An October 30 CBC News article entitled: “Israeli strikes threaten a Hezbollah stronghold and its nearly 3,000-year-old Roman ruins,” minimized the nature of Hezbollah terrorism, failed to accurately explain the situation, and demonized Israel.

Author Samritha Arunasalam chose to focus her article on the idea that Israel’s counter-terrorism efforts in the Lebanese city (and Hezbollah stronghold, as she notes) of Baalbek endangers the city’s archeological heritage sites. Readers were told that Israel has “ramped up bombing in the historic … city” and that 1954 United Nations policies “call for protection of cultural property.” She also referred to Israel’s actions as “destruction of cultural heritage.”

Meanwhile, in contrast, she referred to Hezbollah not as a murderous terrorist organization, but rather as merely a “Shi’ite Muslim group which is backed by Iran.” Nowhere did she note that Hezbollah is the aggressor in this war, and an internationally-sanctioned and outlawed terrorist group. Instead, she merely summarized the situation by saying that “Israeli forces and Lebanon’s armed group Hezbollah have been exchanging fire.”

How is it possible that a writer for Canada’s national taxpayer-funded broadcaster could so consistently paint Canada’s democratic ally in a negative light in every imaginable way, while simultaneously dismissing and always finding the most generous and minimally-accusatory language with which to tackle the actions of a group that Canada has banned as a terrorist entity?

Why did Arunasalam choose to word her piece in such a way that the focus is constantly on Israel, while Hezbollah gets a complete pass? Why did she imply that Israel is endangering Lebanon’s ancient heritage sites and breaking international agreements regarding their status, rather than blaming Hezbollah for choosing to set up military infrastructure there?

There is no evidence whatsoever that Israel is purposely targeting heritage sites of any kind. As the article itself acknowledges with regards to the presence of civilians, Israel is going out of its way to limit collateral damage when it attacks Hezbollah targets. The implication, therefore, that Israel deserves condemnation or is somehow morally culpable for damage to these sites is asinine.

CBC’s reporting on this story is not only based on the faulty and misleading premise that Israel is somehow threatening these sites, but it is also highly selective, given the broadcaster’s consistent ignoring of the ongoing intentional targeting and destruction of Jewish historical sites by Palestinians throughout Judea & Samaria, or in media parlance, the “West Bank”.

It does not appear that CBC offered any such articles in September when Palestinian rioters tried to burn down the ancient Eshtemoa Synagogue. Nor has CBC covered the ongoing effort by Palestinian Authority (PA) officials to pave over the remains of the ancient Israelite palace in Sebastia. In the nearby city of Nablus, Joseph’s Tomb — a sacred pilgrimage site for the Jewish community throughout the centuries — has in recent years been repeatedly attacked, torched, ransacked, and shot at, including as recently as this March and June during the current war. All of these sites long predate any presence of self-described Palestinians in the region.

CBC has been equally quiet regarding most of these incidents — though in a 2015 firebombing incident, when they did choose to comment, they downplayed the violent terrorist nature of the attack.

Why is CBC’s bias and double standard now so extreme that they are apparently willing to even twist and invert reality with their word choices and omissions in order to fit this anti-Israel narrative?

Finally, this article failed to even attempt to explain the background of the situation and conflict about which it was claiming to be offering reporting and insights. Saying that Israel and Hezbollah have simply been “exchanging fire” is so misleading as to be false.

The war in Lebanon began when Hezbollah — a repressive terrorist organization responsible for the murder of thousands across the Middle East and beyond — voluntarily decided to start indiscriminately shooting thousands of rockets at Israel’s civilian cities and towns on a daily basis, killing dozens of innocent people of all backgrounds, displacing tens of thousands of residents, and destroying enormous swaths of housing infrastructure, all in the name of ‘solidarity’ with Hamas, which the previous day, on October 7, 2023, committed the biggest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust.

Israel has therefore taken defensive actions to eliminate Hezbollah’s enormous missile, drone, and rocket arsenal — much of which has been long-known to be housed in Baalbek. The responsibility for the war itself, as well as any reckless endangerment of human life or heritage sites on the ground, is solely the fault of the unprovoked aggressor, Hezbollah, and its decisions. Israel has every right and duty to do whatever is necessary to protect its population from these murderous attacks, just as any other country would.

CBC must seriously reflect on how such a biased, uninformative, and misleading article was able to receive approval for publication, and should also take action to correct the unfair lack of consistency that leads to subpar work like Arunasalam’s.