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How Western Media Have Aided the Iranian Regime’s Attacks on Israel
A rescue personnel works at an impact site following missile attack from Iran on Israel, in Rishon LeZion, Israel, June 14, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
Knesset member Azmi Bishara fled Israel dramatically in 2007 to avoid prosecution for accepting payment in exchange for giving Hezbollah information about strategic locations in Israel to target during the previous year’s Second Lebanon War.
Bishara was caught advising the Iranian-backed terror group on how to aim its rockets more accurately to hit substantial targets in the very country where he served as a member of parliament.
Eighteen years later, no Bishara is needed.
Today, if Iran’s leaders want to assess the effectiveness of their attacks, all they have to do is turn on the television or go online. Since Iranian-backed Hamas launched the current war against Israel with its October 7, 2023, massacre, media outlets have repeatedly abetted Israel’s enemies by reporting from the scenes of attacks.
That violation of decades-old Israeli military censorship policies has only intensified during Iran’s current wave of strikes on Israeli military and civilian targets.
It began on Saturday, when Fox News correspondent Trey Yingst revealed live on air that Hamas had hit a Tel Aviv apartment building near the Kirya military base, which he described as “Israel’s version of the Pentagon.”
After a warning from the Government Press Office, Yingst became more cautious, reporting more generally from “central Israel.”
The Atlantic’s Jeff Goldberg had the decency to wait before publishing his exclusive on the US military op against the Houthis, in order not to risk American lives.@TreyYingst exposed realtime intel to the Iranian regime, putting Israeli lives in jeopardy, just for his scoop. https://t.co/klRM3FDVeS
— Simon Plosker (@SimonPlosker) June 14, 2025
Then, on Sunday, a group of cameramen broadcast for well over an hour from the power plant at the Haifa oil refinery — another highly sensitive site that had been struck by an Iranian ballistic missile. Al Jazeera used the footage.
When police approached the cameramen, it turned out they weren’t actually working for Al Jazeera. As a result, their equipment could not legally be confiscated, due to a law passed last year that bans the Qatari state-run propaganda outlet from operating in Israel. Al Jazeera has used freelancers to circumvent the ban, staying one step ahead of Israeli legislators in a game of cat and mouse.
But the cameramen, like all journalists in Israel, are still bound by military censorship laws that prohibit the publication of sensitive security information that could aid Israel’s enemies or endanger civilians.
“It has come to our attention that certain members of the press are filming sensitive and restricted areas following missile impacts, despite clear and repeated instructions from law enforcement officers on site, as well as prior directives issued by the Military Censor,” read a police statement released in English. “Such actions are both unlawful and irresponsible. They endanger public safety, disrupt emergency operations, and may unintentionally assist hostile actors.”
Police emphasized that the guidelines issued to the media are legally binding and intended to protect lives, preserve operational security, and ensure coordinated emergency response.
“We call on all journalists and media outlets to demonstrate responsibility and uphold the law,” the statement continued. “Those who choose to violate these restrictions will be held fully accountable in accordance with the law.”
The laws were reiterated in a letter sent to the Foreign Press Association on Monday.
Censorship remains unpopular in democratic societies. It is seen as a violation of free speech and a relic of a bygone era. Israel’s censorship law was enacted in 1966, when the country was smaller and media outlets operated under very different conditions.
But the policy remains in place because it saves lives. That’s especially true now, in the midst of a high-stakes Israeli operation aimed at preventing the Islamic Republic from acquiring nuclear weapons and fulfilling its goal of annihilating the Jewish State.
On Monday, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir wrote to S., the new interim head of the Shin Bet security service, urging action against media outlets that violate censorship laws and pledging police assistance.
If the controversial Ben-Gvir, who has taken an uncharacteristically low profile in the current fight against Iran, moves to have a journalist arrested, it would almost certainly draw negative coverage. Israel has already been condemned internationally for bombing the headquarters of IRIB, the Iranian regime’s state broadcaster.
That strike occurred while anchorwoman Sahar Emami was live on air, pointing her finger at what she called “Iran’s aggressors.”
Moment Israel’s air strike hit Iran’s state broadcaster, IRIB. Iranian presenter Sahar Emami was on air when one of the studios got hit.
The attack followed an evacuation warning issued by Israel for Tehran’s upscale District 3, a densely populated area. pic.twitter.com/zuJx2tC7qI
— Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (@RFERL) June 16, 2025
The IDF responded by stating that the communications center was being used for military purposes by the Iranian regime, and that the strike took place an hour after Israel issued a warning to evacuate the area of Tehran where the station is located.
But the strike had further justification. IRIB, along with its English-language counterpart Press TV, serves as the propaganda arm of the Iranian regime. It disseminates disinformation, suppresses domestic dissent, and incites attacks against Israel by Iran and its proxies.
These broadcasters are an integral part of the Iranian war machine, just as Hitler’s propagandists were during World War II.
The global battle over the narrative will determine the outcome of this war, just as much as what unfolds on its seven military fronts.
And on both the military and media battlefields, Israel cannot afford to lose.
The author is the Executive Director of 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 Western Media Have Aided the Iranian Regime’s Attacks on Israel first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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North London Synagogue, Nursery Targeted in Eighth Local Antisemitic Incident in Just Over a Week
Demonstrators against antisemitism in London on Sept. 8, 2025. Photo: Campaign Against Antisemitism
A synagogue and its nursery school in the Golders Green area of north London were targeted in an antisemitic attack on Thursday morning — the eighth such incident locally in just over a week amid a shocking surge of anti-Jewish hate crimes in the area.
The synagogue and Jewish nursery were smeared with excrement in an antisemitic outrage echoing a series of recent incidents targeting the local Jewish community.
“The desecration of another local synagogue and a children’s nursery with excrement is a vile, deliberate, and premeditated act of antisemitism,” Shomrim North West London, a Jewish organization that monitors antisemitism and also serves as a neighborhood watch group, said in a statement.
“This marks the eighth antisemitic incident locally in just over a week, to directly target the local Jewish community,” the statement read. “These repeated attacks have left our community anxious, hurt, and increasingly worried.”
Local law enforcement confirmed they are reviewing CCTV footage and collecting evidence to identify the suspect and bring them to justice.
This latest anti-Jewish hate crime came just days after tens of thousands of people marched through London in a demonstration against antisemitism, amid rising levels of antisemitic incidents across the United Kingdom since the Hamas-led invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
In just over a week, seven Jewish premises in Barnet, the borough in which Golders Green is located, have been targeted in separate antisemitic incidents.
According to the Metropolitan Police, an investigation has been launched into the targeted attacks, all of which involved the use of bodily fluids.
During the incidents, a substance was smeared on four synagogues and a private residence, while a liquid was thrown at a school and over a car in two other attacks.
As the investigation continues, local police said they believe the same suspect is likely responsible for all seven offenses, which are being treated as religiously motivated criminal damage.
No arrests have been made so far, but law enforcement said it is actively engaging with the local Jewish community to provide reassurance and support.
The Community Security Trust (CST), a nonprofit charity that advises Britain’s Jewish community on security matters, condemned the recent wave of attacks and called on authorities to take immediate action.
“The extreme defilement of several Jewish locations in and around Golders Green is utterly abhorrent and deeply distressing,” CST said in a statement.
“CST is working closely with police and communal partners to support victims and help identify and apprehend the perpetrator,” it continued.
The Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) also denounced the attacks, calling for urgent measures to protect the Jewish community.
“These repeated incidents are leaving British Jews anxious and vulnerable in their own neighborhoods, not to mention disgusted,” CAA said in a statement.
Since the start of the war in Gaza, the United Kingdom has experienced a surge in antisemitic crimes and anti-Israel sentiment.
Last month, CST published a report showing there were 1,521 antisemitic incidents in the UK from January to June of this year. It marks the second-highest total of incidents ever recorded by CST in the first six months of any year, following the first half of 2024 in which 2,019 antisemitic incidents were recorded.
In total last year, CST recorded 3,528 antisemitic incidents for 2024, the country’s second worst year for antisemitism despite being an 18 percent drop from 2023’s record of 4,296.
In previous years, the numbers were significantly lower, with 1,662 incidents in 2022 and 2,261 hate crimes in 2021.
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Germany to Hold Off on Recognizing Palestinian State but Will Back UN Resolution for Two-State Solution
German national flag flutters on top of the Reichstag building, that seats the Germany’s lower house of parliament, the Bundestag, in Berlin, Germany, March 25, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Lisi Niesner
Germany will support a United Nations resolution for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict but does not believe the time has come to recognize a Palestinian state, a government spokesman told Reuters on Thursday.
“Germany will support such a resolution which simply describes the status quo in international law,” the spokesman said, adding that Berlin “has always advocated a two-state solution and is asking for that all the time.”
“The chancellor just mentioned two days ago again that Germany does not see that the time has come for the recognition of the Palestinian state,” the spokesman added.
Britain, France, Canada, Australia, and Belgium have all said they will recognize a Palestinian state at the United Nations General Assembly later this month, although London said it could hold back if Israel were to take steps to ease the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and commit to a long-term peace process.
The United States strongly opposes any move by its European allies to recognize Palestinian independence.
Last week, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that the US has told other countries that recognition of a Palestinian state will cause more problems.
Those who see recognition as a largely symbolic gesture point to the negligible presence on the ground and limited influence in the conflict of countries such as China, India, Russia, and many Arab states that have recognized Palestinian independence for decades.
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UN Security Council, With US Support, Condemns Strikes on Qatar
Qatar’s Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani attends an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council, following an Israeli attack on Hamas leaders in Doha, Qatar, at UN headquarters in New York City, US, Sept. 11, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz
The United Nations Security Council on Thursday condemned recent strikes on Qatar’s capital Doha, but did not mention Israel in the statement agreed to by all 15 members, including Israel‘s ally the United States.
Israel attempted to kill the political leaders of Hamas with the attack on Tuesday, escalating its military action in what the United States described as a unilateral attack that does not advance US and Israeli interests.
The United States traditionally shields its ally Israel at the United Nations. US backing for the Security Council statement, which could only be approved by consensus, reflects President Donald Trump’s unhappiness with the attack ordered by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“Council members underscored the importance of de-escalation and expressed their solidarity with Qatar. They underlined their support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Qatar,” read the statement, drafted by Britain and France.
The Doha operation was especially sensitive because Qatar has been hosting and mediating negotiations aimed at securing a ceasefire in the Gaza war.
“Council members underscored that releasing the hostages, including those killed by Hamas, and ending the war and suffering in Gaza must remain our top priority,” the Security Council statement read.
The Security Council will meet later on Thursday to discuss the Israeli attack at a meeting due to be attended by Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani.