Information Center

Newsletters

Seminars

Bookstore

I have often commented on the tremendous power that the media wields. They are shapers of public perception on a variety of topics through the manner in which they cover stories. The fact is that before any particular news item is even chosen for coverage in a paper or magazine or especially on television, it is completely vetted by those who are looking for news that fits their agenda. Most of us have faced the fact that the news coverage we ingest is ideologically driven. Perception is king and just one newsman cherry-picking the facts and crafting a story with his particular views and slant can potentially change many minds ideologically. The effects are greater still when a photojournalist rolls film or snaps pictures to accompany a given headline. That background is to point out what I believe is perhaps the most manipulated ongoing story of our time – the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

As we watch the daily reporting of violent events happening in the Holy Land, many Americans have been brought to believe that Israel is in a state of all out war in their streets. In reality, this is simply not so but you wouldn’t know it by watching the majority of Western news. Why is this? In a word, it is bigotry. Many in our media print or report any story available to paint Israel as the aggressor and the Palestinians as victims. Tragically, many who claim to be Christians (including the majority of Emergent, Post Modern and Mainline types) have become convinced of this. Among that number are those who believe that God has now rescinded his covenant and is finished with Israel. They have bought into the unscriptural idea that the Church has replaced the Jews, thus this is called Replacement Theology. I could lengthen this article considerably if I gave into the temptation to expose and refute this. Instead though, let me ask: how secure should one feel if God has exhibited a track record of breaking covenants that He once proclaimed as “everlasting”? If his words to Abraham can be reneged on, then perhaps our security in depending on Jesus’ sacrifice isn’t very safe either. (For related information see “The Oldest Conflict?”) In reality, is Replacement Theology just a misguided “anti-semitic” swipe at those who actually are and will forever be God’s chosen people?

While there are exceptions, the attacks being carried out on Jews are occurring in Gaza and the West Bank, both of which are in Palestinian territory (i.e. pre-1967 borders). Interestingly, the current wave of violence has been driven by social media. The BBC reported, “Posts praising and encouraging attacks on Israelis have emerged on YouTube and Facebook, while Twitter hashtags including ‘Jerusalem Intifada’ or ‘Intifada of the Knives’ are gaining traction among Palestinians.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin has described the inflammatory use of social media as “Osama Bin Laden meets [Facebook founder] Mark Zuckerberg.” ¹

Just keep in mind that the incidents we are seeing, even when reported by Fox News or other conservative outlets, portray things happening only in a few places. Just like any American city, almost anything can happen anytime. And to put the events in Israel into perspective, the Chicago Tribune reported that in that city in one 36-hour span in September, 12 people were killed and 21 others were wounded. Earlier this year a WGNtv.com headline reported “56 Shot, 12 Killed in Violent Memorial Day Weekend in Chicago.”

To help illustrate the ideological and political nature of this conflict, it is no secret that the Western media sides almost unanimously with the Palestinians. Opinion pages tell the story but headlines turn the public, in particular those who depend on the evening news as their primary source of information. For example, The Los Angeles Times ran a headline stating “Four Palestinian Teens Killed in Israeli Violence.” CNN’s on-screen headline recently read “10 Palestinians Killed in Weekend Clashes.” Sure, you’ve seen this before but in these and many more cases, news consumers had to deduce for themselves from information buried in said reports that the reason Palestinians were being killed is because they were wielding knives or guns or had committed violence such as running innocent people down with their automobiles!

I am certainly not the only person who is noticing the disgusting way the current conflict in Israel is being reported. An article published by unitedwithisrael.org stated that the former Chairman of the BBC, Lord Michael Grade, “blasted the BBC over its coverage of the recent Palestinian violence in Israel, in a letter to BBC’s Director of News and Current Affairs, James Harding." The article stated that "Grade criticized the report’s apparent promotion of 'equivalence between Israeli victims of terrorism and Palestinians who have been killed by Israeli security forces in the act of carrying out terror attacks.'” ²

One intended outcome of slanted anti-Israel reporting by our media is that it discourages westerners to both support and travel to Israel. Pro-Palestinian forces know this and relentlessly hammer away to cause Americans, Canadians, and others to have a negative impression concerning travel to Israel. Because of the media’s spin, the lifeblood of the nation – tourism - is negatively influenced. The shaping of the news coming from Israel to paint the Jews in a negative light is not only replete with half-truths and demoralizing but there is no doubt that it is detrimental to the economy of the nation.³

The bottom line is that if one doesn’t observe the news coverage with an understanding of the particular agendas that may be in play, then eventually we could become victims of the coverage ourselves. Controlling the perceptions of the public to think and believe just as those reporting the news desire them to think and believe is why it’s a dangerous time in America when our news media turns leftward as they have. This phenomenon (along with the control on university campuses) is helping evil to be called good and good to be thought of as evil in our times (Isaiah 5:20-21). You can also count on Antichrist using the media to accomplish his diabolical mission somewhere up ahead. May the trumpet call sound from Heaven today!

Footnotes:

1) http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-34513693

2) http://unitedwithisrael.org/former-bbc-chairman-slams-network-over-anti-israel-bias/