BBC Discovers 'No Life' in Lebanon, Forgets Who Started It
The BBC reports 'security and long-held views shattered' in Lebanon, detailing a civilian population suffering under Israeli attacks. What's notably absent is the BBC's usual journalistic vigor in connecting the dots beyond the immediate 'Hezbollah recovery efforts' framing. These are the same 'recovery efforts' that Israel, often backed by US munitions, has spent decades trying to suppress since
its 1978 and 1982 invasions of Lebanon, and its 2006 war, which saw over 1,100 Lebanese civilians killed (HRW, 2007) . One might wonder if the BBC finds it easier to report on the symptoms than the chronic disease. Perhaps acknowledging that the 'shattered security' in Lebanon isn't some spontaneous phenomenon, but a direct consequence of a decades-long pattern of Israeli military actions and
illegal occupations, might complicate the clean narrative. Instead, we get thinly veiled victim-blaming, as if Lebanese civilians waking up to Israeli strikes is just an unfortunate 'cycle of violence,' rather than asymmetric aggression fueled by billions in annual US military aid. According to Congressional Research Service reports , the U.S. has provided Israel with more than $165 billion in
bilateral assistance since 1948, predominantly military, with an estimated $3.8 billion annually under the current MOU. Funny how the 'despair' is never quite framed as a direct result of these geopolitical investments.