The press has escalated its war on the English language.

The subject of that escalation is the mangling of the meaning of, ironically, “escalation.” One is tempted to go all Inigo Montoya on the media: “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.” At the same time, part of me finds it inconceivable that these journalists don’t know exactly what they’re doing.

Either way, it needs to end.

Israel, you may have read, has escalated tensions with the Palestinians, escalated conflict with Hezbollah, and initiated a major escalation with Iran, perhaps even risked escalation with the Houthis in Yemen. And you probably noticed a pattern: Wherever Israel defends itself, it is accused of escalation.

But this, like most aspects of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, is a gurgling mix of projection and hypocrisy.

Let’s take as an example the New York Times article on Israel’s antiterror raids in the West Bank this week. “It was a significant escalation after months of raids that have unfolded alongside the war in Gaza,” we’re told. We then learn this: “The operation followed months of escalating Israeli raids in the occupied territory.”

Sounds like a lot of escalations! But what does that mean, exactly? Is it an escalation when Israel sends a numerically greater amount of troops than it did in last week’s or last month’s counterterror operation? Is it an escalation if Israel used a piece of equipment, like an unmanned drone, that it didn’t use last time? What about the number of military vehicles—how many jeeps make an escalation?

Much like its equally annoying cousin “disproportionate,” the term “escalation” appears to be a synonym for “Israeli self-defense.”

“Escalation of war has come to mean an increase in scope or violence of a conflict,” the U.S. Naval Institute offers. Thus what happened in the West Bank this week might truly count as an escalation—but if so, it is not Israel that escalated.

More from the Times: “The raid comes as U.S., Israeli and Iranian officials have said that Tehran is operating a clandestine smuggling route across the Middle East to deliver weapons to Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied territory. The goal, as described by three Iranian officials, has been to foment unrest against Israel by flooding the enclave with as many weapons as it can, The New York Times reported in April.”

Ah, a clue. Let’s head on over to what the Times reported in April:

Iran is operating a clandestine smuggling route across the Middle East, employing intelligence operatives, militants and criminal gangs, to deliver weapons to Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, according to officials from the United States, Israel and Iran.

The goal, as described by three Iranian officials, is to foment unrest against Israel by flooding the enclave with as many weapons as it can.

The covert operation is now heightening concerns that Tehran is seeking to turn the West Bank into the next flashpoint in the long-simmering shadow war between Israel and Iran.

So what we’ve learned, definitively, is the following: Iran has been escalating the conflict for months, and Israel’s response to this escalation was an attempt to de-escalate—that is, to prevent Iran’s escalation from coming to full fruition. As the Times itself reports, Iran has increased the scope of the conflict, in an attempt to increase the violence of the conflict. If what just happened this week does count as an escalation, it is definitionally Iran’s escalation.

That is also true of Israel’s preemptive strikes on Hezbollah rocket launchers in Lebanon. Using Lebanon as a base of attack on Israel in response to Israel’s counteroffensive in Gaza is quite literally increasing the scope of conflict. Israel’s response has been to take actions that, if further escalation takes place, will limit the damage and destructiveness of that escalation. The other goal of Israel’s actions is to prevent that escalation from happening at all.

Words have meanings. Israel is working to de-escalate conflict while being accused of doing the opposite. That’s the reality, and it isn’t likely to change anytime soon.