Germany and Qatar are two nations with two very different opinions on Israel’s Operation Rising Lion against the Iranian regime. Yet CNN decided to add “some context” on the opinion of only one of those nations – the one that happened to be supportive of Israel.
On June 15, as part of its rolling updates on the Israel-Iran conflict, CNN posted an article entitled “Gulf official criticizes “reckless” Israeli strike on South Pars gas field,” authored by Becky Anderson, Alireza Hajihosseini, and Rob Picheta. The short post focuses on Qatar’s criticism of an Israeli strike on the South Pars gas field in Iran.
On June 18, CNN’s rolling updates included a longer post entitled “Germany’s Merz says Israel is doing the world’s “dirty work” by attacking Iran,” authored by Christian Edwards. The story covers German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s praise of Israel for doing the “dirty work for all of us” by preventing Iran from building a nuclear weapon.
But the latter article ends with some additional information under the subheading: “Some context.” That additional context:
Due to its role in the Holocaust, Germany believes it has a special responsibility to protect Jewish life and sees Israel’s security as a “Staatsräson” — a “reason of state.” But German leaders are often criticized for being too lenient towards Israel’s foreign policy decisions.
This context works to discredit Merz’s praise for Israel, suggesting such support for Israel isn’t based on any objective considerations.
If CNN felt it necessary to contextualize Germany’s support for Israel, then why did the network skip over context on Qatari criticism of Israel?
After all, Qatar is a close ally of Iran and has actively funded and harbored the leaders of terrorist organizations devoted to Israel’s destruction, such as Hamas. Indeed, Qatar has never officially recognized the State of Israel.
Such context serves the same, if not greater, purpose: it discredits Qatari criticism of the Jewish state, informing the reader that the Arab state is hardly a neutral or credible commentator on Israel’s actions.
The double standard is glaring.