The Associated Press recently came out with a haunting photo essay about the human toll of the October 7 massacres on Israeli victims and their families. Titled 鈥淪urvivors of the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel struggle to recover,鈥� it includes heartrending interviews with survivors who hid for hours, listening to neighbors cry for help as they were kidnapped from their homes, tortured in front of family members, and butchered in their beds. The piece tells the harrowing stories of their 鈥渟low, painful path to recovery.鈥�

Just kidding. What the AP actually produced is a 鈥渞eport on the human toll of Israel鈥檚 exploding-pagers attack targeting Hezbollah.鈥� The photographs and accompanying stories depict Hezbollah terrorists and those close to them who were injured after picking up one of the exploding pagers used exclusively by Hezbollah terrorists. The title of the piece, (I kid you not) is

If you didn鈥檛 know better, reading the stories of people the AP calls 鈥渟urvivors,鈥� and what the AP describes as 鈥渁 slow, painful path to recovery,鈥� you鈥檇 think those profiled were innocent victims of a vicious terrorist attack. But all those profiled are 鈥淗ezbollah officials or fighters鈥� (AKA terrorists 鈥� but the AP refuses to use that term) and their family members.

Hezbollah, an internationally designated terrorist organization, perpetrated decades of gruesome and horrific terrorist attacks on innocent civilians 鈥� including launching roughly 10,000 rockets at residential areas in the North of Israel after October 7, requiring approximately 80,000 Israelis to flee their homes.

On July 27, 2023, after about 75% of displaced Northerners returned, a rocket fired by Hezbollah from Lebanon landed on a soccer field in Majdal Shams in the Golan Heights, killing 12 young Druze Israelis and injuring dozens more.

These minor details about the nature of Hezbollah, which would provide important context regarding who was injured by exploding Hezbollah pagers, are absent in the AP piece.

Instead, quoting a Hezbollah 鈥渞epresentative,鈥� the AP wants us to view the pager operation not as a decisive win against a brutal terrorist organization, but a tragedy. 鈥淣one of those injured has fully recovered,鈥� we鈥檙e told, without a hint of irony.

Among the terrorists we meet are 35-year-old Mustafa Choeib, who, in a photo accompanying his story, 鈥渟hares a tender moment with his daughter鈥� (yes, that was the caption), and Mahdi Sheri, a 23-year-old terrorist who 鈥渃an no longer play football鈥� (so sad) and 鈥渞ealizes it鈥檚 impossible now to find a role alongside Hezbollah fighters鈥� (such a shame). In other words, he鈥檚 unfit for terrorism duty.

The AP lets us know that Hezbollah is so benevolent it is 鈥渉elping him find a new job.鈥� Gosh. Such altruism.

We also meet 21-year-old Sarah Jaffal who 鈥減icked up the device belonging to a family member.鈥� Which family member? We鈥檙e never told. Jaffal is not merely wise beyond her years but verges on angelic. 鈥淭he driven, inquisitive woman鈥� as the AP describes her, 鈥渓eans on her faith to summon patience.鈥�

鈥淕od only burdens us with what we can bear,鈥� she says. 鈥淚 forget my wounds when I see another wounded.鈥� Hezbollah produces such saintly family members of terrorists.

The photograph that accompanies her story is of Jaffal holding her iPhone. In the case, we see a photo of the deceased Hezbollah terrorist leader, Hassan Nasrallah. Nasrallah, who was eliminated in a targeted Israeli air strike, was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Americans as well as untold others.

A portrait of Nasrallah hangs on the wall above 26-year-old Zeinab Mestrah in the photo accompanying her story. We鈥檙e not told to which terrorist-family-member the exploding pager she picked up belonged. But five days after the pager explosions, she was flown to Iran for medical treatment. So we can guess that he must have been fairly high up in the terrorist hierarchy.

Finally, the AP introduces us to 12-year-old Hussein Dheini, who picked up his terrorist-father鈥檚 Hezbollah pager. In the accompanying image, he is pictured being comforted by his mother. Sadly, we鈥檙e told, he 鈥渃an鈥檛 go swimming with his father鈥� (the terrorist) anymore. 鈥淭he boy,鈥� as the AP refers to him, creating a sense of harmlessness and innocence, was 鈥渁 member of Hezbollah scouts,鈥� which the AP calls 鈥渢he group鈥檚 youth movement.鈥�

The Hezbollah scouts is a terrorist program for children 鈥� the Hezbollah equivalent of the Hitler Youth.

In a normal world, a father either encouraging his child to become a terrorist or putting his child in harm鈥檚 way because of his own terrorist activities would be presented as child abuse. In upside-down world, however, a father did both, and a major news organization obscures his responsibility. Terrorists and budding terrorists are referred to as 鈥渟urvivors,鈥� who, we鈥檙e told with no caveats, 鈥渂lame Israel for their wounds.鈥�

In a normal world, a father either encouraging his child to become a terrorist or putting his child in harm鈥檚 way because of his own terrorist activities would be presented as child abuse.

And in an upside-down world, the AP uncritically tells us that despite the operation being among the most precisely targeted attack on terrorists in the history of warfare (the other one being the Israeli operation using exploding Hezbollah walkie-talkies), 鈥渉uman rights and United Nations reports鈥� call the pager operation 鈥渋ndiscriminate.鈥�

The inversion couldn鈥檛 be more complete.

The AP acknowledges that 鈥渢he pagers were exclusively sold to Hezbollah members鈥� (in other words, terrorists) and that, according to the Mossad, 鈥渢ests were conducted to ensure that only the person holding the pager would be harmed.鈥� Even Hezbollah admits that 鈥渕ost of those wounded and killed were [Hezbollah] fighters or personnel鈥� (i.e. terrorists).

Which makes the whole operation definitionally the opposite of indiscriminate (鈥渄one at random or without careful judgment鈥�).

While we鈥檙e at it, in a normal world, when a bombing campaign demolishes 75% of buildings (many of which are booby-trapped, contain weapons, or provide access to terror-tunnels) and at the same time protects 97% of the population, that, too, is the opposite of 鈥渋ndiscriminate.鈥�

It鈥檚 becoming increasingly clear that antisemites and the antisemitic-adjacent are either incapable of accurately defining words or have decided (like , Amnesty International, and others), that when reality is inconsistent with accurate definitions of their preferred, morally freighted words, the solution is to redefine the words.

In upside-down world, therefore, precision strikes are 鈥渋ndiscriminate.鈥� In upside-down world, successfully providing humanitarian aid (as of this writing, more than 100 million meals) directly to those in need, rather than allowing Hamas terrorists to steal it, violates international humanitarian law 鈥� because it disadvantages Hamas and therefore works to Israel鈥檚 military advantage. (No joke, this is the reasoning.)

In upside-down world, exactly when a hostage deal seems possible and ending Hamas鈥檚 reign of terror is almost conceivable, a cabal of countries committed to maintaining a permanent state of existential threat against Israel declare their intention to recognize a Palestinian State, eliminating any incentive for Hamas to release the hostages.

And in upside-down world, while Hamas terrorists deliberately starve Israeli hostages, even publishing videos that make clear how emaciated and weak they are, the media ignores both the GHF success and the hostages鈥� plight. Instead, once again, they publish fraudulent stories on their front pages, with photos provided once again by Hamas, depicting what we鈥檙e once again meant to believe are formerly healthy, starving children, but who, once again, in actuality were born with severe medical conditions.

Despite what one must assume are their , no mainstream news outlet has put on its front page a single true story of a formerly healthy, starving Palestinian. In a normal world, the media would recognize what this means.

This is not to say that there is no hunger or other humanitarian issues in Gaza. It鈥檚 only to say that all the evidence points to a very different story than the one the media wants to report: The only truly starving people in Gaza 鈥� and certainly the only people being deliberately starved 鈥� are Israeli hostages.

But in an upside-down world, the truth, whether in Lebanon or in Gaza, is a story too inconvenient to tell.

Now, what about those poor victims of the Israeli attack on Hezbollah鈥檚 Walkie-Talkies?

A social psychologist with a clinical background, Dr. Paresky, an Associate at Harvard University,听serves as Senior Advisor to the Open Therapy Institute and Advisor to the Mindful Education Lab at New York University. In addition to The 91传媒 Journal, her work appears in ,听,听,听听, and elsewhere. She has taught at Johns Hopkins, the University of Chicago, and the United States Air Force Academy, and writes the听. Follow her on Twitter at @PamelaParesky