How Israel could better handle the world’s media in the next war

As an American Jew, I watch news, daily, about Israel on my iPhone and on ABC, CBS and NBC TV news . Al-Jazeera, that I see on my iPhone, I understand will be biased. But what does the average American think about Israel, when CNN, the New York Times and the Washington Post have all run stories, on June 2, 2025, with some variation of  a NYT headline which said “Israeli Soldiers Open Fire on Gaza Aid Site. Gaza Officials Say 27 Are Killed”.  There was no correction by CNN or NYT on their story, even after the IDF released videos of Hamas terrorists gunning down Palestinian civilians waiting in line for food aid.  Israelis, of course, understood that the NYT headline, and the alleged accompanying details, are simply stories made up by Hamas supporters.  But what Israelis don’t understand is that Americans believe that these stories are real, and that the IDF and the State of Israel, are bloodthirsty, vicious killers who would deliberately kill Palestinian civilians who are unarmed but just want a little food.

The reason Israelis ought to be concerned about news stories like this is obvious. The U.S., as an ally, cannot be replaced.   If American voters develop a deeply negative view of Israel and the IDF, there will come a time when the White House, and Congress,  won’t come to Israel’s aid with money, weapons, ammunition and aircraft carriers, because U.S. voters have told them that they don’t want them to. Some Israelis might think that this is very unlikely. But consider that American pollsters have reported, consistently, that 50% of Democratic voters are pro-Palestine.  Some Israelis might believe that the GOP in the U.S. would never take a pro-Palestinian turn also.  But consider this.  Isn’t Ukraine a democracy like Israel??  Isn’t a bigger country, Russia, a dictatorship, trying to destroy the smaller, democratic country, Ukraine??  You would imagine that the U.S. GOP would support Ukraine, as it has supported Israel in the Gaza war. But the GOP tides have now turned against Ukraine. On April 20, 2024, a majority of  GOP congressmen in the House voted against a military aid package to Ukraine, because their GOP voters had told them this is what they wanted them to do. Now a GOP President, Donald Trump, is withholding military aid from Ukraine. A similar fate could happen to Israel.

Why does Israel get negative press??. Using the Gaza war as an example, Israel does not allow foreign or domestic journalists to embed with IDF troops and cover the war, like the U.S. does in its wars. The reason Israel’s government forbids this, they say, is because allowing journalists to see the war firsthand, would endanger their lives and the lives of IDF soldiers who would try to protect them.  The difficulty with this logic is that, in barring all domestic and foreign journalists, from reporting the war firsthand, the only journalists reporting on the war in Gaza are Palestinian supporters of Hamas.  These “reporters” consistently report that the Gaza war is mostly about the IDF killing defenseless women and children, and destroying schools and vitally needed hospitals.

So what can Israel do, in the future, to avoid doing what it has done in the Gaza war??  First, Israel can allow select Jewish Israeli journalists to cover the war firsthand.  The Israeli reporters war coverage will certainly be more truthful,  than the Hamas supporting Palestinians, who currently report the war. Or, second, the IDF could train some of its soldiers to be reporters, and let them video the war as they fight it. The objection could be made that this would restrict the fighting abilities of the IDF soldier/reporters.   Third, the IDF could issue its soldiers body cameras, like policemen in the U.S. wear, to capture the war. The advantage with approaches two and three is that Israel would be able to edit the video footage. Then, when false stories appear in the foreign press and media, the IDF could release footage showing what really happened. Fourth, It is vitally important for Israel to issue video content, on a daily basis, to contradict the daily, negative, stories of Israel’s enemies..  The Israeli government, and the IDF, should understand that the traditional, online and social media, have an insatiable need for content, on a daily basis, and it is better for Israel, and the IDF, that this daily content be from Israel, rather than Israel’s enemies.