How Iran’s Media Reported the Truck Ramming at Glilot

At a bus stop at Glilot, near Herzliya, in Israel, elderly passengers were getting off a bus after a trip to a museum. They were immediately rammed by a truck driven by a Palestinian terrorist; one person died, dozens were wounded. The man who was killed — Bezalel Carmi, 72 — was not a soldier. Nor were any of the 32 wounded described as soldiers. They were, instead, elderly Israelis who had just gotten off a bus prior to going, presumably on foot, to a nearby museum.

But that is not how the story was reported in the Iranian media. More on the wide divide between what actually happened and what Iran’s media described can be found here: “How Iran misreported the terror attack on Sunday tells us a lot about the regime,” Elder of Ziyon, October 28, 2024:

…Now see how Iran’s IRGC-linked Defa Press reported the same story:

In a martyrdom operation in the north of Tel Aviv that was carried out using a truck, 6 Zionist soldiers were killed and more than 50 people were injured.

The Zionist media further admitted that the injured in the security incident in the north of Tel Aviv are all soldiers.

According to Hebrew sources, all the injured in this operation were from the military intelligence unit 8200 in Glilot base, who were returning to their bases.

Iran’s media clearly reads Hebrew media to report what happened. They know that the victims were mostly elderly civilians. But they lie, knowingly, to pretend that this attack was against soldiers….

The Iranian media are mythomanes, given to incessant lying about Israel and the Palestinians. In just this one story, Iran’s Defa Press managed to lie about the following:

First, claiming that only soldiers were killed. Defa Press claims that this information appeared in the “Zionist media.” As we know from the Israelis, no soldiers were killed.

Second, claiming that six Israelis had been killed. Only one person — Bezalal Carmi — was killed.

Third, claiming that in addition to “six Zionist soldiers” being killed, another fifty were wounded. In fact, 32 Israelis, almost all of them elderly civilians, were wounded. These figures were also attributed to the “Zionist media.”

Fourth, Iran’s Defa Press provided a false identification for those non-existent “six soldiers” who were supposedly killed, describing them as no ordinary soldiers, but belonging to the IDF’s famed military intelligence unit, Unit 8200. That would make their deaths even more significant. Defa Press reports this information as coming from the “Hebrew press.” Of course it did not. No soldiers were killed, we repeat — not one.

Fifth, the Defa Press is positively triumphant over what was, after all, a very minor attack, with only one death. It proudly describes what it calls “a martyrdom operation.”

The mythomanes of Tehran will, as always, lie about every aspect of the terror attacks inside Israel, making up figures for the Israeli dead and wounded, even when there is only one of the former and far fewer than claimed for the latter.

Speaking of Tehran, this example of Iranian lies put me in mind of a famous line in the play “Woe From Wit” by the Russian playwright Alexander Griboyedov, who was murdered by Muslims in Tehran while trying to protect Armenian Christian women from being raped. One of the dramatis personae — Chatsky — says “Vri, da znaj zhe meru.” In English this means “Lie, but know when to stop.” The Iranians should take that advice to heart.