The Telegraph is something of an outlier in the UK in its commitment to accurate and morally clear reporting and editorials about the Middle East. However, within any large media institution, there will be outliers who deviate from established ethical standards. An extremely tendentious, grossly misleading and agenda-driven article by Watch: Lebanese dance and cheer under missiles heading for Israel”, June 17), is a case in point.
The piece begins by reporting on customers at a rooftop bar in Beirut, as well as guests at a nearby wedding party, were filmed dancing to music as Iranian missile attacks against Israel can be seen in the sky. Then, readers are told that “for Lebanon – a country Israel has invaded three times and attacked countless more – war involving its southern neighbour is nothing new”, grossly misleading readers by failing to note that the last two “invasions”, in 2006 and 2024, were in response to attacks and acts of aggression against Israel by Hezbollah.
Yan and Chaayto then write that “Many [in Beirut] feel avenged by the daily volley of fire that Iran has returned to Israel, in retaliation for Benjamin Netanyahu’s air strikes early on Friday morning that set off a significant escalation in regional tensions.” Even leaving aside their context-free characterisation of Israeli air strikes, the question of precisely how many Lebanese feel “avenged” by the sight of Iranian ballistic missiles reigning down on Israel isn’t explored.
In fact, while residents of southern Lebanon, where Hezbollah is strong, are generally prone to support the terror group’s sponsor, a 2023 poll by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy shows that, overall, the country is anti-Iran. Just 18% of Lebanese characterise Iran as first and foremost a “friend”, with 60% describing them as an “enemy”.
The Telegraph article continues ignoring the actual sentiments of Lebanese, bizarrely writing that, “For many Lebanese, the Israelis have long posed a serious threat with their expansionist ambitions regarding Lebanon and Gaza – and even Syria and Jordan.”
Of course, only the most unserious anti-Zionist propagandists – including Hezbollah itself – would promote the fiction that Jerusalem has “expansionist ambitions” on these countries and territories. It’s of course Iran, which for decades has been spending enormous resources on exporting the Islamic revolution to the Middle East, and which has proxies surrounding Israel, including in Lebanon itself, which has “expansionist ambitions”.
The propaganda framed as news continues, as the co-authors write that “Hezbollah, an Iran-backed terrorist group, is based in Lebanon has always been Israel’s justification for bombing further and further over its northern border.” Astonishingly, Yan and Chaayto fail to explain that Hezbollah’s unprovoked aggression against Israel, such as their decision to begin firing rockets at Israeli towns on Oct. 8, 2023, just a day after the Hamas massacre, was the reason (“justification”) for Israeli attacks on the Iranian-controlled terror group, and their military infrastructure throughout the country.
During the thirteen month war, the terror group launched over 5,000 separate attacks (using rockets, missiles or UAVs) on the country’s north, causing the displacement of over 60,000 residents and killing 133 (mostly civilians).
The Telegraph reporters then write “Israel’s war in Gaza, in its second year, has not helped those [anti-Israel] sentiments, precipitating a humanitarian catastrophe among Palestinians. The death toll is now more than 55,000, according to the Hamas-run health ministry”, before adding that “Some in Beirut hope the Israelis might finally, upon experiencing such pain, come to understand the extent of the violence Israel has inflicted upon others in the Middle East for so long.
Shamefully, they omit the Oct. 7th Hamas massacre, the antisemitic mass murder, rape, torture, mutilation and hostage taking in southern Israel which caused, and continues to cause, indescribable pain to the surviving victims, their families and the nation as a whole.
While we expect such agenda-driven, one-sided, overtly anti-Israel reporting from the Guardian, it’s concerning that such advocacy journalism has even seeped into the Telegraph’s reporting.
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