Hezbollah erasure: How media bias paints Israel as microtargeting civilians - opinion

When I was an intern for the Miami Herald more than 25 years ago, I remember being surprised that the newspaper’s slogan boasted coverage that was “extremely local.”

I thought it minimized the paper’s gravitas to emphasize that instead of bringing what was happening around the world to your doorstep, it merely brought you what was happening on the doorsteps of your neighbors.

But market research indicated otherwise, as did competition from another newspaper that was unburdened by having Miami in its name, which had made the Herald less attractive to those living north of the city.

That was when I learned the concept of “microtargeting,” which later became more popular in the digital era. Back then, it merely enabled selling different advertisements for different editions. Nowadays, Google markets to people individually, knowing your online habits well past the point of creepy.

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Hezbollah's disappearance from news on the pager explosions

MICROTARGETING TOOK on new meaning last week when someone attacked the upper echelons of Hezbollah by exploding their pagers and then their walkie-talkies.

Military censorship in Israel requires attributing the possibility that Israel was behind it to “foreign sources.” But this time, Israel may have gone overboard in using foreign sources to take credit. A New York Times article said, “12 current and former defense and intelligence officials briefed on the attack say the Israelis were behind it.”

So if it was Israel, did the international media give the Jewish state credit for microtargeting the terrorists, who were the only ones given such pagers that were exclusively distributed by Hezbollah? In the spirit of the approaching High Holy Days, did the press repent for a year of falsely accusing Israel of purposely attacking civilians when it saw how far Israel went to prevent non-terrorists from being harmed?

Of course not. That would contradict the incorrect narrative about Israel as an aggressor that the press has been painting since mid-day on Oct. 7.

It was the most precisely targeted counter-terrorism operation in history, and it was intended to enable the IDF to end 11 months of war and stop the dangerous game that Hezbollah and Iran have been playing. Nevertheless, the international media still accused Israel of not doing enough to prevent civilian harm.

The typical victim profiled in the papers was not one of the honchos of Hezbollah who had it coming but nine-year-old fourth grader Fatima Abdullah, who was killed bringing her father his pager, which he had left in the kitchen. The eulogies published about Fatima did not reveal her father’s profession but did say “Fatima was trying to take courses in English.”

ABC News framed the event as wireless devices mysteriously exploding “in the hands of their owners.” British media also found creative ways to sidestep mentioning Hezbollah altogether in headlines, with The Guardian, BBC, and Daily Mirror referring to it instead as an “exploding pager attack in Lebanon.” The Mirror went a step further, calling it a “bizarre” incident, suggesting that thousands of random people – and their pagers – were the targets rather than Hezbollah militants.

“Doctors and first responders are among those who still use pagers,” said an Associated Press headline printed in media outlets around the world. The headline gives a false impression that many doctors and first responders were killed in Lebanon.

But if you pass the picture of pagers held by three young German women who have nothing to do with the story and read the article itself, there is not a single example of a doctor or first responder harmed. In fact, none were on the casualty list.

“Tuesday’s attack appeared to be a complex Israeli operation targeting Hezbollah,” the AP article said. “But the widespread use of pagers in Lebanon meant the detonations cost an enormous number of civilian casualties.”

The IDF published pictures of the terrorists killed, along with their names and titles, not leaving enough civilians in the day’s death toll to be considered anywhere near enormous.

AN ARTICLE in The Washington Post argued that Israel targeting terrorists was proof of its “hunger for war” and a desire to “escalate” tensions in the region. At the same time, the piece commended Iran and Hezbollah – who have repeatedly vowed to wipe Israel off the map – for their “great deal of restraint.”

There were many outlets accusing Israel of escalating the war, as if 11 months of rocket fire was not an escalation. Did Hezbollah not escalate by murdering 12 Druze kids playing soccer?

How about reminding the world that Hezbollah has purposely committed a double war crime daily for 11 months by firing rockets and missiles from civilian populations in Lebanon to civilian populations in Israel? Not for infamously anti-Israel CNN reporter Tamara Qiblawi, who accepted the terrorist organization’s claims to aim at what could be considered legitimate military targets.

“Hezbollah’s retaliation in the early hours of Sunday appears to be its most forceful attack since confrontations at the Israel-Lebanon border began last October,” she wrote. “The group said it targeted the Ramat David airbase in southeast Haifa, and the Rafael military industries site, north of Haifa.”

Not a single Israeli town targeted by Hezbollah was mentioned in the article by Qiblawi, whose repeated offensive, anti-Israel and pro-terror comments on social media have been highlighted by the pro-Israel media watchdog HonestReporting.

If Israel is not even given the benefit of the doubt by the international media when it microtargets terrorists, it is safe to herald that coverage of this war will continue to be extremely biased. 

The writer is the executive director of the pro-Israel media watchdog HonestReporting and the former chief political correspondent and analyst of The Jerusalem Post.