While Israel ostensibly readies its ground forces for a dreaded but seemingly unavoidable major assault on Gaza, we are occasionally reminded about the possibility of a second front in this unwanted war opening on Israel’s northern border, courtesy of yet more Iranian-funded terrorists -- Hezbollah (which translates, perversely, into the “Party of God”). As many know all too well, such a two-front war would be nothing new for the State of Israel. And the United States has positioned an entire naval carrier group nearby to discourage the opening of such a second front, although how involved the U.S. would be willing to become is anyone’s guess.
Yet there is a third front about which we must be concerned, and that is already active. That third front is not (as of yet), as in past conflicts, on Israel’s eastern border with Jordan and/or the West Bank. Instead, this hotbed of anti-Israel skirmishes and bombardments comes in the form of the perhaps more devastating incessant media attacks filled with misinformation about Israel and its aims and false equivalencies preached by those with a microphone at the ready.
As virtually every supporter of Israel and her right to exist knows all too well, each checking of the latest headlines on one’s phone or the turning on of the radio or television (for the older set among us) is a pulse-quickening, breath-shortening, dread-filled experience. We fear what horrors the latest salvo against Israel has wrought. Last week, Israel and her allies spent the better part of several days digging out from beneath an errant attack on a hospital in Gaza, one which most have realized is more accurately classified as Hamas/Islamic Jihad (yet a third group of murders) and media-launched “friendly fire.” After it was ultimately revealed that the attack was not Israel’s doing, the number of dead from this rocket launched on its own people miraculously was revised downward from at least 500 to somewhere between 100 and 300. Apparently, once the smoke had cleared and the perpetrated lies along with it, at least 200 people were miraculously reincarnated. Or, perhaps, the original number was just wrong, which is what occasionally happens when one depends on the Palestinian Health Ministry, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hamas, for credible information of any sort.
While most of the world that cares about facts (somewhat, at least) has moved on, there has been nary a let up from the rush to level Israel with accusations. Rather, each news cycle, which of course only lasts about 45 seconds, starts afresh with new tales of supposed inhumanity at the hands of the IDF. Currently, Israel and those in her corner are desperately fighting off calls for cease-fires that will likely help Israel not one iota. (It might also be worth noting that in prior wars, including the Six Day War, it was the imposition of a cease fire on Israel by external parties that stopped Israel from fully vanquishing its avowed enemies in Cairo and Damascus.) Additional condemnations lament the shortages of water and electricity as if somehow combatants should worry first about their enemy’s population and only secondarily about its own. Only in the theater of war involving Israel is projecting strength to protect one’s own people grounds for disparagement.
Perhaps most lethal to Israel’s global support, assuming for argument’s sake that there is in fact such support, are the IDF bombs dropped on southern Gaza, which is now hosting the influx of those from the north of the Strip that prudently followed Israel’s repeated admonitions to leave that region behind. The killing of individuals in the area in which they were instructed to move never fails to make headlines and be the subject of journalists’ reports of disingenuous incredulity.
For those of us who support Israel from afar, it must be conceded that such attacks are initially cringeworthy. At best. And to be sure, there are loud voices that attract attention to these acts of apparent indifference, such as that of the noted humanitarian and moral guidepost that is the Queen of Jordan (as helpfully disseminated by CNN’s Christine Amanpour, which is a subject for a post of its own; consider that a sneak preview). Queen Raia and others like her believe that media is actually too soft on Israel. Could they be correct?
But after the initial gasp of shock, one must ask oneself calmly and dispassionately why these actions are being undertaken by Israel. Could Israel be so unconcerned about the lives of non-terrorists to intentionally expend vital substantial ordinances on them? Have the Jews of Israel become so determined to exact revenge that they no longer are concerned for human life? Or, to hear some of Israel’s adversaries tell it, the Jews have always been hell bent on such violence and death. It is not inconceivable; even good people do bad things.
Now I, just like the pundits posing as journalists, am not a military expert. Yet one does not have to have graduated from West Point to understand that this is war, brought on in its instant form by the savagery of Hamas. We must not allow ourselves to forget that Israel is fighting for its very existence against those who do not have any compunction about sacrificing human life – theirs or others. Consequently, it would defy logic that having largely failed to stop non-combatant Gazans from escaping to the south where they would be safer, the cowardly murderers in Hamas would not similarly seek to once again hide themselves among residences, hospitals, schools and any other area in southern Gaza the attack upon which is sure to arouse in the uninquisitive masses horror and condemnation. Although the Iron Dome may be a very dependable counter to terrorist missiles, the Israelis do not unfortunately possess a similarly reliable means of combatting projectiles of misinformation or lack of journalistic integrity and truth-finding. Perhaps Israel is just not, as many of us have posited for decades, particularly adept at the media wars.
Yet, when considering all of the evidence, it seems that lack of PR-savvy is unlikely the source of the problem. Yes, the Israelis do screw up from time to time and have quite possibly attempted to cover up those errors. Nonetheless, as a country with a free – and critical – press and free speech for its citizens, it does not seem plausible that Israel would merely be bad at making its own case. Rather, the rushes to judgment, the sensationalism of what passes for news coverage, the desire to champion an underdog (no matter its own culpability) and, of course, most importantly, the ever-present and irrepressible specter of anti-Semitism permeates so much of what is passed off as journalism.
For thousands of years the Jews have endured countless enemies: the Egyptians, the Philistines, the Greeks, the Romans, the Tsars, the Egyptians (again) and too many others to ever list. We have survived them all, and we will survive the latest incarnations as well. But defeating the lies and hate that are products of the pen instead of the sword seems sadly to be an unwinnable battle.
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