On June 19th the BBC News website published (not for the first time) an article on the topic of a potential escalation of hostilities between Israel and the terrorist organisation Hizballah.
In line with standard BBC practice, that article by Lucy Williamson – headlined ‘Israel and Hezbollah play with fire as fears grow of another war’ – fails to provide BBC audiences with essential background information on the topic of UN Security Council resolution 1701 – according to which Hizballah should be nowhere near the border with Israel – and UNIFIL’s failure to enforce it.
Like so many of her colleagues, Williamson completely ignores the issue of Hizballah’s long-stated aim of destroying Israel, preferring instead to frame the hostilities initiated by Hizballah on October 8th 2023 (which it took the BBC News website two days to mention) as “support for its Hamas ally in Gaza” and telling BBC audiences that:
“The US sent its envoy to both sides of the border this week to try to resolve the conflict, but Hezbollah has been clear that it is acting in solidarity with its Hamas ally, and a ceasefire deal in Gaza is widely seen as the only viable path to a diplomatic solution in the north.” [emphasis added]
Like other BBC journalists, Williamson avoids clarifying that the majority of those killed in Lebanon throughout the past eight months were terrorists, including over 340 claimed by Hizballah:
“So far, the UN says more than 400 people have been killed in Lebanon, including many civilians.”
As was the case in another BBC report about Hizballah’s recent attacks on northern Israel, Williamson fails to clarify that what she calls “the recent intense exchange of fire” took place during a Jewish holiday, although she does insert the topic of a Muslim holiday into her account:
“It’s a peculiar political twist that hostilities rose between Israel and Hezbollah this week, even as the missiles ebbed.
The recent intense exchange of fire replaced, during the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha, with a fiery volley of threats, the familiar drum beat of deterrence spotlighting the path to war. […]
The days leading up to Eid saw a furious volley of drones and rockets from Lebanon, after Israel killed a senior Hezbollah commander, Taleb Abdallah.”
As noted here previously, Hizballah’s attacks began before the elimination of that senior commander.
Williamson refers to drone footage published the previous day by Hizballah (analysis of which can be found here):
“On Tuesday, Hezbollah released drone footage of the northern Israel city of Haifa, with key military and civilian sites marked on the video. It was widely seen as a veiled threat to Israel not to escalate the conflict – a lethal strike on Haifa would likely trigger all-out war.”
She also quotes parts of a speech made by Hizballah’s leader on the day that her report appeared:
“The Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah, on Wednesday threatened to invade northern Israel if a full-scale war with Israel broke out.
He also said Hezbollah had “new weapons” which would be seen in the field.
But, he added, the group did not want full-scale war with Israel – and viewed its involvement as support for its Hamas ally in Gaza.”
Most remarkable, however, is Williamson’s total erasure of a particular part of that speech by Nasrallah, which was later amplified by an occasional BBC interviewee. As reported by the Times of Israel and many other media outlets:
“The head of Lebanon’s Hezbollah terror group Hassan Nasrallah said Wednesday that nowhere in Israel would be safe if a full-fledged war breaks out between the two foes, while also threatening Cyprus and other parts of the Mediterranean. […]
Nasrallah also threatened Cyprus for the first time, saying it had been allowing Israel to use its airports and bases for military exercises and that Hezbollah could consider it “a part of the war” and strike it were it to allow the IDF to use logistical infrastructure in the country to attack Lebanon.
“Opening Cypriot airports and bases to the Israeli enemy to target Lebanon would mean that the Cypriot government is part of the war, and the resistance will deal with it as part of the war,” he said.
Cyprus is not known to offer any land or base facilities to the Israeli military, but has in the past allowed Israel to use its airspace to occasionally conduct air drills, though never during conflict.”
Neither Nasrallah’s threats nor the subsequent responses from the president of Cyprus and the EU are mentioned in Williamson’s report or – insofar as we are aware – in any other BBC News website content.
As noted at WINEP:
“Hezbollah has a range of options to back up Nasrallah’s threat. The group is believed to possess a large arsenal of highly accurate surface-to-surface missiles mainly of the Iranian-made Fateh family, which cover ranges from 250 to 1,000 kilometers while carrying a 450-kilogram high-explosive warhead. It also likely has antiship ballistic and cruise missiles similar in quality and quantity to what the Houthis have used against international vessels in the Red Sea region since November—including the highly advanced Russian Yakhont, a supersonic weapon with a range of 300 kilometers.
Hezbollah would therefore have little problem targeting Britain’s Akrotiri air base, its nearby PLUTO II over-the-horizon surveillance radar, or its Troodos radar and signals intelligence collection station. Fateh-type missiles could reach these targets from either Lebanon’s mountainous coastal areas (about 250 kilometers away) or as far east as Baalbek in the Beqa Valley, giving Hezbollah ample flexibility to protect its launchers from counterstrikes. The group also has large stocks of one-way attack drones capable of reaching targets around the island, from anchored ships to inland facilities.”
Nasrallah’s threat of a regional war with potential implications for Britain was obviously not considered newsworthy by Lucy Williamson, who instead chose to report only selected parts of his speech, thus clearing the way for a redundant “tit for tat” narrative of equivalence, as seen in both her closing statement – “In the north, both sides are playing with fire” – and in the headline to her report.
Hizballah has been “playing with fire” ever since it chose to attack Israel one day after Hamas’ invasion of Israel and unprecedented massacre. Clearly Williamson’s selective framing and promotion of false equivalence between an attacking terrorist organisation and a country defending its citizens does not enhance audience understanding of either the current situation on the border between Israel and Lebanon or any wider potential developments.
Related Articles:
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MORE 1701 ERASURE IN BBC REPORTING FROM SOUTHERN LEBANON
WHY DOES THE BBC PROMOTE DENIALS THAT HAVE BEEN DISPROVED IN COURT?
Superb anaysis and conclusion by Hadar, as usual.
The corrupt BBC, employer of the late paedophile Sir Jimmy Savile for 50 years, the late paedophile Rolf Harris and others, appears to be batting for the other side against British interests. It is using BBC licence-feeTV-taxpayers’ money to do so.
Nasrallah’s speech was the day before as seen on Aljazeera.
What is strange is that on the Today programme on Radio 4 on Thursday morning’s News Bulletin at 8am 20 June , the Jerusalem correspondent Yolande Knell filed a report regarding what the Hezbollah terrorist group leader Hassan Nasrallah said the day before in Lebanon during a ceremony commemorating a slain Hezbollah senior commander, regarding war with Israel and at the same time threatening Cyprus.
How come it is the BBC correspondent in Jerusalem Israel and not those based in Lebanon – Beirut – who was telling the listeners what was said in Lebanon.
Does the BBC not have correspondents in Lebanon?
Going on past form it would seem Knell’s forte is to file second hand material as first hand news.