Israel is battling more than Hezbollah in Lebanon. The Jewish state is also facing press coverage almost as criminally bad as the terrorist group itself. And few outlets have been worse than the Washington Post.
On several recent occasions, the newspaper’s coverage of Israel’s conflict with Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed terror organization that de facto controls Lebanon, has been replete with omissions and misrepresentations.
Like its paymasters in Tehran, Hezbollah calls for Israel’s destruction. And its actions prove that it is committed to its objective. Indeed, after its fellow Iranian proxy, Hamas, invaded Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, Hezbollah soon joined the fray, launching missiles and drones into the embattled nation.
Hezbollah’s near-constant barrage has gone on for more than a year, killing and wounding dozens of Israelis. On July 27, Hezbollah missiles killed twelve children in the Israeli Druze village of Majdal Shams in northern Israel. Their mangled bodies were strewn all over the soccer field that they were playing on when they were murdered.
As CAMERA noted at the time, the Post’s coverage of that attack was abysmal, fixating on Israel’s retaliatory response instead of the terror attack that prompted it. After CAMERA covered the newspaper’s bias, the Post later issued a correction. But the outlet has largely failed to learn from its mistake.
Time and again, the Post omits both Hezbollah’s genocidal aims and its actions, thereby omitting the reasons behind Israel’s recent incursion into Lebanon.
Take, for example, an Oct. 9, 2024 dispatch (“For Lebanese Americans, calm at home is surreal as Israel strikes Beirut”). Correspondent Maham Javaid’s report examines the feelings of some Lebanese Americans as they “wonder how to navigate their daily lives as their families in Lebanon seek safety amid Israel’s most intense and deadly airstrikes in decades—and a ground invasion that has sparked fears of a widening war.”
Yet, that war has already widened—and Hezbollah, not Israel, is to blame. But in characteristic fashion, the Post puts the proverbial cart before the horse, portraying Israel as responsible for the “widening war.” The newspaper first highlighted recent targeted Israeli strikes that took out top Hezbollah commanders and operatives, including, most notably, an operation that blew up pagers and walkie talkies used by the group. But as CAMERA has documented, these actions only took place after months of precision strikes on Hezbollah leaders failed to compel Hezbollah to cease its endless barrage. Hezbollah, however, didn’t get the message, leading to Israel finally eliminating the terrorist organization’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, in a Sept. 27 strike.
Hezbollah may not have the gotten the message, but it seems that the terror group can count on the Post to deliver its talking points. Indeed, the number of omissions in Javaid’s dispatch are remarkable.
The Post failed to note that Hezbollah attacks have led to an estimated 70,000 Israelis driven from their homes and displaced for months. For months Israel has been working to ensure that they can safely return to their communities in the country’s north. Israel has tried U.S.-brokered diplomacy—only to watch it fail. And, as noted above, smaller scale strikes have also failed to stop Hezbollah.
Indeed, in January 2024—nearly a year ago—Israeli officials were warning that they would not allow tens of thousands of Israelis to remain under threat and displaced. A Jan. 7, 2024 Post report, for example, quoted Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant as saying that “We are getting close to the point where the hourglass will tip over.”
Javaid’s report, however, omits this important context. Worse still, it claims that “Hezbollah has fired 3,000 rockets into Israel.” The actual figure is “no less than 8,000 rockets, missiles and UAVs” as the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a Washington D.C.-based think tank, noted on September 23rd—more than two weeks before Javaid’s dispatch. So: the Post’s report was off by more than half.
Instead, the Post presented Israel as being in the wrong, writing that “Israel has said that it will continue its military operation in Lebanon, in defiance of a U.S.-supported cease fire proposal.” Yet it is Hezbollah that has refused to ceasefire—and now the terror group is facing the consequences.
Elsewhere, the report uncritically quotes figures supplied by Lebanon’s Health Ministry—a practice that CAMERA has explicitly warned against since the Lebanese government is de facto controlled by Hezbollah. For good measure, the Post also uncritically cites casualty statistics supplied by “the Gaza Health Ministry”—statistics that are unreliable because that ministry is controlled by Hamas, a U.S.-designated terror group, with both a history of lying about casualties and a clear incentive to do so.
Other problematic omissions abound. For example, the Post quotes many Lebanese Americans who are understandably worried about their families being caught in the crossfire. But the newspaper fails to inform readers that this is part and parcel of Hezbollah’s strategy, which relies on using human shields. Indeed, entire communities in the country’s south have been constructed on and amid weapons depots used by the terrorist group. The IDF has recently released footage showing that ballistic missiles have been set up to launch from Lebanese homes. The Post, however, ignores all of this relevant information.
And despite citing the United Nations, the Post failed to note that U.N. Security Council Resolutions 1701 and 1559 call for Hezbollah to be disbanded. Both the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) and Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) are tasked with enforcing these provisions—and both receive copious amounts of U.S. aid to do so. But instead of noting that UNIFIL and LAF have failed to carry out their U.S.-taxpayer funded missions, the Post, if implicitly, laments that Israel has received “billions of dollars…for security assistance” which only increases “the anxiety for the Lebanese people here [in the U.S.].”
For good measure the Post uncritically quotes James Zogby, the president of the Arab American Institute, and a man known for both his anti-Israel bias and fringe views.
The Post’s dispatch closes with a Lebanese American warning that “This is a war that the U.S. is involved in, and Americans should know more about it by reading deeper than the headlines.” They should. But they shouldn’t be turning to the Washington Post to do so.