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How the Media Distorts the IDF’s Preemptive Strike on Hezbollah
Lebanon’s Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah meets with top Hamas official Khalil Al-Hayya in this handout picture obtained by Reuters on July 5, 2024, Lebanon. Photo: Hezbollah Media Office/Handout via REUTERS
In the early hours of Sunday, Israel initiated a preemptive strike to neutralize an imminent and large-scale drone and rocket attack by Hezbollah.
Israeli Air Force jets targeted multiple sites within Lebanese territory — locations that the Iranian-backed terrorist group had prepared for launching their assault. The intended targets of this attack included Israeli civilian areas such as Tel Aviv.
Starting around 5:30 am, Hezbollah boasted that it had launched approximately 320 rockets at northern Israel, targeting areas such as Safed and Acre, along with 11 military bases that had largely been untouched by the Lebanese terror group until now.
The IDF reported that Hezbollah’s attack was significantly less severe than the group claimed, attributing the reduced impact to Israel’s successful preemptive strike on the Hezbollah weapons.
Shortly after Hezbollah carried out what it called “the first phase” of its response to the Israeli operation that killed its second-in-command, Fouad Shukr, the group announced that leader Hassan Nasrallah would address the “Zionist claims” of a preemptive strike in a forthcoming speech.
In short, Hezbollah admitted it had planned a large-scale attack on Israel, which Israel acted to prevent.
“In a self-defense act to remove these threats, the IDF is striking terror targets in Lebanon, from which Hezbollah was planning to launch their attacks on Israeli civilians.”
Listen to an update from IDF Spokesperson, RAdm. Daniel Hagari, regarding Hezbollah’s plans to attack… pic.twitter.com/fKvbUVSmbT
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) August 25, 2024
Unfortunately, the coverage from several leading news organizations of Sunday’s escalation exemplified how omitting a single crucial detail can distort the entire narrative.
The New York Times ran an early headline stating: “Israel strikes Hezbollah in Lebanon, which fires rockets at Israel.”
The missing word? Preemptively. Israel preemptively struck launching sites being prepared for an imminent attack just hours later.
The headline’s implication was undoubtedly deliberate the Times presented a skewed image of an aggressive Israel, seemingly provoking a broader regional conflict by needlessly attacking Hezbollah.
Even after Hezbollah confirms it was involved in a major assault against Israel, @nytimes does its best to paint Israel as the aggressor for defending itself.https://t.co/G3i5jfA6tC pic.twitter.com/MbKzyfRxtc
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) August 25, 2024
This narrative was echoed by The Los Angeles Times and CBS News, with the former downplaying Hezbollah’s drone and rocket strikes, while the latter went as far as to suggest Israel might have both ignited a wider conflict and hindered ceasefire negotiations.
Hezbollah was preparing to launch thousands of rockets & drones at Tel Aviv and central Israel. The IDF launched a preemptive strike to take out the launchers.
And this is the best headline @latimes could come up with. https://t.co/tmSKwOod2R pic.twitter.com/mEBmD2hC3S
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) August 25, 2024
In one of the more hyperbolic and misleading headlines, the Daily Mail claimed that the Middle East conflict had “explod[ed]” as Israel bombed Lebanon and Hezbollah fired “150 rockets towards the Iron Dome.”
One doesn’t need to be a munitions expert to know that Hezbollah doesn’t aim at the very missile interceptors designed to neutralize its rockets. Israel has been forced to use those defensive weapons to prevent the death of its own people.
Note to @MailOnline: Hezbollah doesn’t fire towards the very Iron Dome interceptors that take out their own rockets.
And Israel isn’t simply dropping bombs inside Lebanon, it’s targeting Hezbollah rocket launchers.#HeadlineFailhttps://t.co/Cj0KCTyTVd pic.twitter.com/8IZcHjBsm7
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) August 25, 2024
Meanwhile, “confused” best describes NPR’s take on the events, as they somehow managed to portray Hezbollah as the victim while simultaneously implying that Lebanon is a party to the ongoing ceasefire talks.
Shocking #HeadlineFail courtesy of @NPR.
This isn’t “Israel attacks, Hezbollah responds.” The terror org was primed to launch a massive barrage when Israel took preventative action.
And the ceasefire talks? They’re about Gaza, not Lebanon.https://t.co/sEgZCZ7WlA pic.twitter.com/bpfbPpOqR4
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) August 25, 2024
The UK’s Independent further muddled the timeline, implying that Hezbollah’s attack was “retaliation” for Israel’s preemptive strikes — despite the terror group itself stating the opposite.
Finally, BBC News correspondent Jon Donnison, whose history of editorial “slips” while reporting on Israel should have earned him a reassignment far from the region, managed to misstep not once, but twice in his analysis.
He incorrectly referred to Tel Aviv as Israel’s largest city and painted Israel as war-mongering, describing the strikes as potentially the “largest attack on Lebanon” since the 2006 war.
The reality of Israel’s precarious position in the Middle East — surrounded by armed and powerful terrorist entities — is often overlooked by the international media, which prefer to portray Israel as vying for regional dominance.
This reality necessitates Israel’s decisive actions, such as sending jets to strike Hezbollah targets, which are being used to launch rockets and drones at Israeli civilians, like the 12 Druze children tragically killed while playing soccer in Majdal Shams.
By downplaying or omitting the preemptive nature of Israel’s actions, these publications not only mislead but also shift blame from the true aggressor to the defender. This kind of coverage fuels a broader and pernicious agenda, painting Israel as a destabilizing force in the Middle East while undermining its right to self-defense. It’s a dangerous game.
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 How the Media Distorts the IDF’s Preemptive Strike on Hezbollah first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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US State Department Revokes Visas of UK Punk Rap Act Bob Vylan Amid Outrage Over Duo’s Chants of ‘Death to the IDF’
Bob Vylan music duo performance at Glastonbury Festival (Source: FLIKR)
The US State Department has revoked the visas for the English punk rap duo Bob Vylan amid ongoing outrage over their weekend performance at the Glastonbury Festival, in which the pair chanted “Death to the IDF.”
The State Department’s decision to cancel their visas would preclude a planned fall concert tour of the US by the British rappers.
“The [US State Department] has revoked the US visas for the members of the Bob Vylan band in light of their hateful tirade at Glastonbury, including leading the crowd in death chants. Foreigners who glorify violence and hatred are not welcome visitors to our country,” Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau wrote on X/Twitter on Monday.
During a June 28 set at Glastonbury Festival, Bob Vylan’s Pascal Robinson-Foster ignited a firestorm by leading the crowd in chants of “Death, death, to the IDF,” referring to the Israel Defense Forces. He also complained about working for a “f—ing Zionist” during the set.
The video of the performance went viral, sparking outrage across the globe.
The BBC, which streamed the performance live, issued an on‑screen warning but continued its broadcast, prompting criticism by government officials for failing to cut the feed.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer and festival organizers condemned the IDF chant as hate speech and incitement to violence. The Israeli Embassy in London denounced the language as “inflammatory and hateful.”
“Millions of people tuned in to enjoy Glastonbury this weekend across the BBC’s output but one performance within our livestreams included comments that were deeply offensive,” the BBC said in a statement following the event.
“These abhorrent chants, which included calls for the death of members of the Israeli Defense Forces … have no place in any civil society,” Leo Terrell, Chair of the US Department of Justice Task Force to Combat Antisemitism, declared Sunday in a statement posted on X.
Citing the act’s US tour plans, Terrell said his task force would be “reaching out to the U.S. Department of State on Monday to determine what measures are available to address the situation and to prevent the promotion of violent antisemitic rhetoric in the United States.”
British authorities, meanwhile, have launched a formal investigation into Bob Vylan’s controversial appearance at Glastonbury. Avon and Somerset Police confirmed they are reviewing footage and working with the Crown Prosecution Service to determine whether the performance constitutes a hate crime or incitement to violence.
United Talent Agency (UTA), one of the premier entertainment talent agencies, dropped the duo, claming “antisemitic sentiments expressed by the group were utterly unacceptable.”
The band defended their performance on social media as necessary protest, stating that “teaching our children to speak up for the change they want and need is the only way that we make this world a better place.”
The post US State Department Revokes Visas of UK Punk Rap Act Bob Vylan Amid Outrage Over Duo’s Chants of ‘Death to the IDF’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Dem House Leader Hakeem Jeffries Urges Mamdani to ‘Aggressively Address’ Antisemitism in NYC if Elected Mayor
Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY). Photo: Wikimedia Commons.
US House Democratic leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (NY) urged Democratic nominee for mayor of New York Zohran Mamdani to “aggressively address the rise in antisemitism” if he wins the general election in November.
“‘Globalizing the intifada’ by way of example is not an acceptable phrasing,” Jeffries said Sunday on ABC’s This Week. “He’s going to have to clarify his position on that as he moves forward.”
“With respect to the Jewish communities that I represent, I think our nominee is going to have to convince folks that he is prepared to aggressively address the rise in antisemitism in the city of New York, which has been an unacceptable development,” he added.
Jeffries’s comments come as Mamdani has been receiving an onslaught of criticism for defending the controversial phrase “globalize the intifada.”
Mamdani first defended the phrase during an appearance on the popular Bulwark Podcast. The progressive firebrand stated that he feels “less comfortable with the banning of certain words.” He invoked the US Holocaust Museum in his defense, saying that the museum used the word intifada “when translating the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising into Arabic, because it’s a word that means ‘struggle.’”
The Holocaust Museum repudiated Mamdani in a statement, calling his comments “offensive.”
Mamdani has continued to defend the slogan despite ongoing criticism, arguing that pro-Palestine advocates perceive it as a call for “universal human rights.”
Mamdani, the 33‑year‑old state assembly member and proud democratic socialist, defeated former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and other candidates in a lopsided first‑round win in the city’s Democratic primary for mayor, notching approximately 43.5 percent of first‑choice votes compared to Cuomo’s 36.4 percent.
The election results have alarmed members of the local Jewish community, who expressed deep concern over his past criticism of Israel and defense of antisemitic rhetoric.
“Mamdani’s election is the greatest existential threat to a metropolitan Jewish population since the election of the notorious antisemite Karl Lueger in Vienna,” Rabbi Marc Schneier, one of the most prominent Jewish leaders in New York City, said in a statement. “Jewish leaders must come together as a united force to prevent a mass Jewish Exodus from New York City.”
Some key Democratic leaders in New York, such as US Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Gov. Kathy Hochul, have congratulated and complimented Mamdani, but have not yet issued an explicit endorsement. Each official has signaled interest in meeting with Mamdani prior to making a decision on a formal endorsement.
The post Dem House Leader Hakeem Jeffries Urges Mamdani to ‘Aggressively Address’ Antisemitism in NYC if Elected Mayor first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Israel Eyes Ties With Syria and Lebanon After Iran War
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar attends a press conference with German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul (not pictured) in Berlin, Germany, June 5, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Christian Mang
Israel is interested in establishing formal diplomatic relations with long-standing adversaries Syria and Lebanon, but the status of the Golan Heights is non-negotiable, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said on Monday.
Israeli leaders argue that with its rival Iran weakened by this month’s 12-day war, other countries in the region have an opportunity to forge ties with Israel.
The Middle East has been upended by nearly two years of war in Gaza, during which Israel also carried out airstrikes and ground operations in Lebanon targeting Iran-backed Hezbollah, and by the overthrow of former Syrian leader and Iran ally Bashar al-Assad.
In 2020, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Morocco became the first Arab states to establish ties with Israel since Jordan in 1994 and Egypt in 1979. The normalization agreements with Israel were deeply unpopular in the Arab world.
“We have an interest in adding countries such as Syria and Lebanon, our neighbors, to the circle of peace and normalization, while safeguarding Israel‘s essential and security interests,” Saar said at a press conference in Jerusalem.
“The Golan will remain part of the State of Israel,” he said.
Israel annexed the Golan Heights in 1981 after capturing the territory from Syria during the 1967 Six-Day War. While much of the international community regards the Golan as occupied Syrian land, US President Donald Trump recognized Israeli sovereignty over it during his first term in office.
Following Assad’s ousting, Israeli forces moved further into Syrian territory.
A senior Syrian official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Syria would never give up the Golan Heights, describing it as an integral part of Syrian territory.
The official also said that normalization efforts with Israel must be part of the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative and not carried out through a separate track.
A spokesperson for Syria‘s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
The 2002 initiative proposed Arab normalization with Israel in exchange for its withdrawal from territories including the Golan Heights, the West Bank, and Gaza. It also called for the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.
Throughout the war in Gaza, regional power Saudi Arabia has repeatedly said that establishing ties with Israel was conditional on the creation of an independent Palestinian state.
Israel‘s Saar said it was “not constructive” for other states to condition normalization on Palestinian statehood.
“Our view is that a Palestinian state will threaten the security of the State of Israel,” he said.
In May, Reuters reported that Israel and Syria‘s new Islamist rulers had established direct contact and held face-to-face meetings aimed at de-escalating tensions and preventing renewed conflict along their shared border.
The same month, US President Donald Trump announced the US would lift sanctions on Syria and met Syria‘s new president, urging him to normalize ties with Israel.
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