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Mass communication has long shaped public opinion but in recent years it has become a critical and controversial force. The disproportionate amount of media attention given to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict compared to other issues and areas in the world is in itself a one-sided approach. Moreover, it is not only the amount and frequency of coverage of this region that is at issue, but also the manner in which it is reported.
In the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, numerous examples show how the press has become less of an observer and accurate reporter of this conflict and more of a major player in creating a deliberately anti-Israel narrative, making editorial decisions based on specific agendas or sympathies rather than pure journalistic recollections. Distorted media coverage that attempts to explain this conflict in the Middle East has consequences for millions of people around the world who are trying to understand the complexities of this region. It is the media that sets the general public tone and atmosphere, and in most cases such influence is used to exacerbate the conflict.
Biased reporting against Israel in which the only Jewish country in the world is singled out and judged based on double standards compared to that other countries, is blatant antisemitism with new and more dangerous characteristics. Today, as expressed before in this chapter, with the fast proliferation of social media a lie can be spread like a global pandemic without any possibility of immunization.
Aside from the media’s obsession with Israeli-Palestinian friction, the coverage is blatantly simplistic and unbalanced, with the rhetoric of “oppressed” and “oppressor” leading the way. It is a kind of David (the Palestinians) and Goliath (Israel) approach, in which the terrorist attacks and threats against the State of Israel are downplayed or ignored. And according to this way of thinking, the Jews of Israel have no right to defend themselves. When they retaliate, they are portrayed as the insensitive pariahs of the world.
I have expanded on this topic at length and provided several examples of the unbalanced media coverage in my book, New Antisemitism: Mutation of a Long-Lived Hatred. However, the main point is that the world is looking at us, Jews, with a magnifying glass, so our relationships are projected to the whole world in the same proportion. Since we are always under scrutiny, we are always setting an example—for better or worse. So when we are internally divided, despising one another and treating each other with contempt and hostility, we portray an example of disunity, and the world hates us and accuses us of warmongering. But if we show Jewish unity and behave with mutual responsibility, we become an example of cohesion and the world appreciates us.
As it is written in Sefat Emet:
“The children of Israel corrected the world when they returned to being one nation … The correction should be that we are rewarded with correcting ourselves and finding the root of unity out of the separation.”
Also, in the words of Rav Kook,
“Humanity deserves to be united into a single family. At that time all the quarrels and the ill will that stem from divisions of nations and their boundaries shall cease. However, the world requires refinement, whereby humanity will be perfected through each nation’s unique characteristics. This deficiency is what the Assembly of Israel will complement.” – Rav Abraham Kook, Orot HaRaaiah [Lights of the Raaiah].
Based on the book, New Antisemitism: Mutation of a Long-Lived Hatred by Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
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