Connecting the dots

Earlier this week, CBS’s Chief White House reporter ran a hit piece claiming that Pakistan secretly allowed Iran to park its planes out of the reach of the US and Israeli air force during the Gulf War. The report claimed, quoting unnamed US officials, that the aircraft are parked at the Nur Khan base in Rawalpindi, in a congested, heavily populated area.

The report has since been proven false and inaccurate, especially given that during the peace negotiations and thereafter, Iranian aircraft used by Iranian government officials were often flying to and parking at the Nur Khan base, as were several US government aircraft.

The same day, CBS also carried an interview with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, where he claimed that Pakistan used bot farms to build an anti-Israel narrative on social media.

First of all, the biggest troll armies and bot farms in the entire world are run by Indians and Israelis. Israel, in particular, has to do this because most of the world and its people hate it for its genocidal and child-killing actions. The Israeli army is the most hated and reviled in the world, so Netanyahu has to do some kind of pushback. And Pakistan’s stellar role as a mediator has been the primary reason for the ongoing ceasefire in the Gulf War, something that works against Israel’s grand plan for a Greater Israel, which sees it occupying Iran and much of West Asia.

Now, a bit about CBS. Since 2025, it has been owned and controlled by David Ellison, a tech billionaire and Oracle founder. Larry Ellison’s son David Ellison is the CEO and has operational control after he bought the parent company that controls CBS in 2025. Larry Ellison helped finance that deal and is widely believed to have significant influence in CBS.

Larry Ellison’s connection to and support for Israel and the Israeli army are well known and documented. He has openly expressed admiration for Israel and strong public support for its policies and actions. The Oracle founder, and now CBS owner, is a major donor to Israeli military causes. In 2017, Ellison donated $16.6 million to Friends of the IDF, the largest single donation in that organisation’s history at the time.

Ellison has a close relationship with the Israeli prime minister; in 2021, he offered Netanyahu a board seat at Oracle and Netanyahu and his family have vacationed on Lanai, Ellison’s private island in Hawaii. Reports suggest Ellison has also helped Netanyahu politically.

Ellison has invested in Israeli companies and technology ventures: In 1999, he invested tens of millions in Israeli biotech firm QBI, reportedly saying he wanted to help build a major Israeli pharmaceutical company. Oracle itself has substantial operations in Israel, including R&D and acquisitions of Israeli tech firms over the years. In 2019, Larry Ellison helped fund an archaeological project in East Jerusalem, which drew criticism from Palestinians and some archaeologists because of concerns it supported Israeli claims in contested territory.

Since 2025, after David Ellison bought CBS’s parent company, Bari Weiss has been editor-in-chief of CBS News. Weiss’s connections to Israel are strong, personal and longstanding. Weiss has said Judaism is central to her worldview. After high school, she spent a gap year in Israel. She is openly and strongly Zionist and believes that any attack or criticism of Israel and its policies or actions is akin to engaging in anti-Semitism. When American writer and commentator Andrew Sullivan called her an “unhinged Zionist”, she replied that she “happily plead guilty as charged”. She is of the view that Zionism is central to Jewish identity.

As an undergraduate student at Columbia University, Weiss co-founded Columbians for Academic Freedom, a group that targeted professors they believed to be critical of Israel and its policies and critical of Zionism. Prior to joining US media, she worked in Israeli media: at Haaretz, The Forward and Tablet.

After the October 7 attacks, Bari Weiss became one of the most vocal American media figures defending Israel’s response and criticising what she saw as media failures in covering antisemitism and Hamas. She visited Israel after the attacks and produced extensive reporting coloured by her worldview and vocal support for Zionism.

Her vocal and strong support for Israel and Zionism has made her job at CBS News controversial. By many observers and even colleagues in the US media, she is seen as being overly aligned with Israeli government narratives and insufficiently critical of Israeli policies toward Palestinians.

The writer is a journalist based in Karachi. He tweets/posts @omar_quraishi and can be reached at: [email protected]

Disclaimer: The viewpoints expressed in this piece are the writer's own and don't necessarily reflect Geo.tv's editorial policy.

Originally published in The News