The Honest Report

Across the Arab world on a daily basis, media outlets, including both state media and social media, blast out anti-Israel and antisemitic propaganda demonizing Israel and the Jewish People in general. In recent months, as Arab countries like Morocco, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates deepen their ties with Israel, the anti-Israel misinformation being spoonfed to hundreds of millions of citizens...

In recent weeks, there has been a rash in antisemitic graffiti targeting bus stop advertisements, a synagogue, and even election signs. The vandalism was condemned by politicians, reported to police, and covered in the news media. And while antisemitism, and antisemitic graffiti, is nothing new, some of the vandalism reflects a new and changing technique of antisemitism, and how it seeks to change...

This week, the Taliban retook Afghanistan in a whirlwind blitz, shocking observers with their speed and ferocity. But while the international news media (correctly) identifies the Taliban as a regressive, misogynistic and brutal regime, other terrorist groups seem to avoid that same label. Hamas and Hezbollah, for example, both Islamist terrorist groups in the Middle East, are often seen by the ma...

The concept of Zionism, and even the word itself, is being increasingly stolen away from the Jewish People. Rather than defining it as the quest for self determination in their historic homeland, Zionism is being defined as a hateful and racist concept, often bolstered by social media and the news media alike. In this week's edition of the Honest Report podcast, we welcome Ben Freeman, an internat...

Palestinian residents of the Gaza Strip suffer from one of the highest levels of poverty and unemployment in the world. It is a human rights tragedy for the 1.8 million residents of the coastal enclave. But while international nongovernmental organizations and media outlets frequently point the finger at Israel, in reality, it is Hamas, the terrorist group which runs Gaza, which is wholly responsi...

After a yearlong delay, the 2020 Olympic Games have kicked off in Tokyo, Japan. And while the games strive for goals like international cooperation and striving for excellence, once again, they have been marred by the refusal of some athletes to compete against Israelis. But despite these disgraceful acts on the part of some athletes, there have been shimmers of hope, too: athletes who are rejecti...

On July 19, ice cream manufacturer Ben & Jerry's announced a boycott of Israeli communities in Judea & Samaria, commonly called the West Bank. Almost immediately, it ignited a firestorm around the world, including from Israel's current and former prime ministers. In this episode of The Honest Report podcast, we explore why this boycott is so significant, and why its potential consequences...

This past Saturday, Amnesty International Canada sent out an anti-Israel e-mail missive, featuring some of the most egregious anti-Israel misinformation one could imagine, which included accusing Israel of murdering Palestinian civilians. While shocking, this latest e-mail is far from the first time that Amnesty International, a powerful NGO (non governmental organization) has targeted Israel. In...

In the last armed conflict between Israel & Hamas, as with previous violent escalations, anti-Israel misinformation was rife in the news media. But this time, perhaps more than ever before, social media influencers took on a major role in spreading anti-Israel bias.  To help us unpack this phenomenon, and to explore the path to combatting it through telling the story of Israel beyond the...

Last week, prominent critic of the Palestinian Authority (PA), Nizar Banat, was arrested at his home in Hebron by Palestinian security services. Hours later, he was dead. What looks like a shocking incident tragically is part of a larger trend by the Palestinian Authority to exercise repression against its own people, whether by silencing dissent, cancelling elections, or by inciting hate against...

The news media reported this week that a number of Iranian websites hosted on US servers were shut down by the US government, citing Iranian disinformation. And for the first time in a long time, Iran's longstanding campaign of propaganda and disinformation has finally made the news. In this week's podcast, we discuss the depth and intensity of Iran's propaganda war against Israel, and how it's mo...

Each year since 1968, Israel has celebrated Jerusalem Day, commemorating the liberation of the city from Jordanian occupation. And each year, a march with flags is a highlight of the day. And like clockwork, Israelis waving flags is called a provocation by the news media, arguing that Jews waving flags needlessly provokes Hamas into killing Jews. This is untrue, is a form of victim blaming, and th...

The defamatory lie that Israel is an apartheid state is hardly new, but with each passing day, it becomes more ludicrous. With Israel's new government, this claim becomes outright comical.  Israel's new governing coalition, slated to be sworn in on June 13, will include, for the first time ever, an Arab Islamist party, Ra'am, as well as a dizzying array of diverse voices, opinions and backgro...

Misinformation about Israel in the news media isn't new, nor is it unfortunately rare. But the problems are often much deeper than one recognizes. The headlines, photos, slant and angles used in articles and broadcasts all contribute to further misinformation about Israel in the media, but the real issue is the very themes which the news media uses to understand and classify Israel and the Palesti...

Hamas and Islamic Jihad aren't just terrorist groups; they are masters of disinformation. And that means Israel isn't just fighting a war against rockets and bombs; it is fighting a war of persuasion, against opponents who will tell any lie to get their way. In this most recent armed engagement between Israel and these Islamist terrorist groups, images of Jews dancing at the alleged burning of the...

There is a threat that Israelis continue to regularly face which does not attract the media attention that it used to: terrorism. Just in the last week, there were two separate terror attacks targeting Israelis in Judea & Samaria, commonly called the "West Bank." The first attack was an attempted suicide stabbing attack by a 60-year-old Palestinian woman. The second attack was a shooting attac...

It's not "Semitic Semantics"! In recent weeks, a growing list of US news media outlets have announced they are removing the hyphen from the word antisemitism,  and turning the two words into one. Here in Canada, CBC and the Globe and Mail have also updated their style guides to refer to just "antisemitism" or "antisemitic". Of course, removing the hyphen won't remove antisemitism from the wor...

The term "greenwashing" accuses Israel of using its environmental bona fides in order to hide its alleged human rights abuses against the Palestinians. The greenwashing libel against Israel also accuses the Jewish state of being, contrary to all established evidence and reality on the ground, of actually not being environmentally friendly at all, and, using selective cherry-picked information, adv...

When Israelis celebrate their independence on Yom Ha’atzmaut, they find joy in the responsibility and freedoms of self-determination in their historic homeland - as well they should. Israel has, in a short 73 years, proven what can be possible when there is little more but determination and chutzpah. But the long and arduous arc of Jewish history has taught a powerful lesson that Israel does not o...

You probably didn’t hear this update in the news yet, but it’s absolutely true: Israel and Iran are at war. Now, before you go to Google and start feverishly checking for a headline about Israeli warplanes over the skies of Tehran, let me be more specific. Israel and Iran are in a state of war, but not quite in the sense that most of us think. Israel and Iran are at war, with real weapons, real ro...

Beyond the headlines and contrary to the dominant media narrative of a dysfunctional Israel, the Jewish state's electoral challenges actually showcase a remarkable resiliency and commitment to democracy. While Israel’s regular elections are a running joke, and for good reasons: Four trips to the polls in two years is a sign that there is a real need for reform in Israel’s democratic system. But wi...

Even in diversions like sports and entertainment, there is a pernicious hatred that never seems to die. Antisemitism has been called the world’s oldest hatred for its remarkable agility and ability to morph, depending on the circumstances. And it has been around for a long time, and like a cockroach, antisemitism never seems to die. In some situations, Jews are assailed as crooked and greedy capit...

Critics of Israel claim the Jewish state deserves little credit for vaccinating the Palestinian population, because it was Israel’s responsibility and obligation all along to do so. Despite the fact that this is emphatically not the case, but this entire argument really misses the biggest problem. And that is that while the Palestinian Authority and Hamas have always been happy to paint Israel as...

As we mark International Women's Day this week, we look at how women living under Hamas control in the Gaza Strip have become effectively rendered as prisoners by their own government, treated as chattel and banned from traveling without a male relative's permission. Here in Canada, particularly with a self-avowed feminist prime minister at the helm of our country, we should collectively be outrag...

In the wake of Canada's recently listing 13 groups as terror organizations, it's concerning that the world's most dangerous terror organization, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) remains unlisted. Regrettably, this has gone out of sight and out of mind by our news media. Find out more on The Honest Report with Mike Fegelman.