Something is Amiss

In an article published August 1, 2014 in the Times of Israel, Uriel Heilman wrote about the lack of information and the lack of coverage by the international press, including Al Jazeera America, of what Hamas is doing in its war against Israel.

In what I can only guess was a piece written in the Washingotn Post July 31, 2014, David Bernstein published Forty Questions for the International Media in Gaza.

The gist behind both of these articles, and perhaps there are others like these, is that while Israel has given world media a great deal of access, Hamas has not.  Hamas allows the world media to show the rubble after a bombardment by the IDF.  Hamas will show, again and again, the mad rush of people in the hallways of a hospital in the Gaza strip, complete with graphic images of blood, wounds and death.

Hamas has also made sure that very little beyond the suffering of Palestinians in the Gaza strip reaches the world’s media.  By showing nothing but suffering and destruction Hamas has created an information vacuum.  It has made sure that few if any images of Hamas fighters firing missiles, mortars and rockets reach the media.  Hamas treatment of Palestinians, whether it be threats or executions, has yet to reach the world media.

Imagine if you will, the devastation wrought upon Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the USA.  Imagine that devastation in a vacuum, without the knowledge of what the Japanese Empire under Emperor Hirohito did during World War II.  Imagine, if you will, the devastation wrought upon Germany’s cities, many since rebuilt with American dollars.  Dresden, Darmstadt, Pforzheim and Berlin are but a few of the cities wasted by Allied bombers during World War II.  Imagine that devastation in a vacuum, without the knowledge of the brutality and destruction wreaked upon the world by Hitler and the Third Reich.

Israel, a tiny country and the only country in the world that is home in the true sense of the word to any Jewish person anywhere, is in yet another bitter fight for its right to exist.  This is not an isolated fight or battle.  This is a campaign waged by Israel’s many enemies for over sixty six years.

And as if this fight was not enough, Israel faces a fight from U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay and from a European population so silent as it witnesses a resurgence of plain old Jew Hatred, not seen since the early 1930’s.

In this age of information at the speed of light and of ever increasing public and social media Israel must draft a new army of those who will be its ambassadors, emissaries and soldiers in the public relations battles that exist now and lie ahead.

More than forty years ago I was (willingly) drafted into the IDF.  I am ready to be drafted into the Public Relations army that Israel needs to create.