OCTOBER 2 UPDATE:
CNN Corrects
After CAMERA informed journalists of the problems detailed here, CNN corrected its piece so that it now more accurately reflects Hamas's stated goals. See below for a detailed update.
When covering a conflict, among a journalist’s most basic tasks is to accurately convey the goals of the warring parties. Without a proper explanation of motivations, readers and decision-makers will be unable to properly understand the course of events. In covering the ongoing conflict between Israel and Iran-backed proxies, CNN’s Lex Harvey falls short in his October 2 article, “What to know about the Iran-backed militant groups battling Israel.”
The most glaring error is in how Harvey depicts Hamas’s goal: “to liberate the Palestinian territories.” In truth, Hamas’s goals go far beyond just “the Palestinian territories,” a phrase that is itself a misnomer but which, in common parlance, refers to the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Hamas’s stated goal is “to raise the banner of Allah over every inch of Palestine.” According to its 2017 policy statement, “Palestine” “extends from the River Jordan in the east to the Mediterranean in the west and from Ras al-Naqurah in the north to Umm al-Rashrash in the south, is an integral territorial unit.” For those without a map, Hamas is saying it seeks to “liberate” not just the West Bank and Gaza, but all of Israel, which, as Hamas’s Charter declares, “will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it.”
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This is Israel right now.
RT this so the entire world knows. pic.twitter.com/ok8CxCXxnP
— Israel ישראל (@Israel) October 1, 2024
The CNN article’s description of Hezbollah also falls short, largely through omission. Three of the four sentences devoted to Hezbollah focus on “Israel’s invasion of Lebanon in 1982.” The first three sentences omit that Hezbollah, which Harvey calls a “non-state group,” was a creation of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Harvey also omits the reason for Israel’s invasion: persistent cross-border attacks by the Palestine Liberation Organization. The fourth sentence makes a vague reference to 2006 when, according to Harvey, “Hezbollah and Israel fought a war.” Here, Harvey fails to identify the aggressor. Whereas he clearly labels Israel as the invader in 1982, he overlooks Hezbollah’s attack into Israeli territory that sparked the 2006 war.
But there’s another important feature to the motivations of all three terror groups absent in Harvey’s article: the ideological antisemitism. Hezbollah hasn’t only attacked Israel, which it has sworn to destroy; it has also targeted non-Israeli Jewish civilians around the world in places as far away as Buenos Aires. The Houthi motto declares: "God Is the Greatest, Death to America, Death to Israel, A Curse Upon the Jews, Victory to Islam." Hamas’s Charter proclaims: “Our struggle against the Jews is very great and very serious.”
This isn’t the first time CNN has let its audience down. As CAMERA’s Gilead Ini recently highlighted, the network’s obituary for Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, expunged the terrorist organization’s many deadly terrorist attacks from the record.
Until CNN is honest about the genocidal crusade of Iran and its proxy terrorist groups, the network’s audience will fail to comprehend the motivations of the parties to the conflict. One side seeks to erase the Jewish state from existence, while the other side refuses to lie down and die.
Update: CNN Corrects
After CAMERA informed editors of the inaccurate description of Hamas's goals, the network published the following correction:
An earlier version of this post misstated the length of Israel’s occupation in southern Lebanon. It was 18 years. The description of the goals of Hamas has also been updated to more accurately convey their meaning.
The article now reads:
Hamas considers Israel’s existence as illegitimate and seeks its destruction.
We commend CNN for the prompt correction.