The Economist Claims Ok To Mention 2020 Beirut Port Explosion Without Noting Hezbollah Responsible
From: Dr. Aaron Lerner
Sent: Tuesday, October 8, 2024 1:37 PM
To: podcasts@economist.com
Subject: The Intelligence on Elias Khoury mentions the destruction of Beirut port as if by Israel rather than Hezbollah

Greetings,

I appreciate that a day after the 7th of October The Economist is bending over backwards to put out material of a certain, shall-we-say, “orientation”.

But the item on Elias Khoury mentioned the huge August 4 2020 explosion at the port of Beirut with the implication that Israel was behind it when the truth is that Hezbollah recklessly stored close to three thousand tons of ammonium nitrate without proper safety measures and after many years it exploded. Israel had nothing to do with this.

I don’t expect the Economist to spend a microsecond discussing the morality of Gazans who opted to sacrifice themselves along with their families, as human shields for Hamas rather than heeding instructions to evacuate to safety.

But to imply that Israel is responsible for the screw up of Hezbollah?

Best regards,
Dr. Aaron Lerner – Raanana
(I subscribe to the podcasts and listen to basically all of them the moment that they are available!)

From: Chris Impey
Sent: Friday, October 11, 2024 12:19 PM
To: imra@netvision.net.il
Subject: Elias Khoury obituary

Dear Dr Lerner,

Thank you very much for emailing us about our obituary of Elias Khoury. The section you refer to in the piece was as follows:

"The refugee camps were all there, and Beirut itself had suffered terribly from a number of tragedies. First of all, the Civil War, which lasted for 15 years. Then the Israeli bombing of 1982. And then in 2020 a huge explosion in the port which devastated a large part of the city."

There was no intention to imply that the explosion had anything to do with Israel. The mention of Israel in the sentence specifically refers to the events of 1982. We fully acknowledge that the explosion was caused by 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate stored improperly for years at the port.

I hope that answers your query. I am personally very pleased that you are such a keen consumer of Economist podcasts.

Best wishes,

Chris

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Chris Impey
Co-editor, The Intelligence podcast – The Economist

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IMRA - Independent Media Review and Analysis

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