B’Ivrit | Eye on Iran: The Israeli Media Doesn’t Believe in Peace Talks
“B’Ivrit: A Hebrew Language Media Roundup” is a monthly look at the news through the eyes of Israeli media consumers.
1. The Israeli Media Doesn’t Believe in Peace Talks
How long can a nation remain in a state of heightened alert? How many nights can families go to sleep fearing they’ll be woken up to the sounds of missile alerts and will have to rush to their safe room, just like they had to do less than a year ago?
These are the questions Israelis are asking themselves these days, as the tense standoff between the United States and Iran enters its second month. The Israeli public, worried about being targeted by Iran if the United States should strike, is also secretly hoping for an American attack, one that will change the dynamic in Iran and relieve Israel from living under the constant threat of Iranian missiles.
The Israeli media has been playing a double role throughout this global crisis. On the one hand, it reports diligently on every movement of U.S. warships and fighter jets in the region and on each and every statement made by President Trump, even when those statements contradict each other. On the other hand, it has acted as a cheerleader for military action.
For weeks, headlines in the Israeli press have been predicting an American attack on Iran. Military affairs commentators have charted out in TV studios the exact measures the United States is about to take against Iran, and experts on the Middle East have chimed in, too—all predicting that the days of the ayatollahs’ regime are numbered.
When Trump’s envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner went off to Oman on February 7 to negotiate with Iran’s foreign minister, voices in the Israeli media were noticeably angry at the move.
Two days before the meeting, all major TV networks broke the dramatic news: Talks were cancelled. Iran’s preconditions were too much for the American team, they reported, and the negotiations collapsed even before starting.
The American and international media had a different take on the crisis. They reported on the differences between Iran and the United States and on the frustration within the U.S. team, but no word of the talks collapsing or being cancelled. Two hours later, Israeli media outlets corrected course: The talks were on. Crisis averted.
But the tone toward these peace talks remained skeptical.
“Negotiating while keeping the finger on the trigger,” is how Israel Hayom, a right-of-center daily, described the talks. A day earlier the paper ran as its front page headline a quote from an anonymous source claiming that “military action against Iran is inevitable.” The Jerusalem Post, an English language daily that caters primarily to foreign citizens and to an international audience, predicted even before the sides sat down to talk that “Chances of US-Iran deal in Oman are slim.”
Ynet, a popular website owned by the centrist Yediot Ahronot group, reported on “low expectations” from the talks, and KAN, Israel’s public broadcaster, highlighted the significant differences between Tehran and Washington on all key issues being discussed.
In TV studios on Friday, it was time for speculation. Commentators suggested, with a straight face, that Trump is in fact involved in an ingenious act of deception, sending his negotiators to talk to Iran only to get the regime to lower its guard and then to attack by surprise within days. Days have passed, and no such attack has taken place.
Why is the Israeli press so skeptical about a diplomatic outcome and so eager to see Trump give the attack order? In part, because of the Israeli public’s fear, perhaps a justified one, that without an all-out war that topples the Iranian regime, they will never be safe, no matter how good a deal Kushner and Witkoff reach. And perhaps because this is the message coming from Netanyahu and his government, who have been telling Israelis for weeks that a deal that includes any compromise with Iran is worse than any other outcome, even war.
2. Closing a dark chapter: End of the Gaza war
On January 26, Israel recovered the body of Ran Gvili, the last hostage held in Gaza. Gvili, a police officer who volunteered to go out and fight on October 7 and who’s been credited with saving dozens of lives before he was killed by Hamas, was returned to burial in Israel. The Gvili family’s anguished state of limbo came to an end in a somber moment that took on a greater message for all Israelis: The Gaza war is now over.
Yediot Ahronot, Israel’s largest centrist daily newspaper, devoted its entire front page to Gvili’s return. Photos of all 251 hostages taken by Hamas covered the entire front page. At the center—a picture of Ran Gvili in uniform and the headline: Everyone is home.
Israel Hayom, which is owned by the Adelson family, ran a large photo of IDF soldiers carrying the stretcher with Gvili’s body out of Gaza, under the headline “The debt has been paid.”
Maariv, a centrist daily, noted in its headline that for the first time in 12 years, there are no Israelis held by Hamas in Gaza.
The Jerusalem Post devoted the top of its front page to an image of a ribbon under a four word headline: “They are all home.”
The sense of relief was palpable all across the Israeli media. TV anchors filmed themselves removing the yellow ribbon lapel pin they—like so many Israelis—had been wearing ever since October 7, 2023. It was a symbolic way of telling the Israeli public that the awful hostage ordeal, which lingered over the lives of all Israelis for so long, is finally over.
Gvili’s funeral was carried live on all Israeli news channels. A moment of closure for the grieving family, and for a grieving nation.
3. When violence tears apart the Arab community
Arab citizens of Israel have been dealing with the scourge of criminal violence for years. Gang wars, midday shootings and a sense of lawlessness have plagued Arab cities and towns throughout the country. The media, and most of the Israeli public, has largely turned a blind eye to the problem, dryly reporting on the daily events, at times pointing to the far-right minister of homeland security Itamar Ben-Gvir for not prioritizing the problem.
In recent weeks, the issue made it—likely for the first time ever—to the front pages and main headlines of Israeli media outlets. With the frequency of the attacks becoming unbearable, Arab Israelis, joined by many Jewish Israelis, took to the streets to call on the government to finally do something, or at least to treat the criminal violence in their communities just as they do when violence hits Jewish cities.
Channel-13, a mainstream news network, provided lengthy coverage of the demonstrations (one protester was even depicted carrying a sign in English: “Arab lives matter.”) The report provided shocking numbers: In the month of January alone, 27 Israeli Arabs were murdered, setting the stage to the most violent year ever. Maariv quoted a police official who described the level of violence as “resembling that of South American cartels,” and warning that the criminal activity will likely expand from the northern and southern periphery, where the Arab population is concentrated, to central Israel. An opinion column in the liberal-leaning Haaretz called on Jewish Israelis to stand with their Arab neighbors in demanding an end to the lawlessness that has made life in many Arab communities intolerable.
The recent outcry, and the unusual attention it received in the Israeli press, may or may not help force authorities to take on the issue and to fight crime in the Arab community just as it does in the Jewish cities. But it also highlighted the fact that the lives of Arab Israelis, who make up 20 percent of Israeli society, hardly get any attention in the mainstream Hebrew-language press. Most outlets have, at best, one or two Arab reporters. Very few editors and reporters speak Arabic, and the lives of Arab-Israelis remain largely out of the eyes of the Hebrew language media.
4. Tracking trash in NYC
New York and the entire U.S. East Coast are experiencing a historic cold wave that has left major cities covered with concrete-like ice banks, unpassable streets and trash piled up along the sidewalks, awaiting garbage collectors who either can’t reach them or have difficulties clearing the frozen trash.
This is definitely a newsworthy story for any American living alongside growing piles of trash. But why is the Israeli press so obsessed with it? Just last week, reports on the trash piling up in New York City made it to the evening news on major Israeli news channels, to daily newspapers and to leading websites.
The reason seems to have more to do with the identity of the mayor than with sincere concern for the poor New Yorkers dealing with uncollected garbage. The Israeli media doesn’t like Zohran Mamdani and seems delighted at the opportunity to depict him as a dangerous failure.
“Where the hell is the mayor?” was a headline given to a TV story on KAN. Editors at Israel Hayom tried to be cute with the headline: “Mamdani Stinks; Trash is piling in the streets.” And further to the right, Channel 14, known as a pro-Bibi network, reported to its viewers in Israel that “New York is drowning in trash and snow, except for Zohran Mamdani’s street.”
5. Avdija the all star
Israelis are never tired of praising their country and its achievements. But even the staunchest Israeli patriots will be hard-pressed to argue that the Jewish state is a sports powerhouse, or even remotely notable when it comes to major athletic events.
That could perhaps explain the disproportionate reaction to last week’s news that Deni Avdija, the Israeli forward playing on the Portland Trailblazers, made it to the NBA All-Star game. True, he was selected as a reserve, meaning he was not a top pick, but still it was a first. He is the first Israeli ever selected to the most lucrative game in the most important basketball league in the world.
The Israeli press went mad with excitement. “Amazing history,” exclaimed N12, the popular website of Channel 12 News. “A blue and white all star,” read a festive headline on Walla website, which devoted its entire sports section to coverage of the event and to Deni’s rare achievement. Maariv went all out with a dramatic headline: “Deni Avdija is the greatest Israeli athlete of all times,” which could actually be true, although the bar isn’t that high.
Evening TV news shows devoted valuable minutes to covering Avdija’s pick, recalling his greatest moments playing in the NBA, interviewing former Israeli colleagues and even his high school basketball coach, who already knew back then that Deni would be a star. Fans told the interviewers about their plans to fly out to Los Angeles to watch Deni play. The hefty price tag of more than $1,000 a ticket for the game was no deterrent.