The CBC radio program As It Happens is known for its imbalanced Israel reporting. In a November 28 segment of the program, host Nil Köksal continued to blatantly downplay the role of Hezbollah, the Lebanese terrorist group. She also suggested that the current ceasefire is protecting Lebanon from a wanton and ruthless Israeli aggressor.

Köksal invited a Lebanese lawmaker to share her experience of what Köksal referred to as a “ceasefire in Lebanon.” This is false and misleading right off the bat.

Calling it a “ceasefire in Lebanon” is quite misleading. The ceasefire she’s referring to is between Israel and Hezbollah (in Lebanon). It aims to end Hezbollah attacks on Israel as well as Israeli attacks on Hezbollah positions in Lebanon. But calling it a “ceasefire in Lebanon” suggests a message of Lebanese victimhood.

Indeed, her guest, Lebanese MP Najat Aoun Saliba, spoke at length about living “close to hell” under Israeli surveillance drones. Saliba referred to Israel’s strategy in Lebanon as “mass destruction and mass killings,” and referred to “rain of strikes and bombs.”

Click below to listen to the full segment:

Rain is indiscriminate, arbitrary, and unpredictable. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) is not. As a modern army guided by protocols, the IDF conducts limited operations in order to achieve specific objectives—in this case, the return of displaced Israeli civilians who have been forced from their homes due to Hezbollah rockets. The IDF takes measures, where possible, to protect Lebanese civilians with warnings and evacuation orders.

Yet Köksal made no move to clarify or question Saliba’s hostile claims against Israel.

As Israel has made clear repeatedly, it does not seek war with Lebanon, nor with the Lebanese people. It is a war against Hezbollah, a terrorist group that began striking Israel with near-daily rocket, mortar, and drone attacks on October 8, 2023, in claimed solidarity with Hamas in Gaza.

Israel tolerated Hezbollah strikes for almost a year. Only after the attacks had taken numerous lives and caused damage estimated at around a billion shekels (380 million CAD) did Israel finally launch a broader-scale operation to return security to residents of northern Israel.

Köksal did ask Saliba several important questions. Specifically, she focused on concerns that the Lebanese armed forces (LAF) may be unable to control Hezbollah. These are reasonable concerns given that the LAF have been unwilling or unable to stop Hezbollah so far.

But then she allowed Saliba to dodge the question. “It was a political decision… to actually not to arm the Lebanese army forces.”  Saliba said that the Lebanese people love their army and that the Lebanese armed forces is up to the task. With a little funding “from the international community,” which probably means the U.S., that is.

What she didn’t mention is that the LAF are much less powerful than Hezbollah. Without that funding, the LAF can’t do much to stop the threat on Israel’s border.

And that has Israelis extremely worried—a viewpoint entirely missing from Köksal’s interview. Had Köksal spoken to Israelis, As It Happens listeners might have also heard concerns about continued support for Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.

Over the last four decades, Hezbollah has created its own shadow government. It provides social services and interferes in diplomatic processes. Many Lebanese remain loyal to Hezbollah, an entrenched presence throughout the country. As one analyst writes, “Hezbollah makes life-and-death decisions for all Lebanese without consulting the government.”

That, too, has Israelis very worried.

In an interview riddled with ludicrous claims, perhaps Saliba’s most outrageous claim is this: “we understood from the beginning that this [ceasefire] agreement is not going to be fair to our people, our land and the sovereignty of the country.”

Lebanon allowed Hezbollah to grow and thrive on its sovereign territory. Lebanon allowed Hezbollah to attack Israel. Any resulting “unfairness” must be placed squarely in the lap of Hezbollah.

But in fact, the ceasefire is being fairly enforced. France and the United States have joined an objective international committee that includes Lebanon and Israel. That committee aims to ensure objective judgments about both sides’ actions during the ceasefire.

In light of this, Saliba’s claim that Israel can bomb or invade Lebanon “as it chooses” was ludicrous. Israel has already exercised notable restraint. What other country would tolerate over a year of regular attacks on its citizens, including the murder of twelve Druze schoolchildren in a playground, before launching any serious retaliation?

There’s much more that could be said about journalistic flaws in the interview. But most come down to one essential point: Nowhere did Köksal acknowledge any Israeli perspective.

There is certainly fear and trepidation on the Israeli side of the border. Israelis are well aware that their lives depend on the continued goodwill of Hezbollah, a genocidal terrorist organization that is not technically a signatory to the ceasefire.

But from the very beginning, in framing the item as being about a “ceasefire in Lebanon,” Köksal wiped the Israeli narrative off the map. In its place, she presented a false picture of Lebanese victimhood and Israeli brutality. And listeners who don’t know any better may come away convinced that it is Israel that stands in the way of the fragile peace in the region—rather than the whims of Hezbollah, a murderous Iran-backed extremist militia.