CBS News reporter Jonathan Vigliotti described Israeli civilians openly carrying assault rifles as ‘paranoid’ this morning. It occurs in the first 40 seconds of CBS This Morning’s report on Israel:
Paranoia, he calls it. Paranoia. But then he goes on to show murderous attacks on Israelis by Palestinians. There’s a reason they are open carrying assault rifles and it’s not paranoia. It’s because Palestinians are actually trying to kill Israeli Jews.
And the rest of the report, while exposing some Palestinian violence against Israelis, seems to draw a moral equivalence by not being clear in stating who is the aggressor and who is defending itself. Some Israelis have died and some Palestinians have died in clashes….well that’s basically the way they portray it.
There is no moral equivalency here. There is not general ‘rising of tensions’ in the area. What we have are bigoted and hateful Palestinian Muslims trying to commit genocide against the Jewish people that they loathe. That’s it. Israel is simply trying to defend itself from these Jew-haters. And for any report on this not to make that abundantly clear is journalistic bias, plain and simple.