When bad-faith actors use social media as an accelerant for anti-Israel disinformation, the news media too often fans the flames instead of stopping the spread.
Rabbi Ovadia Yosef's vitriolic remarks Saturday garnered major media attention. In contrast, when PA Chairman Abbas and Prime Minister Fayyad recently honored a mastermind of the Munich Massacre, the keyboards were silent.
The author may not have meant it to be so, but Adrian Blomfield’s recent article in the British Telegraph about tensions in Jerusalem could serve as a “How-To” guide for anti-Israel bias. It seems all the elements are there to skew public understanding of recent events in Israel’s capital.
Breaking the Silence (Shovrim Shtika) is a foreign-funded, Israeli NGO whose mission is to publicly vilify Israel's military. British media outlets have overlooked journalistic norms to promote this NGO's questionable allegations.
The perception that Israel's response to Hezbollah attacks was disproportionate, and that indiscriminate force was aimed at the Lebanese population, was largely a result of media reports on the casualty breakdown in Lebanon. But there is plenty of reason to doubt often repeated claims that almost all Lebanese casualties were civilians.