US-Supplied Munitions Kill Lebanese Journalists, Underwriting Israel's Media War
On Sunday, funeral processions took place near Beirut for three Lebanese journalists, Ali Shoeib, Fatiman Ftouni, and Mohammad Ftouni, all killed the previous day in an Israeli strike in Jezzine, southern Lebanon. The journalists, affiliated with Al Manar TV and Al Mayadeen, were reportedly in a vehicle when it was hit. Beirut officially characterized the incident as a "blatant crime," pointing to
a pattern of deliberate targeting. Mainstream Western outlets, including Al-Monitor, frequently report on such incidents as isolated "tragedies" or "clashes," often omitting crucial context regarding the weaponry used and its provenance. This framing decouples the violence from its financial enablers. For example, while the outlets lament the deaths, they rarely ask who supplied the munitions,
focusing instead on the immediate conflict. This narrative sanitization obscures the direct participation of major powers in these events, reducing accountability to a distant, unspecified 'conflict.' What is consistently omitted is the sustained fiscal lifeline from Washington that directly underwrites such operations. Since 1946, the United States has provided Israel with over $200 billion in
military assistance, adjusting for inflation, with approximately $3.8 billion allocated annually in recent years, much of it spent on US-made weaponry. This consistent funding not only equips the Israeli military but also tacitly sanctions actions like the strike in Jezzine. The refusal of a comprehensive arms embargo, even after incidents involving civilian casualties or journalists, underscores