• News
    • Business
    • Canada
    • Health
    • International
    • Israel
  • Perspectives
    • Ask Ella
    • Ask The Love Rabbi
    • Features
    • Jewish Parenting Wisdom
    • Opinions
    • Ideas
    • Letters
    • Personal Essays
  • Food
  • Culture
    • Arts & Entertainment
    • The Arts
    • Books & Authors
    • Canada 150
    • Jewish Learning
    • June 1967
    • Sports
    • Travel
  • Events
    • Contests
  • Supplements
    • Spotlights
  • Other Communities
    • En Français
    • Russian
  • Subscribe
  • Member Centre
  • Log Out
Search
  • Subscribe
  • Member Centre (eCJN)
  • Log Out
  • Newsletter
  • FaceBook
  • Twitter
  • Youtube
  • Instagram
CJN - Canada’s largest Jewish newspaper
April 27, 2018 - 12 Iyar 5778
CJN - Canada’s largest Jewish newspaper
  • News
    • Construction magnate Sydney Cooper dies at 98

      Anti-Semitic incidents rose in 2017: B’nai Brith Canada

      Israel suspends plans to deport African asylum seekers

      Will Europe’s Jews stop wearing kippot?

      Agreement sets up Quebec-Israel exchange program for women

      AllBusinessCanadaHealthInternationalIsrael
  • Perspectives
    • The holiday with tears in the eyes

      Jewish Parenting Wisdom: How to tame an out-of-control child

      Q&A with Rabbi Uri Regev: Pushing for religious equality in Israel

      Reset your comfort zone to feel alive

      Helmut Oberlander

      Bring the remaining Nazi war criminals to justice

      AllAsk EllaAsk The Love RabbiFeaturesJewish Parenting WisdomOpinionsIdeasLettersPersonal Essays
  • Food
    • The Shabbat Table: Happy 70th birthday Israel

      The Shabbat Table: A special post-Passover garlic shlissel challah

      Everyone gets gooey at downtown matzah bake

      Making matzah balls unites a modern Jewish family, says Phyllis Feldman

      The easy way out of Passover

      Bannock and matzah: our breads of affliction

  • Culture
    • Film on Oskar Groening trial to premiere at Hot Docs in Toronto

      Israeli Faces of Toronto

      TJFF founder honoured for decades of public service

      Duo’s debut film has satire, music and a dog — sort of

      Exploring the Jewish world at Hot Docs

      AllArts & EntertainmentThe ArtsBooks & AuthorsCanada 150Jewish LearningJune 1967SportsTravel
  • Events
    • Jewish Music Week Contest

      Chai Lifeline’s Restoring Hope contest (Closed)

      The CJN Prize (CLOSED)

      BRITISH YIDDISH AND KIDDUSH CONTEST (closed)

      The CJN Prize for Young Writers Contest (closed)

      AllContests
  • Supplements
    • Home Beautiful

      CJL Magazine

      Passover Greetings

      Passover Greetings

      MTL Celebrations

      AllSpotlights
  • Other Communities
    • The holiday with tears in the eyes

      Israeli Faces of Toronto

      Limmud FSU delegation participates in leadership summit in Warsaw

      Canadian business accelerator lauded as one of the best in the world

      Quel avenir pour les Juifs de France ?

      AllEn FrançaisRussian
  • Subscribe
  • Member Centre
  • Log Out
Home Perspectives Opinions Israel view missing from some Gaza reports
  • Perspectives
  • Opinions

Israel view missing from some Gaza reports

By
The CJN
-
November 16, 2012
729
0
SHARE
Facebook
Twitter

It didn’t last for long, at least not in some areas of the media: that is, sympathetic attention to the Israeli perspective on the Gaza operation during the first day (Nov. 14), started to give way by that evening (as this column was being written) to the familiar narrative of Israel as recklessly belligerent.

During his noon report for CBC News Network and in subsequent reports that afternoon following Israel’s targeted killing of Ahmed Jabari, the head of Hamas’ military operations, Sasha Petricic included substantial Israeli context. He said that Israel had killed the “mastermind” behind numerous attacks on Israelis and cited the Israeli military claim that Jabari “had blood on his hands.” He explained that Israel had been “showered” by rocket fire from Gaza over several days and that Israel had promised some form of retaliation in order to reassert its deterrence against further attacks. He also noted that Israeli missiles were targeting “sites [in Gaza] used for rocket firing.”  

However, just hours later, during his report for the National, much of the Israeli context, including any reference to Israel’s efforts to destroy rocket launchers and storage sites, was missing. What remained amidst scenes of wreckage in Gaza, including a gratuitous shot of what was claimed to be Jabari’s remains, was the sense of a “tit-for-tat” targeting of civilians. One could be left believing that Israel and Hamas were both simply going after civilians.

By contrast, Martin Seemungal’s story for CTV National News retained considerable Israeli perspective. He included comment from IDF spokesperson Lt.-Col. Avital Liebovich explaining the reason for Israel’s operation and comment from Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu about the need to protect Israelis by ending attacks from Gaza. While also showing what had happened in Gaza, Seemungal ended his report on this encouraging note: “Israel said that it doesn’t want war – only an end to rocket fire.”

 However, the turn to a negative focus on Israel was signalled by this headline in a story by the Globe and Mail’s Paul Koring and Patrick Martin (online, also on the evening of Nov. 14): “Slaying of Hamas commander threatens fragile Middle East peace.” While Koring and Martin included a quote from Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak that Israel doesn’t want war but will no longer put up with continuing rocket fire from Gaza, they nonetheless, predictably, put the onus on Israel rather than Hamas (and the Muslim Brotherhood that supports them) for adding to regional instability. One can hardly speak of “fragile peace” while the carnage goes on unabated in Syria. This is a case of getting things precisely backwards. 

Arguing that Hamas overplayed its hand, the Jerusalem Post’s Yaakov Lappin provided the missing perspective: “With Hamas feeling confident over the ascendancy of its fellow Islamists in the region, and the emergence of a new patron in Cairo, it and Islamic Jihad chipped away at Israeli deterrence, attempting to set new rules by preventing the IDF from carrying out vital security missions on the Gaza border. As it built up its rocket arsenals, Hamas and the other factions responded to Israel’s measures to secure the border with more and more indiscriminate rocket barrages on the long-suffering south, filling the lives of hundreds of thousands of civilians with dread, trauma and disruption.”

 What other country would be expected, as Israel is, to forebear under such relentless assaults on its sovereign territory? Israel’s situation is unique in the world: it’s the only country that’s expected to live with a substantial portion of its population – more than one million people – under this constant threat. The pummelling of Israel’s south has gone on for so long that it seems almost routine, and most of the world has grown indifferent to it.

Surely Jonathan Kay asked the critical question (in his National Post column): “Why should Israel not be expected to fight back when Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other terrorist groups seek to murder Israelis in this fashion?”

Why not indeed?

Paul Michaels is director of research and senior media relations with the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs.

SHARE
Facebook
Twitter
The CJN

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

Construction magnate Sydney Cooper dies at 98

Anti-Semitic incidents rose in 2017: B’nai Brith Canada

Israel suspends plans to deport African asylum seekers

  • Popular
  • Recent
Subscribe to the CJNSubscribe
RSS FeedView
5,527FansLike
856FollowersFollow
10,107FollowersFollow
198SubscribersSubscribe
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Subscribe / Member Centre (eCJN)
  • eCJN Archives
  • Supplements
  • Media Kit
  • Advertising Terms
  • Premiums

One on One at Comicon with Leo Leibelman

Purim 2018 on Toronto's streets

Baba Fira's CJN Prize Awards invite

  • News
  • Canada
  • Israel
  • International
  • Opinions
  • The Arts
The award-winning Canadian Jewish News (CJN) is Canada’s largest, weekly Jewish newspaper with an audited circulation of nearly 32,000 and read by more than 100,000 people each week.
© Copyright 2018 Canadian Jewish News
  • Comments Policy
  • Community Links
  • Contact Us
  • Media Kit
  • Privacy Policy
  • Subscribe
  • Admin

Week in Review...

Comes Right to You

Sign up for our Weekly Newsletter

X