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'Western Press Obscured the Sheer Terror of What Israel Had Carried Out' Janine Jackson ([link removed])


Janine Jackson interviewed NYU's Mohamad Bazzi about Israel's terror attacks in Lebanon for the September 27, 2024, episode ([link removed]) of CounterSpin. This is a lightly edited transcript.

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CBS: Fallout of Israel's reported attack using Hezbollah pagers

Leon Panetta on CBS (9/22/24 ([link removed]) )

Janine Jackson: Speaking of Israel's remote detonation of thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies of suspected Hezbollah members in Lebanon, former CIA director and defense secretary Leon Panetta told CBS ([link removed]) , ”I don't think there is any question that it's a form of terrorism.”

Panetta’s remarks were widely reported, mostly straight, but for Fox, where Sean Hannity said ([link removed]) Panetta “had the gall to say Israel is engaging in terrorism against the terror group Hezbollah.”

It seems worth noting: Just before Panetta, CBS viewers heard from a former FBI analyst who said of the explosions in stores, cars and homes that killed some 39 people and injured more than 3,000, including children:

Tactically, what Israel has done has been brilliant. They have severely degraded Hezbollah's capabilities. They've severely degraded Hezbollah's ability to respond to Israeli things. They're really hoping that, strategically, Hezbollah gets the message: Stop firing rockets into our country.

That “tactic” has led to more death, more destruction and, some say, more chance of a still wider, more devastating war.

Joining us now to talk about unfolding events and US media's depictions is Mohamad Bazzi. He's director of the Hagop Kevorkian Center ([link removed]) for Near Eastern Studies and journalism professor at New York University, as well as former Middle East bureau chief at Newsday. He joins us now by phone from here in town. Welcome to CounterSpin, Mohamad Bazzi.

Mohamad Bazzi: Thank you for having me.

JJ: CBS segued from the "brilliant tactic" guy to Leon Panetta by saying that some saw Israel's action as a “deception one step too far. The United Nations labeled the operation a violation of international law, and it's raised some eyebrows here at home too.” It's equally hard to imagine that this wasn't a violation as that it wouldn't immediately be condemned as such, had anyone else carried it out, would you say?
Mohamad Bazzi

Mohamad Bazzi: "What unfolded in Lebanon last week was something dystopian, but it wasn't a movie. It affected real people's lives."

MB: That's an excellent point. It would certainly have been condemned, let's say, if Russia had carried out a similar operation, or even something a fraction of this kind of attack, in Ukraine.

I think one of the things that struck me, and I suspect it struck you and others who watch the Western media, is the sense of marvel over the ingenuity of Israel's technological prowess. So what we had is a lot of the coverage framed as, “Oh, this is taking a page out of a spy thriller ([link removed]) , or a dystopian movie."

And in some ways, what unfolded in Lebanon last week was something dystopian, but it wasn't a movie. It affected real people's lives. And so many in the Western media were fixating on the novelty of Israel's attack, and sometimes celebrating it, but they neglected to acknowledge or even consider the sheer terror experienced by tens of thousands of Lebanese civilians. And this is a society that suffered through years and years of trauma, and this was the latest attack that unfolded in this incredibly pernicious way.

A lot of the coverage also didn't get into the question of whether this constituted a war crime. And, on the face of it, it seems to meet the definition of a war crime: Human Rights Watch, a few other rights organizations, issued statements ([link removed]) noting that international humanitarian law forbids the use of booby traps ([link removed]) , especially with objects that have such important use for civilians ([link removed]) . I think it would fit the definition of a war crime, beyond just being an act of terrorism that's meant to instill terror in a civilian population.

JJ: Hezbollah, like Hamas, is for many US media consumers almost like a sports team, or like a kaiju, a monster like Godzilla. And I think it might sound strange to some to think that they aren't solely a military force in Lebanon, but in fact have a much broader role.

MB: Yeah, a lot of media consumers and listeners in the US don't get the context. They don't get the background that Hezbollah is not only a militia, it is not only the militia that's labeled a terrorist group ([link removed]) by the US and by many countries in the EU, but it's also the most dominant military force in Lebanon, and it's also the most powerful political party and political movement in the country.

So Hezbollah runs an extensive social service network. It operates schools and hospitals ([link removed]) and supermarkets ([link removed]) and credit unions ([link removed]) .
NYT: Device Explosions Are Latest Covert Attack Attributed to Israel

New York Times (9/18/24 ([link removed]) ): "The attacks...demonstrated Israel’s prowess at using military technology in ways that suggest it can strike anywhere and at any time."

One of the things that became clear fairly quickly after the first wave of pager explosions on Tuesday—Hezbollah issued a statement after that wave of explosions saying that it had issued pagers to employees of various units and institutions, meaning they had distributed the devices not only to fighters, but to many civilian workers. That was one reason there were so many civilian casualties in this attack, but there are other reasons as well.

It's the act of terror. It's the imprecise nature, this deliberate setting off of detonations of thousands of small bombs that went off at the same time on a Tuesday afternoon, as people were going about their daily lives. And so the bombs went off in grocery stores and hospitals and sidewalk cafes and barbershops. The next day, on Wednesday, some of the walkie-talkie explosions went off during the funerals ([link removed]) of people who had been killed the day before during the pager explosions.

So this was an entirely indiscriminate attack, and it puts the Western media fascination with Israel's technological prowess into even sharper focus. We had the Western press marveling at—I'll just quote a few of the terms—“Israel's prowess ([link removed]) ," "precision ([link removed]) ," "James Bond ([link removed]) "–type operation. And quite a few other terms that obscured the sheer terror of what Israel had carried out over those two days in Lebanon.

JJ: Listeners will know that Hezbollah and Israel have been exchanging airstrikes since October 8, and this recent escalation comes as Israel continues to target schools ([link removed]) and shelters ([link removed]) housing the displaced in Gaza. And Gaza is still, you say, the key here to any potential deescalation; even as eyes may move towards Lebanon, Gaza is still at the core here.
NBC: Biden disparages Netanyahu in private but hasn’t significantly changed U.S. policy toward Israel and Gaza

NBC (2/12/24 ([link removed]) ): "In at least three recent instances, Biden has called Netanyahu an 'asshole.'”

MB: Yeah, Gaza is certainly at the core here, and this is the lesson that the Biden administration is refusing to internalize. It's the most obvious path to deescalation throughout the region, which is to pressure Israel to accept a ceasefire.

There's been a ceasefire deal on the table for months now, that Benjamin Netanyahu keeps finding reasons to obstruct ([link removed]) , and keeps adding new conditions, and why shouldn't he? He's not facing any real pressure from the US; he's not facing pressure from the Biden administration, which refuses to use the real leverage ([link removed]) it has over Israel. And that leverage is in the form of billions of dollars in US weapons that continue to flow to Israel on a daily basis.

So Joe Biden has decided that he's not going to use the best leverage he has at his disposal to pressure Netanyahu into a ceasefire. Instead, he's going to do this very wishy-washy leaks in the press, where Biden administration aides keep leaking how disappointed Biden has been at, how angry ([link removed]) he is at, Netanyahu. There's a leak a few months ago ([link removed]) that Biden privately called Netanyahu an asshole at least three times; I think that was ABC News that reported that, several months ago.
Responsible Statecraft: Why Is 'Ceasefire' Considered a Dirty Word?

Responsible Statecraft (1/18/24 ([link removed]) )

And it's obscene, this level of trying to manage the story in this way, trying to get across the idea that the US, which has the upper hand in this situation, is somehow helpless ([link removed]) to pressure Netanyahu into a ceasefire.

All of the Iranian-allied groups in the region, starting with Hezbollah ([link removed]) and the Houthis ([link removed]) in Yemen, have made clear that they would stop their attacks if and when the war in Gaza ends. So once there's a ceasefire, once the fighting stops in Gaza, they too would stop. I'll remind your listeners that during the last ceasefire, the seven-day ceasefire at the end of November, when there was an exchange of hostages for Palestinian prisoners, Hezbollah ([link removed]) and the Houthis and other Iranian-allied groups in the region did stop their attacks ([link removed]) . So I think there's evidence that they would stick to this
promise.

JJ: And as you've sort of indicated, for the corporate press, it seems the role of the US in the Mideast generally has ranged from "honest broker," ([link removed]) which used to be a term we'd hear a lot, to now it's kind of "conflicted do-gooder." It does seem, though, that every day, more and more people are seeing through that depiction, even though, as you would say, some people are clinging to it desperately. There is a more clear-eyed understanding of the US role peeping through around the edges of that storyline, don't you think?
Intercept: Most Americans Want to Stop Arming Israel. Politicians Don’t Care.

Intercept (9/10/24 ([link removed]) )

MB: I hope so. And I think the evidence of that is the majority of people ([link removed]) in the US that have been telling public opinion polls that they oppose the indefinite arming ([link removed]) of Israel in this war and enabling Israel to carry out the huge destruction, the famine, war crimes, everything in the dying Gaza over the past 11 months, and that it's now importing the same strategy into Lebanon. There's growing public opposition in the US to this untethered support for Israel, this unconditional support that Biden has promised since October 8.

And I think that's partly because people are consuming information ([link removed]) from social media ([link removed]) , from other sources beyond the legacy media, beyond the corporate media, which isn't showing anywhere near the level of destruction that's happening in Gaza. And that isn't framing the story, as you put it, of the US as an honest broker or do-gooder that's simply run out of options, and that's thrown its hands up in desperation, and just waiting for Netanyahu to accept the ceasefire.

That's not the kind of leverage that the US has, and it's nowhere near the role that the US has in all of this. The Biden administration is heavily complicit, and when we see, in the years and decades to come, hopefully when we see some form of accountability in international bodies, it's fairly easy to expect the US to go up before the International Court of Justice, or US officials to be indicted before the ICC ([link removed]) and other bodies, even though we're not a party to the ICC, to face these kinds of prosecutions for their role in arming Israel, despite the overwhelming evidence of what the Israeli military has been doing in Gaza, and now in Lebanon.
Al Jazeera: Remembering Aysenur, an activist for Palestine killed by an Israeli soldier

Al Jazeera (9/12/24 ([link removed]) )

JJ: I have to ask you, as a journalism professor and journalist, your thoughts about free speech and assembly, not just Israel's direct targeting ([link removed]) of journalists, the recent raid and shutdown ([link removed]) of Al Jazeera in the occupied West Bank, the unaccountable ([link removed]) killing of activist Aysenur Ezgi Eygi ([link removed]) , but also Cornell University moving to deport ([link removed]) a graduate student who took part in a pro-Palestinian protest. It
all feels like an attack on witnessing, on knowing what's going on and what's being done in our name.

MB: You're right, there's a widespread attack on the act of bearing witness to what's being done. There's a widespread attack on the ability ([link removed]) of people ([link removed]) of conscience ([link removed]) to protest ([link removed]) , and to disagree with the policies of their governments, especially the policy of the US government to support Israel in this unconditional way. And it's a sign of the bravery of students ([link removed]) , certainly, that have been operating and protesting at campuses across the country, at private universities, at public universities. It's a sign of their moral commitment
to this cause that they've persevered despite these threats, despite being suspended, despite some of them, as in Cornell, now facing deportation, because that graduate student could well lose his US visa, and would have to leave the country because of his political actions supporting Palestine and Gaza.

And so we're seeing average people taking tremendous risks to be able to express themselves and to say: “No, not in my name. I'm not going to accept my government and my institution supporting this.” And I hope that that's the start of the turning point here. And I think it's one of the things that's contributing to the change in public opinion, where public opinion is turning against the idea of the US arming Israel and supporting Israel indefinitely.
Pro Publica: Israel Deliberately Blocked Humanitarian Aid to Gaza, Two Government Bodies Concluded. Antony Blinken Rejected Them.

ProPublica (9/24/24 ([link removed]) )

JJ: There are calls ([link removed]) now for Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, to resign ([link removed]) after it's been reported ([link removed]) , I believe by ProPublica, that he was in receipt of assessments, from both USAID and the State Department's Refugees Bureau, that Israel had blocked deliveries of humanitarian aid to Gaza. He had that information, Blinken did, when he went before Congress, and said there was no evidence of that.

Short even of his resignation, though, how many times do US officials need to lie or hide or dissimulate before journalists stop quoting them credulously? Isn't it just insulting to readers and to the public at some point?

MB: We certainly have many decades of this, going back to Vietnam ([link removed]) , of course, US officials ([link removed]) lying about war and lying about US support for allies who commit atrocities.

The report from ProPublica has been an exception. It's an excellent report. It just came out in the last couple of days, based on internal leaks, because there are officials in the State Department, and elsewhere in the Biden administration, that find all of this unconscionable ([link removed]) , and don't want to see this continued support.

And it's a very important leak, not just because of what it tells us about Blinken and others in the administration, and their ability and willingness to lie to the US public and to lie to the US media, but it also shows us that there's actually a fairly straightforward path for the Biden administration to stop its weapons transfers to Israel, because those weapons transfers violate US laws ([link removed]) . And if they were honest, and they had admitted it, they would've had to stop sending weapons, because that's what US law requires. It's what the Biden administration's own guidelines require.

So that was a tremendously important leak by ProPublica. And, unfortunately, I've seen some references to it in the past few days, but it's not getting the widespread attention in the corporate media and in the legacy media that it should be getting.

It's certainly getting a lot of attention on social media. People are sharing it, and sharing the documents, and it's creating these calls for Blinken to resign, or for Biden to do something. But it's certainly troubling to see the legacy media ignore this as well.

And it all raises the question, what more do you want? What more can be presented to the media for it to change its approach to covering this war?

JJ: In addition to the appropriate engagement of that piece of information from that leak, are there any other things that you would like to see more of in US media coverage, or things you'd like to never see again in that coverage?

MB: I would certainly like to see more humane coverage ([link removed]) . It's a basic ask, and it's unfortunate that we have to make this ask, but I would like to see more humane coverage of Palestinians, of Lebanese, of other Arabs and Muslims.
LA TImes: Israel’s growing war with Hezbollah is traumatizing Lebanon. There’s only one path to peace

LA Times (9/23/24 ([link removed]) )

I think one of the things we've seen, just in this past week, in the way that the pager explosions and the walkie-talkie explosions were covered—this marveling ([link removed]) over Israel's ingenuity, it ignores the reality on the ground, but it also contributes to the dehumanization of Palestinians and Lebanese and Arabs, this widespread dehumanization ([link removed]) that we've seen, certainly for decades, but we've seen it ramp up to an extreme since Israel launched its war on Gaza.

So it's a basic ask, but I would like to see some greater humanization, and just covering those attacks like they would cover other attacks on civilians. It's not too much to ask for.

JJ: We've been speaking with Mohamad Bazzi, director of the Hagop Kevorkian Center ([link removed]) for Near Eastern Studies and journalism professor at New York University. His piece, “Israel's Growing War With Hezbollah Is Traumatizing Lebanon. There's Only One Path to Peace,” ([link removed]) appeared in the September 23 Los Angeles Times.

Mohamad Bazzi, thank you so much for joining us this week on CounterSpin.

MB: Thank you for having me.


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