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by Emanuel R. (Manny) Baker
Israel is fighting a number of wars: a war against Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, Iran, Syria – and one against the so-called Main Stream Media (MSM). We can include both the print media and the electronic media in the MSM. The war against the MSM is, in some ways, a more difficult one. In the hot war, you at least know where your enemies are located geographically. In the MSM war, the foe is distributed all over the globe, creating many potential targets. And. what is the nature of the MSM war? It’s an effort to delegitimize Israel.
Consider the current fight against Hezbollah and the attack by ballistic missile from Iran. Israel is portrayed almost universally as the bad guy. The bombings of Hezbollah positions (in residential neighborhoods, no less) or the assassination of Hezbollah and Hamas military and political leaders as posed as “escalation”. Really? Is this not a war? Is this not really a continuation of a war that was begun several decades ago but that has been temporarily halted by UN-imposed truces? Has Hezbollah honored the terms of the truce? Have they moved their forces north of the Litani River and ceased firing rockets into Israel? Of course not. We are just in another phase of that long-running war. It’s a war that Israel must win. And in war, proportionality is unrealistic. You do what you have to do to defeat the enemy.
What are some of the other misrepresentations by the MSM? We see pictures of destroyed buildings, people made homeless, people with injuries, and funerals. There are no stories about or pictures of the 60,000 or so Israelis in Israel’s north displaced by the war. Are they not suffering? The LA Times ran a story on Sunday, October 6, about a boy in Gaza who had to celebrate his first birthday as a refugee. Was there any concern shown in the MSM about the Israeli child who celebrated his first birthday as a hostage? In the face of many stories in the MSM about the suffering of Gazans, doesn’t the suffering of Israelis directly affected by the October 7 carnage and hostage taking count for anything?
The pictures of bombed-out buildings in Gaza are intended to depict the IDF as performing wanton destruction of Gaza. If you see documentaries of the war in Iraq, and especially the house-to-house battle in Mosul, you see similar destruction. There was no call for the Marines to restrain themselves, nor should there have been. It’s unavoidable when wars come to cities and the enemy holes itself up in residential areas. Major John Spencer, Chair of Urban Warfare Studies at West Point said, “Israel has implemented more measures to prevent civilian casualties than any other military in history”. Hardly any mention is made of the fact that Hamas and Hezbollah hide in civilian quarters and use mosques, hospitals, schools, UN facilities, and other facilities that are used by the public to wage war in violation of international law. We read and hear of allegations against Israel about violation of international law. How frequently do you read or hear about Hamas or Hezbollah violation of international law? Rarely, if at all. Hamas dug tunnels under UNWRA facilities and tapped into their power source to run their equipment. There was hardly any mention or outcry against it in the MSM. What would have been the response in the MSM if Israel had done that? It’s a rhetorical question.
One of the most egregious factors in their reporting is with regard to civilian casualties. Now reported as being about 42,000, the source cited by the MSM is the Hamas Ministry of Health which does not distinguish between civilian and combatant casualties. They don’t point out that these figures are often inaccurate, nor do they report what Israel cites as the number of combatants the IDF believes it has killed. In fact, Israel’s Channel 12 reported on Sunday, 10/6, that 80% of Gaza fatalities are Hamas or family members. This has not been reported in the MSM. The effect of their reporting, however, is that the total figure sticks in the reader’s mind, and it sticks as 42,000 civilian fatalities caused by Israel’s IDF.
A little-known fact is that 20,000 civilians died on D-Day during the Normandy invasion, a figure roughly half of the Gaza fatalities. This occurred in one day whereas the fighting in Gaza has gone on now for a year. Analysis of the Gaza casualty figures indicate that the ratio of civilians killed to combatants is a little more than 1:1, a figure far lower than that experienced in any other war in history. Statistical analysis done by Abraham Wyner of the Wharton School of Economics statistically backs that up. Yet the MSM continues to stick to the mostly unqualified 42,000 figure.
The negative coverage by the MSM seems to be deliberate, and it factors into the antisemitic sentiment creeping into our lives. How can we combat this negative publicity to diminish or negate its effect? In an AJU webinar on 10/7, Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus (ret.) of the IDF pointed out how poorly the Israeli government is doing in the PR war. He praised people who are writing letters to the editors and writing op-eds for what they are doing to fight MSM bias. It would be helpful to make your voices heard to let the media outlets know that you are dissatisfied with their coverage of Israel. Write letters to these media organizations voicing your dissatisfaction, citing facts where possible, and asking them to correct their erroneous coverage. It’s important to flood the media and their advertisers with letters. A large response is hard to ignore. One letter will not have much impact, but many will.
About Manny Baker: I come from an Orthodox family (I am now Conservative), and my father was a rabbi. We were a family of ardent Zionists, and in my high school and college years, I was very active in Zionist youth groups. I served a term as VP of the NJ region of Young Judaea and was a national co-chair of Young Judaea’s American Affairs committee. I have been active in our congregation in Santa Monica, Ca, Kehillat Maarav, serving as a member of the Board and two years as its president. I write many letters to the editors of main stream media, both print and electronic, concerning their portrayal of Israel and have had letters published in the Wall Street Journal and LA Times. A motivating factor for this piece is getting the truth out there. It’s sad that so many Jews are so unaware of what the truth about Israel is; furthermore, they resist learning it. Many get their news from sources that seem to be inimical to Israel and slant their coverage in favor of the terrorists. I know that Israel is not free of faults, but continually portraying Israel as the bad guy is equally bad, and no doubt contributes to the rise in antisemitism.
