By: K.J. Kruger

Perhaps some of you listen to different news channels or get your information from different sources. These days the news can be obtained almost instantly. No sooner is something happening, but people are filming it on their phones and posting the information online.

The effect of this can be very disturbing, particularly for those of us living in those areas in which these alarming events occur! I have had the experience of listening to the same story on different stations on the television. In some cases, what I hear from different sources almost amounts to different stories. This, quite often, depends upon the network bias and who is doing the reporting. Certain biased reporting may be expected, insofar as we tend to focus on what is important to us. However, a deliberate obscuring or misrepresentation of truth must be strongly condemned. Media outlets have, in my opinion, the fundamental responsibility of reporting truthfully. In saying this, truth can be multifaceted. For example, it is truthful to say that there is and has been a war in Israel. This is true. It is also truthful to say that Hamas started this war, and very quickly Hezbollah joined in. It is also true to say that along with the ongoing civilian suffering in Israel, there is civilian suffering in Gaza and Lebanon. To negate any of this is to distort reality.  

What has become painfully obvious to many of us, however, is the deliberate falsification of the motives and actions of Israel.  As we fight a war to preserve our very existence on seven fronts, we are also engaged in a war no less sinister and deadly occurring on the internet and on news stations. This has fomented eruptions on college campuses, the ripping down of hostage posters, and the vilification of Israel worldwide. This happened almost instantaneously after October 7, which proves that it has been carefully orchestrated and cultivated for decades.

Let’s look at the use of buzzwords. By this, I mean, any word that is designed to elicit an emotional response. We can hear the words, “liberty”, “freedom” and “family” and most of us would smile, agree and decide that these are wonderful concepts worth fighting for. There are also negative buzz words designed to elicit angry responses. For example, “racism” and “oppression” . I have seen and it has been pointed out by others, that almost every time a pro-Palestinian speaker appears on the news, no matter what the question, the answer is, “apartheid, colonialism, and  genocide,”  It is astounding to see and hear these words used to describe Israel and each term can be disputed and proven wrong. However, the constant use of such words, particularly on those who are uninformed and are used to sound bites, can do a great deal of damage.

Additionally, the constant exposure to pictures of the suffering of the civilians in Gaza can evoke, at first sympathetic, and then angry responses to “Israeli aggression” and “ethnic cleansing”. Of course, we agree that every loss is an entire world, and we must, as much as possible, fight this war ethically and humanely. But fight it and win it, we must, or there will be untold suffering as even more of our civilians will be massacred as they were on October 7, 2023.

During the war, I saw a flyer that was distributed in Amsterdam. A group of musicians from Israel were to perform some lovely classical music. They were a string quartet and there was a picture of them holding their instruments. The picture had been photoshopped to show, instead, their instruments as weapons with blood pooling around their feet. The title of the photo was “Boycott the Genocidal Israelis” as if their musical instruments were, instead, instruments of war and would be used to harm “poor and defenseless” Palestinians who only want “freedom” and to live “peacefully”.  Such is the power of buzzwords and bias.

In addition, near the beginning of the war it was reported that Israel had bombed a hospital in Gaza and killed 500 people. How awful! What monsters! However, it was soon after discovered, that an explosion had occurred in a parking lot near a hospital and was the result of a misfired rocket of Hamas. Far fewer people were killed than had been reported.  And, as I checked on the internet, this story still appears on Al Jazeera and Sky news even though the news was false.

I believe that many of the protestors on college campuses in the United States were decent people who are truly misguided. I do not believe that many were raving anti-Semites who wanted to see the destruction of the Jewish people. However, it was also alarming to me to see that every tent that was distributed looked the same. And there were thousands upon thousands of tents! This shows that this “spontaneous uprising” was carefully orchestrated and funded. The infiltration of the thoughts and minds of our young people did not happen all at once. This has been orchestrated and planned for some time, using meticulous brainwashing techniques along with the internet and news media.

The media has a sacred responsibility to report the truth, even though the truth may be difficult to absorb and may shatter our belief systems. Though biases will appear, because we are human with our own set of values, it is vital for the news agencies to remain as unbiased and objective as possible. The alternative is to create a generation of anti-Israel, anti-Semitic and anti-Zionist apologists who understand nothing, not even the mottos they chant so loudly.