Channel 13 News Analyst Faces Backlash Over Terror Attack Coverage
A surprising statement by military analyst Alon Ben-David during security coverage sparked significant resentment and triggered a wave of stormy reactions on social media regarding his description of a terror attack.
Sharp criticism is emerging from the right against the military and security analyst of Channel 13, Alon Ben-David, following remarks he made during a broadcast concerning the terror attack in the Havat Gilad area. Ben-David's report sparked stormy reactions on social media, as right-wing figures attacked him bluntly over the way he chose to describe the incident in the live broadcast.
During the report on Channel 13, Ben-David referred to footage from the field and said: "I do not know if this is a description of a terror attack." This statement, made while Channel 13 was presenting reports on the fear of an escalation in the West Bank, led to a wave of criticism and anger from activists and public figures on the right, who claimed that this was an attempt to downplay the severity of the event.
Among the sharp responders was Meir Ettinger, who posted on his X account (formerly Twitter) a screenshot from the report and wrote:
"The auto-antisemite did not even bother to check in which territory this is located and is spouting nonsense. And all this while he is still at the microphone after years of sowing a concept from the springboard."
The remarks were distributed quickly on the network and led to another wave of reactions against the analyst.
In the broadcast in question, Alon Ben-David appeared alongside subtitles that warned of "the IDF's fear of an escalation in the West Bank" and a situation in the West Bank of "on the verge of an explosion, danger of a new intifada." Despite these descriptions on the screen, the doubt the analyst attributed to the nature of the terror attack caused much resentment.
Critics on the right claimed that statements of this kind harm the credibility of security reporting and reflect a mistaken worldview of analysts in the Israeli media. The current incident joins ongoing tensions between right-wing elements and senior military analysts in the Israeli media, with social networks serving as a central arena for expressing protest against reports that are perceived as one-sided or whitewashing terror events.
