Vicious Loops

How framing the news informs foreign policy and demonizes Israel

So every morning as I wake up there is a routine to my news consumption and one of the first apps to get a quick scan is Dutch public news. Even after 35 years away in foreign lands, I still check it first. It provides a great summary and quickly bridges the hours that I have been asleep here on the west coast. Yet their news coverage has become somewhat questionable, in particular when it comes to Gaza. It provides editorial comments masquerading as ‘news’, or, in the case of the actual fighting in Gaza, unverified civilian casualty numbers and reported as provided by the ‘Gazan Ministry of Health’. Very often these reports are walked back in other international media or eventually buried somewhere. But at that point the damage has already been done and, according to this recent report, these media are directly helping terror organizations. Hamas may be losing on the battlefield, but the support they get in western media may be postponing their eventual defeat and indeed prolong the actual suffering of Gazan citizens. Which Hamas then uses to frame the news: a vicious cycle that has been repeating itself now for close to two years.

Of course this practice of reporting the news is hardly uniquely Dutch, but it is noticeable that Europe has taken a lamentable lead in discrediting Israel. And it has dire consequences.

Somehow it was Belgium that moved to pole position at the beginning of this week. First we learned that its king waded into the conflict on Sunday by describing the situation in Gaza as a "disgrace to humanity" in a nationally televised speech. He alluded to international law and urged the UN to take action. Of course his speechwriters cleverly avoided mentioning Israel, but for royalty to breach their constitutional role and wade into a politically divisive and hot item by dropping certain hints is extremely unusual and fraught with unintended consequences.

Although possibly coincidental, one of these was manifested on Belgian soil on the very day the king delivered his speech: two Israelis were arrested at the Tomorrowland music festival, apparently in a very forceful way, interrogated and released later. They were apprehended on the advice of the Hind Rajab Foundation (HRF), a foundation established only last year with its focus on war crimes committed by Israel. Establishing the HRF is one thing, trying to target Israelis overseas another, but the fact that national governments now actually act in accordance with the recommendations and wishes of these organizations is next level. It puts every single Israeli citizen travelling or living abroad at the risk of arrest, or worse.

So in addition to influencing the media loop, the anti-Israel movement is now very adroit in also mobilizing the justice system in what we call ‘lawfare’. All of this comes straight out of the multi-front BDS book of harassing and isolating Israel in a vain attempt to influence its policies and challenge its very existence. It is unlikely to succeed, but the damage done to not only Israel but to Jews and their supporters worldwide is incalculable. And it has only just started; the Belgian events tell us that no stone will be left untouched by these movements. Many governments who are often fearful of voter repercussions (the very voters that consume the biased news reports) are willingly helping the process along, even royalty is now in on it.

Now to be clear, no one is denying the challenging humanitarian situation in Gaza and the need to have it resolved. But we are not getting actual and verifiable news reports and somehow have to rely on biased reports from Gaza, framed by news organizations and various activists. And yes, Israel deserves some of the blame here too as it has failed to give media access to Gaza and is continuously in ‘response mode’ as certain news stories come out. We have to really dig deep to get verifiable info and make up our minds as to what is really going on. More importantly we will need to break the vicious loop where biased news and questionable facts increasingly inform policy decisions in Europe and North America that in turn make a solution for Gaza even further beyond reach.

Photo: the Israeli DJ-duo Vini Vici performed at the Tomorrowland festival in the Belgian town of Boom near Antwerp last weekend. As opposed to Glastonbury, note the Israeli flags in the crowd.