Netanyahu, it will be remembered, was the masterfully slick "PR Prime Minister". When he served as deputy foreign minister in the Shamir government during the Gulf War, he was the man singularly responsible for the positive media image enjoyed by Israel around the world. He is easily the most articulate and polished person ever to hold the office of prime minister in Israel, and he is a person who fully understands the power of the media.
Netanyahu did not waste the opportunity to heap scorn on the Israeli media during his speech. He was quoted thus: "Unlike the Hebrew dailies, the Jerusalem Post is the single most influential newspaper in Israel. It has come to represent the reaffirmation of justice, which, in turn, is the single most important factor in determining our success. Its power to tell our story, the Jewish story of return and renewal, is unique."
It is not my job to praise the Jerusalem Post. To be perfectly honest, I have a certain bias when it comes to the Post, which prevents me from rendering a fair verdict on that part of Netanyahu's speech. But something else he said is cause for tremendous alarm to anyone who values a fair and balanced media.
The print media in Israel consists of three major Hebrew dailies, one less major Hebrew daily, various Hebrew weeklies, a Russian daily or two, and the Jerusalem Post. Of the daily papers, it would not surprise me if the Post's circulation is the lowest. The English-speaking population of Israel is considerably smaller than the Russian-speaking community, and there are plenty of anglos and Russians who read Hebrew papers along with the native-born majority.
For Netanyahu to cite the Jerusalem Post as the most influential paper in the country speaks volumes about the lack of quality and lack of credibility attributed to the Hebrew papers in this country. The reason is clear.
The Hebrew dailies make no secret of their political bias. Rarely does a day go by on which none of the papers contain pure unbridled hatred on their editorial pages aimed at the religious, the right-wing, or the residents of Judea, Samaria and Gaza. When 10-month-old Shalhevet Pass was murdered in her stroller by an Arab gunman in March, Ha'aretz saw fit to refer to Jewish residents of Hevron as murderers and gangsters. When Jews are targeted by terrorists, they are also routinely vilified in the Israeli press. When major terrorist attacks take place, the Israeli media is uniformly more interested in blaring which group took responsibility than it is in mourning the loss of Jewish life.
These are general editorial policies at the leading Israeli dailies. But there are also opinion columnists employed by these papers who are even worse. The latest example of this traitorous outrage appeared in the Jerusalem weekly Kol Hazman on May 25. Gidon Spiro, a frequent columnist for Ha'aretz, is the perpetrator:
"The armed Palestinian struggle, just in its essence, ? should be concentrated against the settlements. If there is no way except that suicide missions continue, it would be best to take the Japanese Kamikaze method of planes crashing down upon the settlements and army bases rather than suicide bombers blowing themselves up in malls and buses within the Green Line."
So here we have an influential Israeli columnist openly calling for violence and murder to be directed at specific Jewish citizens of the country, and for enemies of the State to target Jewish neighbourhoods and army installations in their fight against Israel. We have one of the largest newspapers in the country continuing to employ this traitor and continuing to give him space in which to spout his treason.
And most sadly of all, we have a Jewish society in Israel that will continue to tolerate such garbage coming from its media representatives. Insomuch as the media determines public opinion, this is a grave danger to the very survival of the State of Israel. It is a sad statement indeed on the decline of Jewish values and Jewish Pride in Israel, when such a widespread media outlet can be tarnished with such blatant treason.
As long as the mainstream Israeli media acts as the official mouthpiece of our declared enemies, Israel will not be safe from those enemies, and will not be able to offer safety to the Jews of the world.
Copyright 2001. Yehuda Poch is a writer living in Israel. Reproduction in electronic or print format by permission only.
