In Israel we seem to be ruled by the media, headlines and soundbites. And unfortunately in both politics, security, war and even Olympic sports, the media gets it all wrong.
We're in Israel over forty years already. For most of them, Israelis considered having an athlete make an Olympic final round to be a great victory. The idea that one of our Israeli athletes could actually win a medal was more unrealistic than Arabs wanting to live in peace with us.
Israelis felt that we were part of the world scene just by seeing our blue and white flag flying with all of the others and seeing our delegation participating.
Forty years ago the idyllic image of the Olympics was shattered with the kidnapping and attack on Israeli Olympic athletes, davka, in Munich. The Olympic committee and the other participating countries tried to neatly whitewash the Arab terrorist attack; no surprise.
In the past few Olympics, Israeli athletes have won medals, no where near the number of the Olympic super powers, but enough so that the media had prepared celebrations for more medal winners than ever before. It used to be enough to just do their best and be praised for that, but now our athletes have unrealistic expectations thrust on them, as our one Gold Medal winner Gal Fridman wrote.
Politics, local and international, is very much like sports, and Israel's media is just as incompetent in that sphere.
Israel's media is controlled by extreme Leftists who refuse to accept the fact that we're a country under attack. We don't have any true allies. No, the United States isn't a true friend of Israel. No friendly country would refuse to recognize the official Capital City.
The simple fact that the United States is the leader in refusing to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's Capital City should raise every red flag that exists. Every time an important foreigner comes to Israel and proclaims that, at least as long as the press conference or visit lasts, he/she recognizes Jerusalem as capital of Israel, the media is happy.
Every time a visiting foreigner makes a speech calling for Israel's security, the media fawns over it, even if that speech is at total contradiction to the visitor's policies. Most western politicians have large staffs of speechwriters and even call in experts to write a good speech which will get lots of applause. We must remember that. We mustn't take words too seriously. We have to pay more attention to actions. And we mustn't celebrate before the games are over.
The appease aka peace process is another media-hyped farce. Over the decades we've suffered from it, our security has only gotten worse. By striving for "peace" and showing our willingness to suffer and take risks for "peace," we've gotten war and terrorism, because we've just shown weakness. Peace comes from strength, determination and stubbornness. That's the truth. This isn't Hollywood. This is no fairytale.
4 comments:
Peace comes from winning the war, which means defeating the enemy. The Arabs know this - I thought Jews were supposed to be intelligent?
exactly
Sometimes smart people think too much and don't listen or watch.
Not only does the US Administration refuse to acknowledge that Jerusalem is our capital city -- the State Department (at least) refuses to acknowledge that Jerusalem is connected to Israel AT ALL. I've seen a State Dept. document that gives the subject's address as such-and-such street, "Jerusalem, " with the rest of the line left blank. (Note they included a comma, following the usual format of city-comma-state/country.) And the embossed seal reads: "Consulate General of the United States of America Jerusalem, Jerusalem" [sic/sick]
ExPat if only Israel would protest and do sanctions against the countries that insult us like that.
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