By Elisabeth Hinze
Just after 1am last night, the IDF Spokesperson unit took to Twitter to announce the start of Operation Protective Edge in Gaza against Hamas “in order to stop the terror Israel’s citizens face on a daily basis.”
Over the past three weeks, more than 200 rockets have slammed into the south of Israel. And Israel responded to those rockets with airstrikes on Gaza. Yesterday things took a turn for the worse. Between 20:00 and 20:10 last night, a barrage of 30 rockets rained down on Israel. Let that sink in for a moment. Thirty rockets in 10 minutes… That brings the total rocket count for Monday to 80.
In the days to come, the international media will have a field day covering events here in Israel. I’m sure you’ve already seen some of the headlines, read the newspaper articles and heard the snippets on radio and television. But here is my concern. I follow the coverage of Israel in my country pretty closely. And honestly, if I hadn’t been here, if I didn’t see or experience the other side of the story, if I had to rely on what the media had to say, I’d have believed Israel to be a nation of cruel, heartless thugs without any regard for human life, always looking for an excuse to march off to war. I would have. Because that’s the message the media in my country so manipulatively feeds us. And I’m concerned that the media in your country might be up to the same subtle tricks.
See, I often meet people who have this violent, cruel picture of who Israel is. When I ask why, they can’t tell me. It’s not something they have a strong opinion on or even think about. It’s just this impression, this vague subconscious belief of that being the way it is. Which comes from the images, the phrases, the headlines you read on your way to work and the snippets you hear on the radio. Painting Israel as the villain is what the media in my country aims at. And they seem to be doing a stellar job.
Make no mistake, the media twists, frames, emphasises or hurls facts out of context to make sure that you get only the story they want you to hear. I worked in media for years. I know the subtle tricks.
I’ve been here in Israel for the past few weeks. I’ve seen the events unfold and the intensity of emotions they evoke. And I followed the coverage internationally. What I’d like to give you is an objective, outsider’s glimpse of how subtly the media plant little seeds of discord towards Israel amongst their readers.
Which brings me to the first thing to remember about airstrikes on Gaza: the key word is retaliation. Israel retaliates. Why? Well, what would you do about someone attacking your house? Wouldn’t you do everything in your power to keep your family safe?
That is what Israel wants. To keep her families safe. But she does so with caution. She takes the rockets, the abuse, the attacks on her families. All in the hope of peace. But the media doesn’t report on that. Neither does it speak about the rockets from Gaza aimed at school busses and nursery schools and homes. Instead, the media waits until Israel reacts. Until things get bad enough for her to retaliate in an attempt to protect her people. And then the media springs into action…
“Israeli warplanes strike Gaza”. “Israel targets Gaza”. Two headlines found on a leading news site in my country recently. In both these instances, Israel reacted to attacks from Gaza. But these headlines painted a subtle picture of Israel being malicious, violent, picking a fight for no good reason. Like they simply decided to bomb Gaza because there was nothing better to do that day. And if you didn’t read down to paragraph 9 or 10 of the articles, you would never know that Israel responded to being attacked.
Three weeks ago a missile fired from Syria hit the car in which an Israeli family was traveling. Their 7-year old son was killed. But there was no mention of his death in my country’s media. Until days later when Israel struck the military bases in Syria from which the missile was fired. Then the media reported – and promptly blamed Israel.
See, where I come from, the media rarely reports on Israeli casualties. It just doesn’t fit the picture they want to paint. How many people know about the attack on the Israeli family on their way to Passover dinner? Where the father was shot to death, the mom and 9-year old boy injured? Not a lot. Because it never made the media in my country.
Which brings me to something that bothers many people – the civilian deaths in Gaza from Israeli airstrikes. Shouldn’t Israel show some restraint? Have more regard for human life? They do actually. More than any other army I know. See, Israel may have the capacity to fix the problems she has from Gaza easily and permanently – without endangering her own soldiers. But she’s never chosen that option. Why? Because Hamas uses its own civilians as human shields. By setting up their rocket launching pads in schools and storing their weapons in hospitals.
Impossible situation… And still Israel tries. It doesn’t always work out that way. But still Israel tries. But you won’t read about that. Instead, you’ll see headlines like “Palestinian teen killed by Israeli troops”. What picture does that paint for you? Probably one of a lone young man falling bravely before a whole army of armed menacing soldiers. Except that’s not how it happened. The teenager was shot while lobbing a grenade at soldiers searching for the missing Israeli teenagers. But unless you read down to paragraph 9 or 10 of the article, you’d never have known that the soldier acted in self-defence.
Am I saying that Israel is a nation of angels incapable of wrongdoing? Hardly. They’ve bungled things in spectacular ways, messed up epically and made a good share of mistakes. Kind of like all human beings tend to do, right. What I am saying is that many media outlets have an official pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel stance. Which means that these outlets will without fail and in heartbreakingly vivid detail, give you one side of the story: the Palestinian side. You will hear only about the Palestinians’ plight, only about their suffering, only about their dead. I’m telling you that there is another side of the story. And it is crucial that you learn about that side.
The Bible is full of promises that we love to claim as our own. God works all things together for good to those who love Him (Romans 8:28), He will never leave or forsake us (Hebrews 13:5), He knows the plans He has for our future – plans for good and not for evil (Jeremiah 29:11), the list goes on. And that’s right. We should. Problem is, all too often we hold on tightly to those promises we like, the ones that suit our plans and points of view. Only to forget about the ones we feel less comfortable with.
Because God also promised that one day, all the nations of the world will turn against Israel. And then, the promise goes, God will deal with those who stood against her – severely (Zechariah 12:2-4). The time will come for each of us to make a choice: will we take a stand for or against Israel. It won’t be a choice about loving a nation or a people or an ideology. It will be a choice between the plans of God which He declared since the beginning of the word, which includes the nation of Israel, and world opinion backed by that which the media sells.
In my opinion, I’d say we are in for an extremely unpopular choice. But see, if God felt strongly enough about this choice to tell us about it way in advance, we need to make sure that the biased, one-sided media is not the only, or the most informed, voice that our friends and loved ones hear on this topic.
“Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: “May those who love you be secure.” Psalm 122:6
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