From Israel we are watching America in so much pain.
Our hearts go out to you: to the family of George Floyd, to the Black community and all the American communities who suffer the unimaginable trauma of racism, to the people who are peacefully protesting for a better future, and to the victims of ongoing violence and tragic destruction perpetrated by the subset of protesters who aren’t peaceful. (Some of those victims have included synagogues and Jewish businesses.) All these things are happening at once, all are painful, and all are true.
Tuesday night hundreds of Israelis gathered in Tel Aviv outside the US consulate in protest against racism, and to show solidarity with the pain of the American people. It’s a bit of an odd role reversal for Israelis to be worried about America. But we are: we are watching, and we are listening, and we see you.
And as has been the case since Israel’s inception in 1948, we are with you. Always.
Living in Israel, thousands of miles away, we are relying on the media to serve as our window to events. No matter where you live, you too are relying on the media for at least some portion of your knowledge. As usual, the media is an imperfect window to the world. Journalism can foster meaningful thought and healing, or misinformation, cynicism and hate.
How do we read past the bias, the drama and the personal agendas in order to form our own, clear picture of our world?
Here are a few things to watch out for.
Hijacking the Conversation
Sometimes journalists or social media users cynically try to hijack a conversation away from meaningful events in order to further a private agenda. One example is a horribly dishonest campaign by proponents of BDS (the anti-Israel Boycott Divestment & Sanctions movement) called “Deadly Exchange.” Endorsed by Amnesty International and getting huge traction among young people on social media, this campaign claims that racism and violence in America, is caused by… Israel.
This tweet takes real chutzpah. The @ADL, which @JGreenblattADL leads, junkets hundreds of US police to “Israel” each year to “learn from” the brutal occupation forces that murder Palestinians in cold blood. Learn more: https://t.co/1x47IO3F1O https://t.co/P4BO9FrqdS
— Ali Abunimah (@AliAbunimah) May 30, 2020
In truth, American police officers and soldiers train all over the world, including in Israel.
Israel’s contribution is training on how to avoid racism and unnecessary violence, how to protect civilians from terrorism and avoid collateral damage, especially in urban settings. One strong proponent of the Israeli training happens to be former president Barack Obama. He was so concerned about America’s rate of causing civilian casualties that he sent his Joint Chiefs of Staff to Israel as part of the “Lessons Learned” project in 2014.
Sorry, but this is a tendentious and ill-informed trope. Neither country needs the other's help to "militarize" its police.
I've seen this program. The exchanges actually focus on the opposite: sharing best practices in community engagement, nonviolent policing, intelligence. https://t.co/7K7wUxhews
— Haviv Rettig Gur (@havivrettiggur) June 1, 2020
Certainly, the “Deadly Exchange” campaign sounds disturbingly close to classic antisemitic tropes, in which all manner of problems are disingenuously blamed on Jews (or in this case the Jewish state and American Jewish institutions such as the ADL), but there is another more insidious problem: by hijacking the conversation away from truly important American events, BDS activists undermine genuine efforts to respond to real and vital problems in American society. Now more than ever, that would be a tragedy.
False Drama
It is common for journalists to attempt to create drama through false comparisons, as if the events taking place now weren’t dramatic enough on their own. In once case, CNN’s Alex Marquardt, reporting on the use of tear gas against protesters outside the White House editorialized:
It is the kind of thing that I have seen in places like Turkey, in places like Egypt, between Israelis and Palestinians.
https://www.facebook.com/dov.lipman/videos/vb.429433447128257/269676060850414/?type=2&theater
The comparison is incorrect, unprofessional and outright harmful.
When Israel uses crowd control measures, it is typically against highly armed rioters, organized by internationally recognized terror organizations for the purpose of harming Israeli civilians. Moreover, there is simply no comparison between Israel and Turkey or Egypt, which function effectively as harsh dictatorships and control local populations with an iron fist.
Much like the practice of hijacking an event, this attempt to falsely give a local American protest the patina of international drama actually undermines the important domestic issues that should be the primary focus of these events.
What The Media Won’t Show You
Media outlets usually want to tell a narrative, a particular interpretation of events. The sad result is that a journalist will not only emphasize the facts, photos or events that support the narrative, but will often leave out important information that does not.
For example a photo montage by the popular entertainment web site Bored Panda entitled “35 Pics Showing The Other Side Of The George Floyd Protests That The Mainstream Media Is Reluctant To Share,” shows a rarely seen, and actually hopeful side to recent events. The first item is a photo entitled, “A Group Of Black People Protecting A Cop Who Got Separated From The Others.” Other images show police helping protesters stay safe and peaceful, police and citizens embracing, and groups of citizens helping to clean up neighborhoods damaged by the violence. Not all confrontations have moments like these, but they are noteworthy.
It’s not white vs. black, rich vs. poor, police vs. citizens….it’s EVERYONE vs. racists. from pics
It’s Not About Israel
The events in America are many things: painful, historic, and just possibly the seeds of a better future. One thing they are not is a commentary on Israel. Activists, journalists and keyboard warriors with antisemitic or anti-Israel agendas who make false comparisons are not only causing harm and pain to the Jewish people and Israel, they are cynically using the memory of George Floyd and the pain of the American people to further their own self-serving and often hate-filled agendas.
In the coming days we will be releasing a variety of content to help you become a more savvy news audience: to challenge and question what you hear, and to build your own window to the world, by fostering accuracy, hope and healing.
With best wishes from the bottom my heart in this difficult time,
Daniel Pomerantz
Featured image: via Wikimedia Commons and Flaticon;
