After October 7, the mainstream media picked up anti-Israel stories and flew with them, the truth left languishing in the dirt.
The story of the twelve spies sent by Moses to view the Promised Land shows that ten men's opinion against two is nothing new. Ten professional photographers work on an event, ten different albums will be produced. Each observer has a subjective way of viewing the same scene. Two journalists may attend the same event and publish very different stories.
I began walking the Jerusalem March/Flag Parade. Every time what I saw did not match what media outlets were publishing.
How many saw that this year Reuters Fact Check put out a correction two weeks after they published stories of Jews chanting death to Arabs? Two little too late; the damage was done. I saw no corrections in other media.
Though proven to be not true, the false claims coming from Gaza are consistently revived by anti-Israel pundits. The exaggerated death count in the Gaza hospital story is one glaring example. Readers of Elder of Ziyon are well aware of bias in reporting from sources coming from the UN agencies relying on Hamas.
One recent piece from the BBC, "Why 800 people fled a sun-kissed Mediterranean Village," related the woeful tale of Alma al-Shaab, in southern Lebanon just over a kilometer from the Israeli border. "Since October last year, it has been caught in cross-border fighting between Israeli forces and "Hezbollah, the Shia Muslim organization which is politically influential and in control of the most powerful armed force in Lebanon."
BBC didn’t bother to state that Hezbollah is a terrorist organization which, since October 7 has bombarded northern Israel with rockets, missiles, and deadly drones, forcing close to 100,000 Israelis to find refuge for safety. Those thousands, homeless for nine months, are not worth a mention by the BBC.
At least BBC's Ali Abbas Ahmadi admits, "Hezbollah and its allies fired waves of rockets from Lebanon into a disputed area along the border in an apparent show of support for the armed group." Northern Israel is not a “disputed area." The BBC ignores UN Resolution 1701, which requires “the disarmament of all armed groups in Lebanon,” which Ahmadi and Hezbollah both ignore.
BBC news anchor Helena Humphrey asked former IDF spokesman Jonathan Conricus why the army didn't warn Palestinians before the rescue of the four hostages in Gaza. After years of dealing with hostile media, Conricus kept his composure before responding. His even temper and his eyes opening wider did not get the same attention as Eylon Levy's eyebrows when asked a similarly outrageous question.
Over the years I have witnessed bias against Israel from journalists, not only online but also on organized international media tours.
November 2016, with Arafat staring down from a larger-than-life photo on the wall, we sat in the Silwad community center to hear the emotional retelling of an old Arab woman's story.
She remembered her young days on her father's land. Not one of the international journalists asked to see a deed or any proof of her tale. It was accepted. It fits the narrative. The group leader had tried to convince me not to get on the bus leaving from Jerusalem. He warned me to keep a low profile after I insisted on coming using my US passport and identification.
After safely leaving, I researched the deed. It appeared to be a flimsy piece of paper the size of an index card from a manual typewriter issued in Jordan in 1964 by some office for tax purposes. Israeli families were forced to move in part because of her testimony. Their homes and community were destroyed.
Contrast this with the October 17, 2023, media presentation in Jerusalem where journalists insisted on seeing photographs of the death and destruction described by the ZAKA volunteers fresh from the horrors of southern Israel.
In October, the world did not want to believe the horror stories of burnt bodies. No matter the evidence, there is still denial from Israel haters.
On another occasion, from a scenic lookout on an international media tour, there was a carefully detailed presentation of illegal Arab construction with diagrams, charts, and Google map images by the NGO Regavim. Moving away to the next destination, three men were walking.
I overheard the one in the middle say to his friends, "That was a good presentation.
"But we are journalists. We know it's all lies."
There lies the problem.
On October 12, 2023, the tone of the British journalists' repeated questions caused President Herzog to lose his temper in responding. The number of nationalities involved in the 250 people kidnapped in southern Israel and held hostage was not of interest. His call for their immediate release was ignored.
Image - October 11, 2023, shown to the international journalists at Bei Hanasi
On Day 257, Rachel Goldberg Polin and Jon Polin were interviewed on CNN. She said in the US people still do not know after all these months that 8 US dual citizens are still held captive and 24 nationalities were involved.
Journalists have a right and obligation to question. However, they also must present factual information, not their opinions as facts.
Agence France-Presse (AFP) wants a dynamic journalist for its Jerusalem bureau to cover news in Israel and the Palestinian Territories. The deadline for applications was June 23. Journalists with a perfect command of Hebrew and French, a strong grasp of social networks, and a deep understanding of Middle Eastern news, particularly the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, were invited to apply.
It will be interesting to see who fills the position.
Actress Sharon Stone was quoted: "We see terrible things about Israel on TV, but when you come here you realize that what they broadcast is not true, this is a wonderful country!"
After making aliyah and living in Jerusalem, Israel, the scenes I saw daily were not what I saw in the media, prompting the creation of The Real Jerusalem Streets. After posting close to 14,000 photos, it is still hard to believe how different the real streets are from the fake narratives and how easily the fake news is shared.
Thank you, Elder of Ziyon, for posting multiple Real J Street blogs over the years, to share what's really happening and what the mainstream media ignores.
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