Latest news with #IsraelAttacks
CNN
8 hours ago
- Politics
- CNN
Could The Iran Nuclear Attacks Backfire? - Amanpour - Podcast on CNN Podcasts
Could The Iran Nuclear Attacks Backfire? Amanpour 58 mins The primary goal of Israeli and American attacks on Iran was to remove the country's "existential" nuclear threat. But what if the attacks have the opposite effect, motivating the Iran to pull of the non-proliferation treaty and resume their nuclear program covertly? In parliament, Iranian lawmakers voted overwhelmingly to suspend cooperation with the IAEA. This means that Iran would halt inspections, reporting and oversight activities. Iran always insisted its nuclear program is peaceful. For some perspective, we bring you Christiane's 1995 report on her visit to Iran's earliest nuclear power plant in Bushehr. Also on today's show: Gary Samore, former White House Coordinator for Arms Control; Elaine Sciolino, author of "Adventures in the Louvre"; Mark Henson, Dir. of Federal Advocacy and Government Affairs, The Trevor Project
Yahoo
a day ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Israel's media amplifies war rhetoric, ignores Gaza's suffering
Last Thursday, just days after he had ordered strikes upon Iran, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stood outside Beersheba's Soroka Hospital and spoke of his outrage that the building had been hit in an Iranian counterstrike. 'They're targeting civilians because they're a criminal regime. They're the arch-terrorists of the world,' he said of the Iranian government. Similar accusations were levelled by other Israeli leaders, including the president, Isaac Herzog, and opposition leader Yair Lapid, during the conflict with Iran, which ended with a ceasefire brokered by United States President Donald Trump on Monday. However, what was missing from these leaders was an acknowledgement that Israel itself has attacked almost every hospital in Gaza, where more than 56,000 people have been killed, or that the Strip's healthcare system has been pushed to near total collapse. It was an omission noticeable in much of the Israeli press reporting on the Beersheba hospital attack, with few mentions of the parallels between it and Israel's own attacks on hospitals in Gaza. Instead, much of the Israeli media has supported these attacks, either seeking to downplay them, or justifying them by regularly claiming that Hamas command centres lie under the hospitals, an accusation Israel has never been able to prove. According to analysts who spoke to Al Jazeera, a media ecosystem exists in Israel that, with a few exceptions, both amplifies its leaders' calls for war while simultaneously reinforcing their claims of victimhood, all while shielding the Israeli public from seeing the suffering Israeli forces are inflicting on Gaza and the occupied West Bank. One Israeli journalist, Haaretz's media correspondent Ido David Cohen, wrote this month that 'reporters and editors at Israel's major news outlets have admitted more than once, especially in private conversations, that their employers haven't allowed them to present the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and the suffering of the population there'. 'The Israeli media … sees its job as not to educate, it's to shape and mould a public that is ready to support war and aggression,' journalist Orly Noy told Al Jazeera from West Jerusalem. 'It genuinely sees itself as having a special role in this.' 'I've seen [interviews with] people who lived near areas where Iranian missiles had hit,' Noy added. 'They were given a lot of space to talk and explain the impact, but as soon as they started to criticise the war, they were shut down, quite rudely.' Last September, a complaint brought by three Israeli civil society organisations against Channel 14, one of Israel's most watched television networks, cited 265 quotes from hosts they claimed encouraged war crimes and crimes against humanity, including genocide. Among them, concerning Gaza, were the phrases 'it really needs to be total annihilation' and 'there are no innocents.' A few months earlier, in April, the channel was again criticised within the Israeli media, this time for a live counter labelled 'the terrorists we eliminated', which made no distinction between civilians and fighters killed, the media monitoring magazine 7th Eye pointed out. Analysts and observers described how Israel's media and politicians have weaponised the horrors of the past suffering of the Jewish people and have moulded it into a narrative of victimhood that can be aimed at any geopolitical opponent that circumstances allow – with Iran looming large among them. 'It isn't just this war,' Noy, an editor with the Hebrew-language Local Call website, said. 'The Israeli media is in the business of justifying every war, of telling people that this war is essential for their very existence. It's an ecosystem. Whatever the authority is, it is absolutely right. There is no margin for doubt, with no room for criticism from the inside. To see it, you have to be on the outside.''The world has allowed Israel to act as some kind of crazy bully to do whatever it wants, whenever it wants,' Noy added. 'They can send their troops into Syria and Lebanon, never mind Gaza, with impunity. Israel is fine. Israel is bulletproof. And why wouldn't they think that? The world allows it, then people are shocked when Iran strikes back.' The Israeli media largely serves as a tool to manufacture consent for Israel's actions against the Palestinians and in neighbouring countries, while shielding the Israeli public from the suffering its victims endure. Exceptions do exist. Israeli titles such as Noy's Local Call and +972 Magazine often feature coverage highly critical of Israel's war on Gaza, and have conducted in-depth investigations into Israel's actions, uncovering scandals that are only reported on months later by the international media. Joint reporting from Local Call and +972 Magazine has revealed that the Israeli military was using an AI system to generate bombing target lists based on predicted civilian casualties. Another report found that the Israeli military had falsely declared entire Gaza neighbourhoods as evacuated, which then led to the bombing of civilian homes in areas that were still inhabited. A more famous example is the liberal daily Haaretz, which regularly criticises Israel's actions in Gaza. Haaretz has faced a government boycott over its coverage of the war.'It's not new,' Dina Matar, professor of political communication and Arab media at SOAS University of London, said. 'Israeli media has long been pushing the idea that they [Israel] are the victims while calling for actions that will allow them to present greater victimhood [such as attacking Iran]. They often use emotive language to describe a strike on an Israeli hospital that they'll never use to describe an Israeli strike on a hospital in Gaza.' Take Israeli media coverage of the siege of northern Gaza's last remaining functioning healthcare facility, the Kamal Adwan Hospital, in December. While descriptions of the attacks on the hospital from United Nations special rapporteurs spoke of their 'horror' at the strikes, those in the Israeli press, in outlets such as Ynet or The Times of Israel, instead focused almost exclusively upon the Israeli military's claims of the numbers of 'terrorists' seized. Among those seized from the hospital were medical staff, including the director of Kamal Adwan, Dr Hussam Abu Safia, who has since been tortured in an Israeli military prison, his lawyer previously told Al Jazeera. In contrast, Israeli coverage of the Soroka Hospital attack in Beersheba almost universally framed the hit as a 'direct strike' and foregrounded the experience of the evacuated patients and healthcare workers. In this environment, Matar said, Netanyahu's representation of Israel as home to a 'subjugated people' reinforced a view that Israelis have long been encouraged to hold of themselves, even amid the decades-long occupation of Palestinian land. 'No one questions what Netanyahu is saying because the implications of his speech make sense as part of this larger historical narrative; one that doesn't allow for any other [narrative], such as the Nakba or the suffering in Gaza,' the academic said.
Khaleej Times
a day ago
- Politics
- Khaleej Times
UAE condemns Israeli attacks on cities, villages in West Bank
The United Arab Emirates has expressed its strong condemnation and denunciation of the attacks by Israel on cities and villages in the West Bank, with the most recent attack being the killing and injuring of a number of Palestinians in Kafr Malik village near Ramallah. In a statement, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) warned against the continuous attacks by them, and called on the Israeli government to assume full responsibility, condemn these hostile acts, and hold perpetrators accountable. The UAE reiterates that failure to act will be seen as tacit approval that will only further deepen the cycle of hatred, racism, and instability. The Ministry emphasised the necessity for concerted endeavours to halt the escalation and prevent further loss of life. The Ministry stressed the importance of providing full protection to civilians according to international law and treaties. The Ministry called on the international community to fulfill their responsibilities to end the continuous Israeli violations, and prevent fuelling the situation in the occupied Palestinian Territory and the region. The Ministry stressed the need to support all regional and international efforts to advance the peace process in the Middle East to reach comprehensive and just peace, as well as end illegal practices that undermine the two-state solution.
LBCI
5 days ago
- Politics
- LBCI
Israeli strikes in central Iran kill nine Revolutionary Guards
At least nine members of the Revolutionary Guards were killed Sunday in Israeli attacks on central Iran, local media reported, as fighting between the two foes continued. "Following the aggression of the barbaric Zionist regime and its mercenaries against two military centers in Yazd city, seven Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps personnel and two conscripts were martyred," the Tasnim news agency reported, quoting an IRGC statement. Others were injured in the attack, it added. The Fars news agency had earlier said Israeli strikes targeted two military sites in Yazd. AFP
ABC News
6 days ago
- Politics
- ABC News
Is Iran set to leave the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty?
As the bombs keep landing and Israel continues its devastating attacks on Iran's nuclear program, it's easy to forget Iran remains a signatory of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, or NPT. Up until Israel's strikes Iran was still submitting to inspections by the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The nuclear watchdog has continued to gather data on Iran's nuclear program, but Tehran has increasingly placed severe restrictions on access. But with the devastating damage to its nuclear installations, some analysts believe this confrontation could drive Iran out of the treaty — and actually provide more impetus to develop nuclear weapons. "Iran's reaction would be, 'What was the point of adhering to the Non-Proliferation Treaty?'" Middle East historian Ibrahim al-Marashi told 7.30. "'We might as well, even with all the damage done, we should get a nuclear weapon. As our ultimate guarantor of survival.'" In an interview with 730 this week, Iran's ambassador to Australia Ahmad Sadeghi denied his country is developing a nuclear weapon. "The nuclear program of Iran is for the peaceful measures," Mr. Sadeghi said. The NPT came into force in 1970 and currently more than 190 countries are signatories. Its aim is to stop the spread of nuclear weapons. Inspections in Iran have become more difficult since the US walked away from an agreement with the country in 2018. That deal saw the US and other countries loosen economic sanctions in return for Iran agreeing not to develop a nuclear weapon. "The deal was working until Donald Trump was elected in 2016," said Barbara Slavin from not-for-profit think tank the Stimson Centre. She's been analysing American-Iranian relations for four decades. "[Trump] began criticising the agreement and he finally left it in 2018, while Iran was still in full compliance with that deal. Now following that, Iran gradually began to ramp up the programme again, to the point where it was very, very advanced." The day before Israel launched its first attacks, the IAEA declared Iran was in breach of its NPT obligations and said it could not assure that Iran's nuclear programme was only peaceful. "Just before the Israelis attacked, the IAEA board of governors actually issued a censure resolution against the Iranian government for its lack of cooperation," Ms Slavin said. "I think the Israelis thought that strengthened their case to attack Iran." Israel has long argued that a nuclear-armed Iran would threaten its existence. But Ms Slavin and many analysts point out there's an important caveat to that argument: Although it is not officially acknowledged, Israel is believed to possess multiple nuclear weapons. "So if Israel really felt that its existence was at stake, it could use nuclear weapons against Iran or any other adversary. That's why Israel developed nuclear weapons in the 1960s," Ms Slavin said. Mr al-Marashi says that contradiction — that Iran is part of the NPT and Israel isn't — is hard to ignore. "A lot of commentators or just regular people would say that there's a double standard: that Iran [belongs to] the NPT, but that Israel practises a policy of nuclear opacity," Mr al-Marashi said. "Not being a member of the NPT … [Israel] deliberately tries to be vague about its nuclear arsenal to keep people guessing." While not confirming it has nuclear weapons, Israel argues a nuclear capable Iran poses an existential threat because its leaders have repeatedly said they want to destroy Israel. Watch 7.30, Mondays to Thursdays 7:30pm on ABC iview and ABC TV Do you know more about this story? Get in touch with 7.30 here.
