Media Coverage of Protective Edge

Sitting in my living room, watching the various networks cover the current conflagration between Hamas and Israel, it quickly becomes apparent that the most reliable source is Fox News.

I watch the BBC, brought to our home by courtesy of Public Television.  I get Aljazeera America, and a relatively new channel, One America News Network, otherwise known as OANN.  I watch CNN, CBS, NBC and ABC news, and I read the New York Times.  With the exception of Fox News and OANN, the coverage is, from an Israeli viewpoint, either shallow, at best, or biased in the worst possible way.

There are no surprises here.  Interviewers will interview a variety of Palestinian spokespersons, and their comments go completely unchallenged.  CNN especially will repeat, again and again, footage of rubble, destroyed homes, and other grief and devastation in the Gaza strip.  Little if any coverage is given to the trauma, destruction and complete disruption of normal life on the other side, the Israeli side.

I confess, I am not impartial.  I served in the IDF from 1972 until I left Israel in April 1991.  I have children and grandchildren who live in a variety of cities in Israel, from north to south.  I have good friends there.  My wife has family in Israel.  We are intimately connected to what goes on in Israel.  My wife and I own property in Israel.  We care what happens.  So, it goes without saying that when I watch the coverage of Operation Protective Edge, I am much more critical than the average American viewer.

This has to change.  I have long believed that the Palestinians, expressly Hamas and other violent organizations such as Jihad Islami, have the upper hand when it comes to the propaganda machine they wield.  We are still naive, perhaps believing that the “world” will understand our plight and our anguish, that the “world” will see our desire for peace.  I am convinced that it will not.

I have started to write for that very reason.  I will no longer remain a silent bystander when the news is slanted, biased and often simply wrong.