Gaza-Israel Headlines mislead | NZFOI

Iron Dome SAM missiles on the left, rise up to intercept Hamas’ rockets on the right.

NZ Friends of Israel has been observing the responses to the latest wave of violence between Arabs and Jews with concern. 


The David vs Goliath story is misleading

The conflict has been narrowly portrayed as a David versus Goliath conflict supported by snapshots of “disproportionate” death tolls, “home-made” rockets contrasted with sophisticated state of the art military technologies, and forced evictions. 

Just relying on this information alone to decide what stance to take on the Middle East conflict between Jews and Arabs is risky. 

Perpetual refugee status keeps the conflict from being resolved

In nearly all modern conflicts, displaced peoples are resettled, so that they can rebuild, and get on with their lives. 

Not so in the Middle East, where neighbouring countries, in order to keep the dispute with Israel alive, refused to allow refugees to resettle, but instead have refused them citizenship and turned temporary refugee camps into institutionalized ghettos. 

Some 750,000 Jews have also been displaced through the Middle East conflicts.  They are unheard of today, because they have resettled in other countries, a vast number in Israel.  They have gone on to live their lives. 

For the Palestinian Arab refugee, they are stuck in a twilight zone, unable to get on with their lives, dependent on foreign aid, because Arab political leaders, including their own, will not accept a Jewish state in their midst.  In so doing, creating a long-running humanitarian crisis. 

Ironic, as the establishment of Israel, as a homeland and refuge for Jews, under international law, was, in itself, a humanitarian response to the Holocaust and a recognition of how widespread and deadly Anti-Semitism was in the world. 

As long as the world continues to fund this institutionalized victimhood, the Middle East conflict will persist.

The will to continue funding is heavily shaped by how media cover the Middle East Conflict.  

Ethical journalism is what we expect but not what we get

In the West, we value ethical journalism.  We expect factual and balanced reporting.  But commercialization and the human need to be “relevant” means that many journalists have abandoned these ideals and have taken sides when it comes to Israel. 

By doing so, they have become unwitting instruments of propaganda. 

Hamas’ tactics are clear.

  • Initiate a wave of violence to draw an Israeli military response.
  • Embed Hamas operations near civilians and civilian structures such as hospitals, schools and even UN facilities so civilian casualties are inevitable.
  • Milk the civilian casualties for all their propaganda value to win Western hearts and minds.
  • End the conflict to maximise cost-benefit of campaign.
  • Repeat when foreign aid begins to wane once more.

On the TVNZ news, a woman rants at the camera, saying no one would accept being evicted from their homes.  Well, yes we do.  If we can’t pay our bills, debt collectors come.  If we don’t pay our rent, then we are evicted.  Even in New Zealand. 

Headlines skew the narrative and show bias

Headlines are powerful.  They not only determine how many people will read an article, but a headline changes the way people read an article and the way they remember it.

To illustrate how bias comes through in headlines, here is a sequence of headlines on the Gaza conflict run by Stuff. Every effort has been taken to make this collection exhaustive but one or two may have slipped through: 

24 April: Worst round of cross-border violence between Israel and Gaza Strip in months

11 May: Jerusalem protests: The violent clashes between Palestinian protesters and Israeli police explained

11 May: Nine children killed in Gaza as violence intensifies with air strikes, rocket attacks

12 May: Israel, Hamas trade deadly rocket fire as confrontation escalates

13 May: New Zealand raises international law violations with Israel, expresses ‘grave concern’ over escalating violence

13 May: How Hamas pierced Israel’s famous Iron Dome shield

13 May: The three biggest US airlines are suspending flights to Israel.

13 May: Dozens killed in Mideast conflict that recalls 2014 Gaza war

14 May: Gaza hospitals were already struggling with Covid-19. Then the bombs fell

14 May: Israeli tanks pound Gaza ahead of possible ground incursion

14 May: Israel-Palestine conflict: Gaza ceasefire ‘not enough’ – Palestinian minister

14 May: Israeli-Palestinian conflict: Ongoing attack on Gaza Strip

14 May: Fighting between Hamas, Israel escalates as efforts to secure truce begin

15 May: US joins international effort to de-escalate the intensifying conflict in Gaza

15 May: Ending injustice is the only path to assuring Israel’s security

16 May: The moments before the bombing: Inside the Gaza media building destroyed by an airstrike

16 May: Media outlets demand Israel explain its bombing of news offices in Gaza

16 May: Israel airstrike in Gaza destroys building housing international media

16 May: Islamic nations hold emergency summit on Israel-Gaza attacks

17 May: The toughest tourism gig right now? Selling Israel to Muslim visitors in Dubai

17 May: Israel-Palestine conflict: 10 minutes of heavy airstrikes hit Gaza City as Hamas rocket attacks continue

17 May: Calls mount for Gaza-Israel ceasefire, greater US efforts

17 May: Associated Press’ top editor calls for probe into Israeli airstrike

18 May: Why is accountability for alleged war crimes so hard to achieve in the Israel-Palestinian conflict?

18 May: Green Party puts forward parliamentary motion to declare Palestine a state

18 May: Israeli strikes hit Gaza tunnels as diplomats work for truce

18 May: Israel-Palestine conflict: More airstrikes on Gaza mark second week of unrest

19 May: Palestinians go on strike as Israel-Hamas fighting rages

19 May: Israeli police say two killed in strike launched from Gaza

20 May: Now is the time for NZ to be brave, and stand up to Israel and China

20 May: As a Jewish New Zealander I am ashamed by Israel’s long history of inflaming tensions in the Mideast

20 May: Israel’s PM Benjamin Netanyahu ‘determined” to continue Gaza operation

20 May: Palestinian Kiwis worried for families in Gaza as bombs rain down

20 May: Israeli air strikes kill six, large family home destroyed in Gaza

21 May: Israel agrees ceasefire with Hamas in Gaza to end 11-day conflict

21 May: Israel-Palestine Conflict: The media is ‘dehumanising’ the nation of Israel

21 May:  Israel unleashes wave of strikes in Gaza despite pushback from US President Joe Biden

23 May: Vitriol and double standards are directed against Israel

23 May: Egyptian mediators hold talks to firm up Israel-Hamas truce

A review of these Stuff headlines shows that they overwhelmingly present Israel as the antagonist.  Of the 39 headlines only two mention Hamas’ indiscriminant rocket attacks and only one mentions that Hamas’ attacks are war crimes under international law, and even then only within the body text, not in any headline. 

Amidst this barrage of biased headlines, even the NZ government’s call to de-escalate is twisted to be seemingly addressed toward Israel and not toward Hamas.

It’s not surprising therefore to see a growing wave of anti-Israel sentiment resulting in pro-Palestinian rallies being held around the country.

The NY Times, in its daily update, lengthily summarises the “toll” of the latest conflict by numbering the Arab deaths, separating out children from the rest of the statistics and describing the damage to infrastructure and housing.  But only briefly mentions Israeli death toll with no further elaboration.

The real background tells quite a different story

The oft-mentioned East Jerusalem “eviction” is a legal dispute between tenants and their landlord and arises from long standing unpaid rent. 

There are other cases regarding ownership disputes opened by Jewish owners who were themselves displaced after Jordan illegally annexed East Jerusalem but returned after Israel won the 1967 War.  Now these Jewish owners are seeking reinstatement through the courts. 

The Israeli courts have shown themselves to be politically independent and scrupulously so.  It’s prosecution of past Prime Ministers and even the current Prime Minister, show that the Israeli courts are not intimidated by political power and that no one is above the law.

These court cases are ongoing and we should wait for their outcome before reacting.

Israel is accused of disproportionate use of force.  But there is no question that Hamas and its allies are themselves using deadly force.  Militarily, we would expect the amount of force should be sufficient, to stop the attacks.  They haven’t stopped which suggests insufficient force has been applied. 

The bombardment of Homs in the Syrian War is an example of how conventional warfare is conducted by the rest of the world.  By the end of that siege, Homs was nearly levelled and looked like Stalingrad after it’s siege in WW2. Israel’s targeted strikes are comparatively humane, considering that its enemies use its own civilians as human shields.

Disinformation is a part of war, so reserve your opinions

Finally, we urge everyone to restrain themselves from jumping to conclusions during a military conflict.  It’s been said that truth is the first casualty of war.  This conflict is no different.  Both sides will be wanting to manage the public narrative to their own advantage.

It’s not until after the conflict is over that independent foreign observers can report on what really happened.  For example, in the 2014 Gaza War, it wasn’t until journalists returned to their home countries that they were able to safely report that Hamas was using civilians and civilian infrastructure, including UN facilities as shields.

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