First Sergeant P and her dog, Ringo
Steve Kramer – You don’t get objective news
Israel supposedly has a public relations problem. But the underlying reason for this perception is that mass social media maximizes anti-Israel events and barely reports incidents from a non-biased perspective. The sympathy that was elicited by the huge, horrendous October 7 pogrom dissipated faster than the eye could see. Even though Israel dawdled for several weeks before any organized retaliation against Muslim terrorists, hatred towards Israel began just a few days after 10/7, soon enough encompassing all of “the Jews.”
You can follow the “news” but you don’t necessarily recognize the journalist’s bias against Israel. (I consider Tom Friedman to be an exemplar of this bias.) The effects of mass and social media is so pervasive that Westerners don’t even know it has become the prevalent purveyor of news, or to put it bluntly, what you should think about local and world events. The “news” is on TV, radio, the papers, advertising, podcasts, TikTok, Facebook, X, Instagram, Snapchat, Reddit, etc. You hardly need to lift a finger to get the latest on Israel, most often from the “social justice” viewpoint. But is the “news” objective, or does it follow the new journalism dictum that pushing a narrative is preferred to straightforward, objective reporting?
To wit: “Journalists need to be overt and candid advocates for social justice, and it’s hard to do that under the constraints of objectivity,” said Ted Glasser, a communications professor at Stanford (one of those so-called elite schools), in an interview with The Daily.” (https://stanforddaily.com/2020/08/20/should-journalists-rethink-objectivity-stanford-professors-weigh-in/)
In other words, journalists should now “talk truth to power.” In reality, this means objectivity is out the window and journalists should just tell their readers the “real” story, which is what the reporter and his employer thinks, according to their political persuasions.
There is the problem that the vast majority of the “news” is put out by journalists, podcasters, influencers, you name it, who write, film, and speak from a very leftist, anti-Israel (and sometimes Jew-hating) perspective. To get a better idea of what’s really happening, one must work harder to get information that tells Israel’s story objectively. It’s generally not found on TV, radio, the papers, podcasts, TikTok, Facebook, X, Instagram, Snapchat, Reddit, etc. [See Note at end.]
I recently heard from two people in the same 24-hour period who said something like: “I think Israel could do a better job of defending itself in the court of public opinion.” But the fact is that the mass social media in the US and the West in general are overwhelmingly overt, candid, and biased against Israel. Its formula is that Israel is a rich white oppressor [false] and the “poor Palestinians” are brown oppressed people [yes, oppressed by their own rulers]. For example, the huge number of terror incidents perpetrated by Palestinian Arabs against Israelis in Judea, Samaria, and the rest of Israel is vastly underreported. Simultaneously, attacks against Arabs by the IDF and Israelis are given very wide, accusatory coverage. This leads one to a preordained conclusion that Israel is the perpetrator and Arabs are the victims.
Israelis are fighting the war against Muslim jihadis on many fronts besides the media. Many Westerners outside of Israel are hardly aware that there is such a war going on, a war which will have a huge impact on their children and grandchildren, if not them, regardless of where they live.. There is a large and powerful movement in Islam, even among mainstream Muslims, that Jihad is the present and future of their religion.
So, what is Jihad? It’s about establishing a “caliphate,” (a Muslim government/culture/religion) throughout all the lands that were once ruled by Muslims. These include Portugal, Spain, the Balkans, Eastern Europe, Africa, etc. It’s a reconquest of once-held Muslim land. And then, or perhaps before, the United States
People, wake up! The current, relatively small campus demonstrations and violence may not concern you now, but they will have unpleasant consequences, or worse, in your children’s lifetime. It’s time to take the trouble to educate yourself and perhaps to make a difference. Don’t rely on mass and social media to provide you with an objective view.
Note: Here are some of the places you can find a more nuanced view of current problems affecting Israelis and Jews: Honest reporting.com, FactsonIsrael.com, tv7Israelnews.com, Israelseen.com, i24News.com, RealClearpolitics.com. Podcasts: CallmeBack, Ben Shapiro, The Rubin Report, Top Story with Jonathan Tobin, TheLandofIsrael.com, anything featuring Douglas Murray on YouTube – and there are others.
The pictures are by Steve Kramer from a poignant and illuminating exhibition on the 10/7 war, paintings, and pictures by Israelis living close to the border with Gaza.
Nil and Karen Romano: A nation in grief; Irit Regev: First Sergeant P and her dog, Ringo; photos by many Israelis; two groups coming to see the exhibit at ANU, the Museum of the Jewish People, in Tel Aviv.
