Dear Friend of Israel, Friend of FLAME:

Last week, an 11-year-old Israeli girl suffered critical wounds from an Iranian cluster bomb warhead targeting civilians.

Iran just started recruiting boys as young as 12 years old to serve on the front lines of its war effort.

In the last five years, Iran has committed numerous gross violations of international law, including war crimes and crimes against humanity. These include unlawfully pursuing nuclear weapons, engaging in proxy warfare, indiscriminately firing missiles, drones and cluster bombs against civilians and civilian infrastructure, and murdering thousands of its own citizens for protesting against the Islamist regime.

Yet, legacy media and the United Nations virtually ignore Iran’s serial treachery, treating it as a footnote or unremarkable. The New York Times, for example, refuses to call Iran’s use of cluster bombs a war crime, softening the use of the cruel weapon as one “experts say could violate the laws of war.” Mainstream media’s coverage of Iran’s killing of more than 30,000 protesters last January was all but non-existent, as is coverage of Iran’s use of child soldiers and various other crimes.

Similarly, during Hamas’s war with Israel, the media refused to focus on Hamas’s war crimes, such as their use of human shields, consistent targeting of Israeli civilians, and kidnapping of civilian hostages. Rather, legacy media flooded news feeds with false reports of Israel’s “genocide,” “ethnic cleansing,” “starvation,” and “targeting hospitals.”

Likewise, the UN spends abundant time hurling false accusations at Israel, but little time holding Iran accountable for its flagrant abuses of international law. UN bodies such as the Human Rights Council and the General Assembly have passed many more resolutions against Israel than against Iran. In fact, the UN has condemned Israel more than all other countries combined.

The trend of legacy media and the UN ignoring Iran’s heinous actions, while trumping up false charges against Israel reflects unjust bias—favoring global jihad and opposing the Jewish state.

Iran’s cruelty makes it one of the world’s deadliest criminals. Iran’s crimes fall into four areas:

A) Pursuing weapons of mass destruction. Iran continues pursuing nuclear weapons in violation of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) to which it is a signatory.
B) Engaging in proxy warfare. Iran continues to support terrorist groups like Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Houthis, leading to, among other crimes, the worst mass slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust. The October 7^th massacre killed 1,200 men, women and children, and took some 250 hostages, many of whom were starved, raped, and tortured—all thanks to financial, logistical and military support from Iran.
C) Targeting civilians. Iran fires missiles and drones indiscriminately, with many hitting civilians or civilian structures. Last month, for example, nine Israeli civilians, including three children, were murdered by an Iranian missile strike. Iran also uses outlawed cluster bombs, which scatter bomblets over wide areas, to maximize civilian casualties.
D) Mass murder. Last January, regime forces brutally slaughtered tens of thousands of demonstrators calling for an end to the Islamic Republic. According to Iran International, an independent Persian-language network based in the UK, citing documents from the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), regime forces murdered 36,500 people in just two days.

Regime forces even raided hospitals to kill wounded demonstrators. A doctor, who spoke under the pseudonym “Dr. R” for security reasons, told the Jerusalem Post, “In the hospitals, many patients were found dead on their treatment beds, still attached to machines, with bullet holes in their heads.” He also said, “Many doctors have been arrested, tortured, and some have even been sentenced to death because [they were] helping injured people.”

One would think mainstream media would vigorously cover these events, but in fact, they provided little-to-no reporting on them, compared to their obsessive reporting on Israel.

Mainstream media neglect Iran’s crimes. During the Gaza War, there were daily front page stories about the conflict, comprising 20-30% of content during peak news cycles. Many of these stories contained blatant lies about Israel’s defensive campaign in the coastal enclave.

In contrast, the persecution of Iranian protesters merited just 5-10 articles a week in legacy media outlets, with no front page dominance for the first 7-10 days of the demonstrations. Coverage of the protests consisted of just 2-5% of news cycles. Thus, many people around the world were unaware of Iran’s murderous atrocities. This trend continues even now.

For instance, a New York Times article covering the murder of an Israeli couple by a cluster bomb neglects to mention until 12 paragraphs into the story that it was a violation of international law.

There has also been scant coverage of the Iran Revolutionary Guard Corp’s effort to recruit children as young as 12 to fill its ranks. Last month, an 11-year-old boy was killed standing guard at a military checkpoint. The use of child soldiers qualifies as a war crime under international law.

But legacy media rarely single out Iran for war crimes. A recent analysis of the BBC, CNN NBC, the New York Times and the Washington Post (by CAMERA) shows that between February 28^th and March 21^st, there were 32 uses of the phrase “war crime,” of which 28 (88%) were directed solely toward the actions of the U.S. and/or Israel. ZERO were directed solely toward the actions of Iran. Thanks to mainstream media, Iran is literally getting away with murder.

The UN also cares little about Iran’s crimes. They’re too busy condemning Israel. For example, since 2020, the UN Human Rights Council has passed 32 anti-Israel resolutions but just ten against Iran. Similarly, the UN General Assembly has passed 90 anti-Israel resolutions since 2020, but only eight against Iran. In 2025 alone, the UNGA adopted 15 resolutions on Israel and only 11 resolutions on the entire rest of the world, including one resolution against Iran.

Democratic Israel is relentlessly prosecuted, while murderous Iran gets off scot-free. Whereas Israel is a democracy governed by the rule-of-law, the Islamic Republic of Iran is a brutal, theocratic dictatorship that threatens its neighbors, slaughters its own people, and flouts international law. Yet, it is Israel that faces the wrath of mainstream media and the UN.

Please make the point when speaking with family, friends, colleagues—or in letters to the editor—inasmuch as Iran is a cruel, tyrannical rogue nation that commits horrible crimes, almost as bad are the legacy media and UN that protect it from scrutiny and accountability.

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,
Jason Shvili, Contributing Editor
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.