This Aug. 23, 2026, Op-Ed by CAMERA Español’s Marcelo Wio appeared in Jerusalem News Syndicate.
Anti-Israel demonstrators block Israeli cyclists during the August 2025 Vuelta Ciclista a España bike race, forcing the cancellation of the event’s final stage. (Screenshot from Reuters footage)
In War by Other Means: The Delegitimization Campaign Against Israel, Matthew Cohen and Chuck Freilich outlined the vicious cycle linking Palestinian activists and leaders, NGOs and the United Nations—a cycle that much of the press amplifies. Every time Israel resorts to military force, NGOs issue biased “reports” condemning Israeli attacks and demanding a thorough investigation. Notably, condemnation precedes investigation.
The United Nations then obliges with an “investigation,” often led by individuals known for their hostile stance toward Israel. “The published reports contain scathing criticism of Israel, accompanied by NGO reports on alleged Israeli war crimes,” the authors noted.
NGOs and U.N. agencies systematically condemn Israeli actions as violations of international law and war crimes before hostilities end or investigations begin. Such unverified accusations receive widespread media coverage and limit Israel’s freedom of military action.
Thus, Cohen and Freilich said: “Media have become an essential component of modern diplomacy and military action” since “a state’s legitimacy is affected by perceptions of reality as much as by reality itself, especially by images generated by television and social media, which often present a biased and distorted view.”
Compared to other conflicts, including those that are deadlier or more brutal, the Arab-Israeli conflict occupies a prime and disproportionate place in the Western political imagination.
Read the rest of CAMERA’s Op-Ed at JNS in English or Spanish.