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.

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.

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) has called on the United Nations to publicly condemn the killing of aid workers in Gaza and to collaborate in order to provide relief to the enclave’s population, accusing the UN of perpetuating a “vast disinformation campaign” aimed at tarnishing the US- and Israel-backed foundation’s image.

In a letter sent to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday, GHF executive chairman Rev. Johnnie Moore defended the foundation’s efforts to distribute aid to the civilians of Gaza, the Palestinian enclave that has been ruled by the Hamas terrorist group for nearly two decades.

“Nearly 40 million meals have been distributed in our first month of operations from our Secure Distribution Sites,” Moore wrote, adding that the program has successfully distributed emergency aid to Palestinians in “desperate need” despite constantly operating “under grave threat.”

Moore also criticized the UN, saying that the GHF has “shared our data and our logistical approach” with the global body in hopes of forging a collaboration effort between the two entities. He lamented that the UN has “neither partnered with GHF nor even acknowledged our operational successes.”

“Our work has continued with normal operations amidst an expanding regional conflict, and also a vast disinformation campaign which has sought to stop us from feeding people from the moment we started,” Moore continued. “We regret that your own office has been a victim of this disinformation campaign which has only threatened to further harm the Gazan people.”

The GHF was created because Hamas routinely steals humanitarian aid, leaving civilians facing severe shortages. Documents released by the Israeli military earlier this month showed that Hamas operatives violently took control of approximately 25 percent of incoming aid shipments, which they then resold to civilians at inflated prices.

The GHF operates independently from UN-backed mechanisms, which Hamas has sought to reinstate, arguing that these frameworks are more neutral. Israeli and American officials have rejected those calls, saying Hamas previously exploited UN-run systems to siphon aid for its war effort. The UN has denied those allegations while expressing concerns that the GHF’s approach forces civilians to risk their safety by traveling long distances across active conflict zones to reach food distribution points.

Since the GHF launched operations in late May, there have been reports of Palestinians being shot near distribution sites. In specific cases, Israel has acknowledged targeting what it believed to be armed Hamas operatives using civilians as cover.

In his letter, Moore also criticized the UN for staying “absolutely silent in the wake of a targeted killing of GHF personnel nearly two weeks ago.”

“Their murder was not only a violation of international law, it was an affront to the very principles the UN purports to defend,” the GHF chairman added. He called on the UN to “publicly condemn the targeting of humanitarian workers in Gaza, and to denounce the obstruction of aid by Hamas and other armed factions.”

Moore’s letter came about two weeks after the GHF said that, on the night of June 11, several of its aid workers were killed when Hamas gunmen attacked a bus transporting local staffers.

The group said the vehicle was targeted as it carried more than 20 workers to a distribution site near the city of Khan Younis. In a statement Thursday, GHF said that at least people people were killed and several more were injured.

The bus attack followed days of threats from Hamas directed at the foundation and its workers.

According to Moore, the UN can help the humanitarian crisis in Gaza by working directly with GHD to help distribute aid “at scale” to needy civilians while bypassing “intermediaries.”

“The only credible response to food insecurity is food delivery. Anything less is a deferral of responsibility. We are ready to work with other humanitarian providers to deliver food straight to the Palestinian people and restore order to a system plagued by desperation and disorder,” Moore wrote.

The post Gaza Humanitarian Foundation Calls for UN to Condemn Attacks on Aid Workers, Collaborate Amid Mass ‘Disinformation’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.