Ruthie Blum : The Israeli media’s favorite villain
https://www.jns.org/the-israeli-medias-favorite-villain/
There’s nothing new about the unabashed slant of the mainstream Israeli press. Nor is it novel that the local media’s favorite villain is Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin (“Bibi”) Netanyahu.
So much so that an alien from another planet might assume that it is Bibi—not Hamas and the “civilians” in Gaza raised to annihilate the Jewish state—who perpetrated the Oct. 7 massacre.
This creature from outer space might be puzzled, however, by the way in which Netanyahu is accused by his elitist detractors of contradictory failings, often in the same breath. Indeed, the editorial line of most Hebrew dailies is that Bibi is everything bad and its opposite: He’s weak and dictatorial; too capitulatory and excessively belligerent. In other words, unlike a broken clock, he’s not even right twice a day.
Take the coverage of Netanyahu’s speech at the graduation ceremony of the latest Ground Combat Officers Course. In attendance at the packed event at the Holon Toto Arena were the 600 soldiers receiving their new ranks, along with proud parents, spouses and children.
“I know what we have achieved, and at the same time, I know what we have lost,” he told the crowd. “The sacrifice of our sons and daughters will carry meaning for generations—the eradication of evil and the guarantee of Israel’s eternity. … This is your home. You planted the seeds, nurtured them and provided the backing—and today, you and the entire State of Israel reap the fruits of success. Congratulations and thank you.”
After expressing appreciation for their “patriotism and willingness to fight,” the prime minister held up a photo of the Bibas family, whose bodies had been returned to Israel mere days beforehand.
“This picture says it all,” he stressed. “I ask you to etch it into your hearts, so that we will always remember what we are fighting for and who we are fighting against. We are fighting for our existence against human monsters who seek to destroy us.”
He continued: “In the early days of the war, [Gaza terrorists] murdered Shiri [Bibas] and her children, [Ariel and Kfir], in cold blood. They strangled the young children with their own hands. And if they could, they would murder all of us with the same cruelty. … This is what we are fighting against. These monsters—we must and can defeat them, and we will defeat them. That is our mission, and that is your mission. As defenders of the homeland, you are all imbued with a sense of duty, wielding sword and shield.”
He went on to list war’s objectives: returning all the hostages, both living and deceased; dismantling Hamas’s military and governing capabilities in Gaza; eliminating any future threat against Israel from the Strip; and ensuring the safe return home of residents of Israel’s southern and northern communities.
He also spelled out the government’s ongoing policies on all fronts: in Gaza, Judea and Samaria, Lebanon, Syria and Iran, with an emphasis of not allowing the regime in Tehran to obtain nuclear weapons—”not only for Israel’s national security, but for that of the entire world.”
Virtually none of the content of his words was given ink or airtime, other than in the country’s less-than-a-handful of right-wing outlets. No, the headlines that emerged highlighted two issues.
Heckling from the audience was one. Netanyahu’s not having obtained permission from the extended Bibas family to describe how Shiri and her babies were killed was the other.
Let’s start with the first. Well, it’s true that someone got up and shouted at Netanyahu for not having saved Shiri and her babies. The same guy also yelled at him for not having visited Nir Oz, the kibbutz from where the Bibas family members were abducted 16 months ago.
But the rest of the hordes cheered when Netanyahu entered and tried desperately to shake his hand upon his exit.
Then there’s the second item that made the moving event sound like a Netanyahu fail: that he hadn’t been at liberty to discuss the details of the Bibas murders “without consent.”
Talk about grasping at straws to hurl mud at the prime minister whom reporters love to hate. If they had possessed an ounce of integrity, they would have mentioned that on Friday, Israel Defense Forces Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari presented the Bibas children’s autopsy results in greater graphic detail than Netanyahu subsequently did on Sunday.
Not only that. Hagari announced that Yarden Bibas “looked me in the eye and requested that I let the whole world know” how Ariel and Kfir were murdered. So, why would Netanyahu assume that doing so wasn’t kosher?
The answer came on Monday in the form of an appeal to his office and other government bureaus on behalf of the Bibas family. The request, through attorney Dana Fogatz, was actually a demand that everyone cease talking about the circumstances of the brutal murders—and a warning that the sole authority to decide to whom it may be revealed lies with the family.
The vultures in the press naturally reported that the above was spurred by Netanyahu’s speech. There was nothing about Hagari’s statement, in which he claimed to have been asked by Yarden Bibas to disseminate the horrors far and wide.
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