Beware of the WSJ's Irresponsible Reporting

If there were evidence of Iranian involvement in the attack, one would expect U.S. and Israeli officials to be shouting about it from the rooftops.

The Wall Street Journal was very quick to publish a report alleging direct Iranian involvement in preparing Hamas’ surprise attack in Israel:

Iranian security officials helped plan Hamas’s Saturday surprise attack on Israel and gave the green light for the assault at a meeting in Beirut last Monday, according to senior members of Hamas and Hezbollah, another Iran-backed militant group.

Officers of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps had worked with Hamas since August to devise the air, land and sea incursions—the most significant breach of Israel’s borders since the 1973 Yom Kippur War—those people said.

The rush to tie Iran directly to this attack is worrying. Given how thin the sourcing is for this report, it is dangerous and irresponsible to put out a story containing such explosive claims. Unfortunately, we know that this report, no matter how inaccurate and unfounded it is, will be used by hawks to ratchet up tensions with Iran to the detriment of everyone in the region.