In 2003, Fox News covered what was one of many in a series of ceasefires between the US military and opposing forces in Iraq. Also covered by Al Jazeera, fighting lingered in Ar Ramadi, despite the officially announced ceasefire. On Fox: “Despite the announcement, the opposing troops are violating the ceasefire and continue to fire on the Americans, who are responding in-kind, fighting while returning to their bases.” On Al Jazeera: “The Americans continue shooting, in violation of the ceasefire, and are retreating in the face of retaliatory fire.”
The same story, covered by two different news organizations with substantially different audiences, meant that the truth, then, was probably somewhere in the middle.
Fast forward seven years.
FREEDOM ATTACKED shouted the Dubai-based Gulf News, its front page not surprisingly covering the 31 May 2010 Freedom Flotilla showdown. The National, an Abu Dhabi based paper, similarly decried that the “World unites to condemn Israel for attack on Gaza aid convoy.” The Israeli brutes shot unarmed civilians seeking only to deliver much needed aid to a people starved of even the most basic items.
The Arab world considers the Israeli effort another in a continuing violation of human right and international law. The people are starving, unemployed, and Israel continues to resort to repressive force to ensure that the 80 percent of Palestinians continue to live in Gaza with less than $1 a day.
The Wall Street Journal noted the “Flotilla Assault off Gaza Spurs Crisis.” Halfway down the page, it showed video images released by Israel of “a close-up account of troops rappelling down to the deck of one of the vessels on flotilla and coming under repeated attack.” The peaceniks on the Mavi Marmara, seeking to provide crayons to the children of Gaza, must have missed the “non-violent” protest class as they hit the fast-roping soldiers with metal poles, chairs, and knives. The IDF troops simply fired back in self-defense.
Israel and its allies, disheartened by the need for force, refused to allow an unchecked shipment into the terrorist haven that is the Gaza Strip. The same concrete that builds homes can also build shelter for Hamas militants who continue to fire mortar rounds into Israel, killing women and children. And would Saudi Arabia allow a shipload of Bibles or Torahs into its underserved Christian or Jewish minorities? Then why should the Israelis have to allow crayons to children in Gaza?
The same event reported in completely disparate accounts. Like in 2003, the truth, then, must be somewhere in the middle.
Even a disinterested observer (if there is such a thing) looks at the above through an optic of self-interest. The media, which likes to consider itself that disinterested observer, however, no longer reports just the facts. The media, like the world on which it reports, is polarized (and polarizing). In the US, Fox News/WSJ are conservative mouthpieces for the Republican Party, despite protestations to the contrary. MSNBC/NYT sit firmly, and liberally, on the other side of the aisle. And the Arab press? They won’t even admit that the Egyptians are enforcing the blockade of the Gaza Strip with as much gusto as their Israeli neighbors. That The National would report something positive about Israel is about as likely as Keith Olbermann or Rachel Maddow giving honest kudos to Sarah Palin. The media is now in the Public Relations business and uses language – however subtly – to advance a cause.
Israel has most assuredly lost this particular PR battle. And the pro-Palestine camp knows it (as they ramp up for another two-ship flotilla). Faced with a no-win situation, Israel had to choose between either humiliation – letting a weaker enemy through its maritime boarders – or to use force to turn back that same weaker enemy. It used force. But rather than sit back and allow the anti-Israel stories to propagate, the Jewish state could utilize that same PR mouthpiece – the mass media – to win back the momentum. Israel now has an excellent opportunity to show the world that it allows honest humanitarian goods through to the Gaza Strip (as it has continued to allow since the blockade began).
Assuming the flotilla still sits in Israeli ports, Israel should immediately invite international (including those from the Arab world) news organizations to watch as it unloads the humanitarian aid from those ships, escorts it into Gaza, and delivers it to the school children sitting in those bombed out schools. Oh, and it might help if somebody released a manifest of what was on board to help disavow any conspiracy theories that might follow (Israel ‘planted’ those dual use materials on the motorized wheelchairs; Israel ‘stole’ the medicines and didn’t let them through; etc.).
The world is watching. If Israel can use the media for what it is, however, it can gain back the upper hand of the PR war. A war, to be sure, that will continue…
Because seriously, who wants to read a newspaper story that states: “There was a ceasefire. Both sides continued fighting as they pulled back from the front lines of the fight.”
In 2010, I’ll try anyway for those of you who, because you’re living under a rock, might not have heard.
The numbers vary, but on 31 May 2010, at least 9 people died following the early morning commando raid by Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) on the Mavi Marmara, one of six ships in a flotilla organized by the Humanitarian Relief Foundation, a Turkish based charity seeking to deliver 10,000 tons of construction material, medical equipment, and school supplies to the Gaza Strip, currently isolated by an Israeli/Egyptian blockade. Despite Israeli offers to escort the aid into the Gaza Strip, albeit after a thorough inspection at Israeli ports, the flotilla was unwavering. It announced it would ignore any Israeli blockade and deliver the goods directly to ports in Gaza. Posturing continued, and when the flotilla neared Israeli territorial waters, the Israeli ships made good on their promise – they wouldn’t let the flotilla reach port in Gaza. The IDF intercepted the flotilla, and failing to turn it back, boarded the ships. During boarding, IDF forces met no resistance on five of six ships. Those on board the sixth resisted with violence, and the IDF fired, killing civilians. No one is certain who fired the first shot, though at least one of the IDF troops lost control of his weapon to a peace activist.
Great post, Ben. People so often forget that there are always two (sometimes more) sides of a story and that the truth nearly always lies somewhere in between. I also like the shot at media being anything BUT disinterested, that's been one of my biggest annoyances about news media in recent years!
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