Tel Aviv, Israel, June 13, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Gideon Markowicz ISRAEL
Despite deepening their ties with Iran, Russia and China have held back from concrete action amid Israel’s recent attacks, choosing cautious diplomacy over direct support for their supposed partner.
Last week, Israel launched a broad preemptive attack on Iran, targeting military installations and nuclear sites across the country in what officials described as an effort to neutralize an imminent nuclear threat, as nuclear negotiations between the United States and Tehran appear on the brink of collapse.
The Israeli strike killed several of Iran’s top military commanders and dealt a major blow to the country’s retaliatory capabilities by destroying not only much of its ballistic missile stockpiles but also crippling its launch platforms.
According to Janatan Sayeh, a research analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), a Washington, DC-based think tank, Israel’s air superiority, combined with the element of surprise and Iran’s weakened air defenses, has left the Islamic regime incapable of sustaining its nightly missile attacks.
Tehran’s “only path to narrowing the battlefield gap lies in external military support,” Sayeh told The Algemeiner. “Yet Moscow, having previously depended on Iranian drones and missiles for its war in Ukraine, is unlikely to offer more than diplomatic backing.”
“That leaves China — a longtime economic lifeline for Tehran through illicit oil purchases — as the regime’s only potential partner in rebuilding its military infrastructure,” he continued.
So far, as the conflict between Israel and Iran continues to escalate, Beijing and Moscow have offered their so-called ally little more than public condemnation of the Israeli military campaign and formal offers to mediate the conflict.
“China is highly concerned about Israel’s attacks on Iran and deeply worried about the potential serious consequences of these actions,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian said in a statement.
“China opposes any violation of Iran’s sovereignty, security, and territorial integrity, and opposes actions that escalate tensions and expand the conflict,” he continued.
The Chinese diplomat also urged both Middle Eastern adversaries to take greater action in promoting regional peace and stability and to avoid further escalating hostilities.
“China is willing to play a constructive role in helping to de-escalate the situation,” Jian said.
According to Jack Burnham, a research analyst at FDD, China’s capacity to offer Tehran support beyond diplomatic channels is limited by the country’s inability to effectively manage rapidly evolving crises.
“Having built the foundations of Iran’s missile program, Beijing can now only watch as it goes up in flames — incapable of projecting power on a scale that could tip the balance of power and wary of committing resources during a period of heightened tensions in its own region,” Burnham told The Algemeiner.
As China seeks to establish itself as a key power in the Middle East and counter Western influence, Beijing sees this conflict as an opportunity to position itself as a peace broker and leverage its partnership with Iran.
China, a key diplomatic and economic backer of Tehran, has moved to deepen ties in recent years — signing a 25-year cooperation agreement, holding joint naval drills, and continuing to purchase Iranian oil despite US sanctions.
Amid US-Iran nuclear talks, Chinese officials have consistently opposed Washington’s sanctions on Tehran and defended the country’s right to enrich uranium.
For its part, Russia also proposed on Monday to mediate the conflict between Israel and Iran, while reiterating that its earlier offer to store Iranian uranium on Russian soil still stands.
According to the Kremlin, Russian President Vladimir Putin held talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian to discuss the ongoing conflict.
During the conversations, he emphasized “the importance of resuming the negotiations and resolving any issues pertaining to Iran’s nuclear program exclusively via political and diplomatic means.”
After US President Donald Trump suggested that Putin could play a role in mediating efforts between Iran and Israel, the European Union rejected the idea, saying that Russia has “zero credibility” as a potential mediator between the two adversaries.
“There has been a recent Russia-Iran partnership agreement, which signals deepening cooperation across multiple areas, including foreign policy and defense. In light of such, Russia cannot be an objective mediator,” EU spokesman Anouar El Anouni said in a statement.
Similar to China, Russia has expanded its ties with Iran to counter Western influence in the Middle East and mitigate the impact of US sanctions. For example, Russia pledged earlier this year to fund the construction of new nuclear power plants in Iran as part of a broader energy partnership that also includes a major gas deal between the two countries.
The post Russia, China Maintain Cautious Diplomacy Amid Israel-Iran Conflict, Despite Deepening Ties With Tehran first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Israel to Launch Rescue Flights for Nationals Stranded Abroad Amid Iran War, Over 60,000 Register Immediately

El Al planes are seen on the tarmac at Ben-Gurion International airport, near Tel Aviv, Israel, March 10, 2020. Photo: Reuters / Ronen Zvulun.
Israel will begin by Thursday operating a limited number of one-way flights to Tel Aviv to bring home the tens of thousands of Israelis stranded abroad since the outbreak of the conflict with Iran last week.
Israel’s national airline El Al opened an online registration for flights for the more than 100,000 citizens who have been stuck abroad since the Jewish state closed its airspace to civilian traffic early Friday morning, when hostilities erupted. Within less than two hours of opening the online form, more than 60,000 stranded passengers registered on the airline’s site despite the ongoing conflict, according to El Al.
“At this time, El Al is formulating the list of destinations and the scope of flights that will be allowed to operate under this plan,” the airline said. “The purpose of the registration is to map the location of our customers in the world, and accordingly build a flight schedule.”
On Friday morning around 3 am, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) launched Operation Rising Lion, a multifaceted campaign involving airstrikes, covert sabotage by Mossad, and other operations targeting Iran’s missile infrastructure, nuclear facilities, and military officials. Israel launched the operation with the goal of dismantling Iran’s nuclear capabilities, which Israeli officials have declared an existential crisis.
Israel has continued its military campaign since then, striking nuclear and military targets.
Iran has responded each night with barrages of ballistic missiles, largely targeting large civilian centers. Most of the projectiles have been intercepted by Israel’s missile defense system.
Despite enduring continuous barrages of Iranian strikes, the effort of tens of thousands of Israelis to return home suggests an effort to stand in solidarity with their families and homeland amid growing national uncertainty but a deepening sense of collective resolve. In highly populated areas like Tel Aviv and Haifa, residents have been observed resuming regular outdoor activities during the day, seemingly trying to maintain a sense of normalcy.
Conversely, Iran has seen a mass exodus of civilians from Tehran following Israeli strikes on key military and nuclear sites. Faced with widespread panic, power outages, and fears of further attacks, over 100,000 Iranians have reportedly fled the capital. The government’s attempt to downplay the situation with censorship and public reassurances has appeared to do little to stem the public’s anxiety.
Observers have noted that Tehran, the Iranian capital, is not equipped with modern bomb shelters, leaving residents to shelter in existing infrastructure such as underground tunnels, building basements, and metro tunnels.
The post Israel to Launch Rescue Flights for Nationals Stranded Abroad Amid Iran War, Over 60,000 Register Immediately first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Jewish West Virginia Student Targeted by Dining Hall Employee Over Pro-Israel Views

Illustrative: Pro-Hamas activists gather in Washington Square Park for a rally following a protest march held in response to an NYPD sweep of an anti-Israel encampment at New York University in Manhattan, May 3, 2024. Photo: Matthew Rodier/Sipa USA via Reuters Connect
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) on Monday implored West Virginia University (WVU) to lift a no-contact order imposed on a Jewish pro-Israel student following a bizarre series of events in which he was reported for promoting pro-Israel speech on campus, The Algemeiner has learned.
According to a letter sent by the nonprofit organization, WVU freshmen Eliyahu Itkowitz was distributing copies of attorney Alan Dershowitz’s book The Ten Big Anti-Israel Lies: And How to Refute Them With Truth during the final weeks of fall semester when he was approached by dining hall employee Hannah Harper — who, as uncovered by an Algemeiner investigation, is a white female who recently converted to Islam. Itkowitz offered Harper a copy of the book. She accepted it.
However, Harper, who had been made aware of Itkowitz’s Jewish identity and support for Zionism through her dealings with the campus’ Muslim Students Association (MSA), apparently had ulterior motives for accepting the book. Following the interaction, she delivered the copy of Dershowitz’s book to the university’s Division of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DDEI) and with it a complaint alleging that the student had handed her an “anti-Muslim book” as a discriminatory act. Itkowitz has denied that he meant Harper any harm.
Harper continued her pursuit of Itkowitz weeks later in the main dining hall after he had returned to school for spring term. Having caught sight of him, she falsely told her manager, Brad Dobson, that the student had been banned from eating there due to the complaint she had filed. The unsuspecting manager accosted the student and demanded that he take lunch somewhere else. Itkowitz refused, choosing instead to record the incident with this smartphone while Harper escalated the situation by calling the police.
“The university launched an investigation, despite the fact that even if all of her allegations against Eli were true, and there is evidence to suggest that they aren’t, all of the described actions constitute protected speech under the First Amendment,” Jessie Appleby, FIRE program counsel for campus advocacy, told The Algemeiner on Monday during an interview. She added that school officials ultimately determined that Harper’s allegations did not merit punishing Itkowitz. However, they did so after an invasive investigation and handing down a no-contact directive, which carries inculpatory implications, ordering Itkowitz to avoid all contact with Harper
The measure should be lifted, Appleby said.
“Because the investigation itself threatened discipline, it chilled free speech. It lasted five months, exhaustive interviews, and the no-contact order even though it never found him guilty of misconduct. Eli should not feel threatened that exercising free speech will incur disciplinary sanctions,” she continued. “One issue with schools investigating complaints investigating protected speech is that it allows students to use the complaint process to cudgel those with whom they disagree into silence, and we’ve seen a lot of that at West Virginia University.”
The case of Itkowitz is not the first time FIRE discovered that a university allegedly incriminated pro-Israel students for expressing their support for Zionism.
In 2023, it partnered with the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) to publicize a Princeton University incident in which Alexandra Orbuch, a writer for conservative publication The Princeton Tory, was assaulted by a male member of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) while filming a protest the group held on campus. The man allegedly followed Orbuch to obstruct her efforts, eventually stepping on her foot and pushing her. When Orbuch complained to a nearby public safety officer, the officer told her that she, not her attacker, had “incited something.”
Despite the gendered nature of the assault — an issue Princeton has dedicated an entire office to dealing with — the university granted the male student a no-contact order against Orbuch, explaining that any reporting she published which alluded to him would be considered a violation of the order and result in disciplinary charges. A similar incident occurred in 2022, when Tory reporter Danielle Shapiro attempted to report on the Princeton Committee on Palestine. After being notified of the order, Shapiro was told refer to a “Sexual Misconduct & Title IX” webpage, according to a guest column she wrote in the Wall Street Journal.
Princeton University later banned the practice of placing no-contact orders on conservative and pro-Israel students. In Monday’s letter, FIRE called on West Virginia University to do the same.
“WVU has a responsibility to prevent discriminatory harassment, but in doing so it must not sacrifice its constitutional obligation to protect free speech,” the group said. “An investigation and no-contact order based on protected expression is likely to chill student speech — even when, like here, the process ultimately concludes in favor of the speaker — because such a process implicitly threatens punishment for that speech.”
The Algemeiner has reached out to WVU for comment.
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
The post Jewish West Virginia Student Targeted by Dining Hall Employee Over Pro-Israel Views first appeared on Algemeiner.com.