Text From Israel Defense Forces (Illustrative)

Video: Israel Has The Most Moral Army In The World, Why Won't The Media Show This?

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The Judean Staff
National

Despite reporting from outlets like the BBC, CNN, and most mainstream media outlets, the Israel Defense Forces is a remarkable institution that values life above all else. From the soldiers that make up their ranks to the targets of their military activity, the fundamental constant with the IDF is to preserve life, even at the risk of allowing nasty people to get away.

It is a fact that Israel goes out of its way to protect and preserve the life of innocents. The problem the country has always had is that it typically refuses to talk about it – or defend itself from allegations it kills indiscriminately. Many outlets file vicious and inaccurate reports that usually rely on information provided by the communication departments of terrorist organizations – also called ‘propaganda arms.’ The fact that the international media give them the respect and credit of a legitimate entity is sickening; the fact they speak their words as truth is criminal. Yet, when it comes to the Jewish State, it is Israel who is typically the villain in these stories.

The idea that significant news outlets take the narrative provided by terrorists and use them as canon is a sad reality that highlights the anti-Israel sentiment that pollutes the global news industry. However, it is a fact that they do, and Israel’s problem for most of their conflicts has been either inability to respond in time or lack of desire. Israel has long operated with the notion that they do not need to answer for their actions to a media that is often hostile to Israel in their reporting. Even pro-Israel outlets usually do not get responses in the middle of a conflict.

Yet, this most recent round of fighting between one of the many ‘resistance’ groups in the region and Israel saw something different – Israel on the Public Relations offensive as well. This is one area that Israel has long been deficient in, and many in the country believe that as calculated and meticulous as the IDF operates during the conflict, the same care must be given to the narrative that is echoing around the world. Too often, the terrorists, the villains, and the truly evil people, those who subjugate their communities and withhold freedoms from their population, dominate the airwaves and shape the global narrative.

A few days ago, though, something remarkable happened. The often secretive Israel Internal Security Service, called “Shabak” in Hebrew, which is an acronym for General Security Services (Sherut HABitachon hAKlali -שֵׁירוּת הַבִּיטָּחוֹן הַכְּלָלִי), released a recording of a phone call that is typical of how Israel operates. In the audio, an Israeli security representative is speaking to a Gazan local warning him of a pending strike and assuring that the area is clear of people – even of the terrorists that ran into the building after launching rockets. You can hear it here:

This recording is not a sign of a new tactic. Many outlets have reported on Israel’s efforts to vacate buildings, only last year, during Operation Guardians of The Wall against Hamas, Israel was chastised for bombing a building that housed the international press. As it turns out, not only did Israel inform them well in advance, but the press office they were bombing was feeding information to the Hamas terrorist organization. Staffed with primarily local and loyal operatives, many press offices in the West Bank and Gaza are far from arbitrary; to be so would mean inevitable expulsion from the area.

Despite the fact Israel warned of the impending destruction of the building, the news reports still spun the narrative that Israel had committed a war crime by targeting a news office. No mention of the facts of who worked in those offices, no recognition that the local population, which makes up a large part of the workforce, is either intimidated into aiding the terrorists or doing so ideologically.

Watch this Reuters report from this past Sunday as an example. Keep in mind that despite their victory in 1967, Israel handed control over the holiest site in Judaism to the Jordanian Waqf. The operative point here is that the temple mount is THE HOLIEST SITE IN JUDAISM, and Jews and Israelis have limited access for the most part. Understanding this, why is it a provocation when on the day Jews mourn the destruction of the first and second Temples, Jews go up to the site of that destruction to pray? According to Reuters, that visit was meant to poke the Palestinian soul – nothing to do with honoring the memory of what was the darkest period in ancient Jewish history.

 

The fact is Israel has the most moral army in the world. Forget Israel’s calls to warn of an imminent attack; even soldiers cannot simply return fire without ramifications. The rules of engagement soldiers must follow are complex; in many cases, soldiers risk harm while following the protocols as an instinctive reaction is not allowed. Think about it, someone is throwing rocks and Molotov cocktails in your direction and is about to charge with a knife. As an IDF soldier, you cannot simply fire to stop them, for doing so will undoubtedly land that soldier in a disciplinary hearing.

While Israel has recently updated their rules of engagement for soldiers, allowing them to fire even if the suspect is running away, the rules are still there, and the penalties for the conscripted soldiers are severe for violating them. No army in the world has statutes that contain a response to violence with violence, and it is this fact that the mainstream media must focus on if they are to provide an accurate picture of the conflict. While their administrators use many Arabs in Gaza and the West Bank as human shields, it is up to Israel to ensure their safety. From acts such as warnings of imminent attacks, Israel does what the Palestinian Authority, Hamas, and Islamic Jihad are not.

To drive this point home, even a pro-Gazan Twitter account that typically uses language referring to Israel as occupiers and infidels had to admit, based on the video evidence filmed by Hamas-run television, that the deaths of several children in the most recent spat with Islamic Jihad, were the direct result of an errant rocket fired from the Gaza strip. Watch it and see how the militants in Gaza fire weapons at Israeli citizens without regard for their neighbors and fellow Gazan citizens.

A day earlier, Hamas TV captured an errant missile live, and the reporter tried covering it up until it was clear he could not and ordered the cameraman to pan away from the impact site. All told, about 25% of the rockets that Islamic Jihad fired toward Israeli civilian centers had failed to leave the Gaza strip. So the full scope of Gazan casualties is, at best, unclear as Hamas rarely shares self-inflicted casualty data with the media.

Another video shows Hamas, the rulers of Gaza, using children to help dislodge another Islamic Jihad missile that failed to explode when it crashed into an apartment building in Gaza.

The fact these videos exist in an area where the international media is operating and still refuses to report proves that there is a fundamental bias against Israel. Why they do not note this is up for debate. Many believe the media outlets fear losing their credentials in Gaza, while others say it is simply to hide the truth. If the latter is true, it is confirmation that the media is corrupt; if it is the former, it is proof that the terrorists genuinely hold all the power in forming the narrative. In either event, it is criminal and undermines everything journalism stands for.

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