Dear Western Media: Israel escalates, you normalize
Israel has escalated its offensive against Lebanon, bombing a critical bridge connecting multiple towns in the south. The New Arab reported this morning that the strike targeted the Jisr Al-Qasmiyeh bridge near the city of Tyre, a vital civilian infrastructure link. This follows weeks of intensified cross-border shelling and drone attacks by Israel, which it claims are responses to Hezbollah
actions. This destruction of infrastructure points to a clear expansion of Israel's military objectives beyond alleged 'defensive' measures. Mainstream outlets like The New York Times, in their framing of the ongoing violence, consistently portray Israel's actions as proportionate responses to 'Hezbollah aggression,' entirely omitting the long history of Israeli incursions and occupations that
predates much of the modern Lebanese resistance. They fail to mention that the destruction of civilian infrastructure, like bridges, aligns with Israel's documented Dahiya Doctrine, a military strategy that advocates for disproportional force against civilian targets to create deterrence. This strategy was first publicly articulated by Israeli Major General Gadi Eisenkot in 2008, following the
2006 Lebanon War, which saw widespread destruction of Lebanese infrastructure. What the headlines refuse to connect is that this latest attack comes even as Washington maintains its military aid to Israel, totaling over $3.8 billion annually, effectively subsidizing the destruction of critical infrastructure in a sovereign nation. The US itself has a sordid history of targeting civilian