April 21, 2026 New, Fake Lebanon Ceasefire Can’t Stop Media Demonization of Israel Word count: 1,057; estimated reading time: 4.0 minutes Dear Friend of Israel, Friend of FLAME: The Al Jazeera headline announcing the latest ceasefire reads, “People of Beirut wary of trusting Israel will uphold Lebanon ceasefire”—hiding the fact that Hezbollah has been egregiously violating the last November 2024 ceasefire since the day it was signed. Even as Israel continues rectifying Hezbollah’s transgressions of the earlier agreement, the U.S. has pressured the Lebanese government and Israel into another ceasefire. The sole function of this new pact seems to be to eliminate, at least temporarily, a key distraction from ongoing U.S.-Iran peace talks. The new Israel-Lebanon ceasefire is bound to fail for two reasons. First, a fundamental goal of Hezbollah is to destroy Israel. The terror group has never abided by a ceasefire, and there’s no reason to expect they’ll start now. Indeed, they’re not party to this ceasefire agreement and haven’t acknowledged it. Second, a key element of this ceasefire—as with the 2024 version—is the commitment of Lebanon’s “shell” government to enforce the agreement upon Hezbollah. Unfortunately, nothing has changed in Lebanon’s inability to bring Hezbollah to heel. Despite the ceasefire, a third factor is also destined to remain unchanged—mainstream media’s incessant demonization of Israel. As Israel responds aggressively to Hezbollah’s widespread violations of the 2024 ceasefire, legacy media, as usual, depict Israel’s defensive measures as focused persecution of innocent Lebanese civilians. In truth, Israel is exercising its legitimate rights precisely according to the ceasefire accords and its need to protect tens of thousands of Israeli residents in the country’s north. For starters, the media fail to cover the very cause of Israel’s military actions: Hezbollah’s abject failure to abide by the ceasefire—including disarmament and vacating Lebanon’s south, which borders Israel. Furthermore, media reports on Israel’s military maneuvers—as they so often did when covering the Gaza war—attribute responsibility for endangering civilians to Israel, rather than to belligerent terrorists who directly create the danger. Indeed, Friday’s New York Times headline focused on Israel’s disruption of Lebanese life, rather than its root cause: “Thousands of Lebanese Try to Head Home After Israel-Lebanon Truce.” Mainstream media neglect to mention that Hezbollah’s fighters regularly locate operations in residential areas, schools and other public spaces in zones forbidden to them by the last ceasefire agreement. Additionally, media headlines highlight total deaths from military attacks, without mentioning how many terrorists were killed. In fact, as of April 16th, Israel estimates that out of those killed in its military operations in southern Lebanon, 78% were Hezbollah terrorists. Finally, media coverage is scant on the utter failure of the Lebanese army so far to enforce the ceasefire stipulations on Hezbollah—or, for that matter, to influence Hezbollah’s ongoing aggression and military build-up. Mainstream media also fail to explain that Hezbollah’s recent rocket attacks on Israel were launched at the behest of Iran, which seeks to maintain its hegemony in Lebanon through its Hezbollah proxy. Instead of reporting on the root problems causing Lebanese civilian deaths and displacement, the media eagerly cover proposals to restrict defensive arms sales to Israel. In short, the goal of the media in this conflict isn’t to report the facts of the whole story, but to discredit Israel with omissions, half-truths, innuendo and lies. Hezbollah has massively violated the last ceasefire. The November 2024 ceasefire specified that only the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) would be deployed in southern Lebanon—the area south of the Litani River. It also affirmed that all non-state armed groups would be disarmed. But none of this has happened. Rather, Hezbollah has maintained and expanded its presence in southern Lebanon, and has rearmed, not disarmed. Since the ceasefire began, for example, UNIFIL has discovered hundreds of Hezbollah weapons caches in southern Lebanon. Hezbollah continues to smuggle weapons into Lebanon. Also, on several occasions, the terrorist group has fired mortars, rockets and drones into Israel. In total, Hezbollah violated the ceasefire 1,925 times, and shows no sign of cooperating with a new ceasefire now. The purpose of this ceasefire is primarily to remove an obstacle to U.S.-Iran peace negotiations. Thus, the U.S. State Department said the truce was a "gesture of goodwill" by Israel intended to enable "good-faith negotiations towards a permanent security and peace agreement" between the two parties. Moreover, a day after the ceasefire was announced, Iran’s foreign minister said, "in line with the ceasefire in Lebanon" the Strait of Hormuz was "declared completely open” (only to be closed again by Iran’s IRGC forces). Opening the Strait, through which 20% of the world’s oil transits, has been a key obstacle to ending the Iran War. Lebanon’s government isn’t a sovereign body and cannot exercise authority. Above all, it hasn’t fulfilled its obligations under the last ceasefire—disarm Hezbollah and remove them from southern Lebanon—and won’t be able to do it now. As recently as last month, the LAF refused to enforce an order by the Lebanese government banning Hezbollah’s military activities, demanding weapons surrender, and restricting the group to a political role. Mainstream media hide, deny and twist these realities—instead they malign Israel. Media focus not on the causes of the conflict, but rather cast blame on Israel for the consequences of its necessary self-defense and, likely, will blame Israel when the latest ceasefire fails, as it inevitably will. Hence, headlines read “Lebanon Mourns After Israeli Onslaught Kills More Than 300 People (New York Times)” and “At least 254 killed after Israel hits Lebanon with massive wave of airstrikes (Guardian),” making Israel appear the party responsible for all the war’s negative consequences. Israel is doing what it needs to protect its people and control its territory. This means completely emptying southern Lebanon of terrorists and the places they hide. These are necessary measures to ensure, in particular, security for northern Israel and its citizens. Indeed, Hezbollah’s attacks on Israel have forced around 60,000 residents of Israel’s north to flee their homes. Please make the point when speaking with family, friends, colleagues—or in letters to the editor—that, as in Iran, Israel’s best course will be to placate President Trump and obey the ceasefire provisions—including those of self-defense when necessary. The job of Israel’s allies—like we lovers of Israel—is to continue telling the truth about the evil of Hezbollah, the uselessness of the Lebanese government, and the need to expel the terrorists from southern Lebanon in order to protect Israeli citizens. If you agree we need to spread this truth, please use your email browser to forward this Hotline issue to fellow lovers of Israel—and encourage them to join us by subscribing to the Hotline at no charge. Best regards,
James Sinkinson, President
Facts and Logic About the Middle East (FLAME) P.S. Surely, you’ve recently read of some celebrity, politician, radical student, foreign head of state or media pundit slander Israel with the “Gaza genocide” lie. Many who spread this lie are ignorant, but most are anti-Israel haters. They care nothing for the truth. The tragedy is, when they utter the Gaza genocide falsehood, too few knowledgeable people—and virtually no media—stand up to refute it. Indeed, when you share the simple facts, the genocide lie crumbles. Upon learning that Israel conducts its war against Hamas terrorists with the highest ethical standards—and that nothing Israel does in Gaza fits the definition of genocide—fair-minded people quickly see through the lie. I hope you’ll agree that we supporters of the Israel-U.S. relationship need to speak out. FLAME’s new hasbarah—explanatory message—“Facts Shatter Gaza Genocide Lies”—describes what genocide is and is not and proves factually that Israel’s tactics in the war are ethical and righteous. It also reveals demographic data showing that the Palestinian population in Gaza is actually increasing. Finally, it notes that those who spread the Gaza genocide lie fit the classic definition of antisemites. Please review this convincing, fact-based editorial, which FLAME is about to publish to millions—in leading social media, as well as in the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Tampa Bay Times, Denver Post and Los Angeles Times. This piece will also be sent to all members of Congress, the President and Vice President. If you agree that this kind of public relations effort on Israel’s behalf is critical, I urge you to support us with a donation. |
