“B’Ivrit: A Hebrew Language Media Roundup” is a monthly look at the news through the eyes of Israeli media consumers.
1. Shifting to Public Service Mode
Israel launched its attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities late Thursday night. It was a pivotal moment for the Middle East, shifting the focus from a nearly two-years-long bloody war against a terror organization ruling the Gaza Strip to a full-scale military vs. military battle, in which two of the region’s strongest forces are at war.
For the Israeli media, it was also a moment of change. At once, TV news studios left behind the endless debates over the Gaza war, Netanyahu’s conduct, efforts to bring home the hostages and Israel’s growing international isolation and instead assumed a role as the main resource for public safety information at a time of war.
This is a task the Israeli media takes on whenever a national crisis occurs. Not unlike a local TV station in the United States when a natural disaster strikes, newsrooms in Israel immediately understood their job now is to guide their audience through these uncertain and troubling times.
At once, all news channels added to their studio a uniformed officer from the IDF’s homefront command to convey on-air, life-saving instruction as Iranian ballistic missiles approached. This is ongoing and includes information on which areas of the country are about to be impacted by missiles (information that also appears on screen and is transmitted directly to residents’ cell phones), followed by directions regarding where to seek shelter, which type of shelter is preferable and, at some point after that, an all-clear notification allowing people to return to their normal lives. Until the next round of attacks.
Alongside the public service advice, networks have also made sure to dispatch crews immediately for on-the-ground reporting from the buildings and homes hit in the attacks.
The visuals are shocking. While Israelis may have gotten used to the damage caused by the (relatively few) Hamas rockets and Hezbollah missiles that get through the missile defense systems, the Iranian ballistic missiles are much larger and cause immense damage on impact. Entire apartment buildings collapsed all around the point of impact. On live TV, residents of the areas hit by the missiles—some people still in their pajamas, some holding on to their toddlers and pets—recall the ordeal, usually describing the terrible noise and the entire house shaking, and all thanking God or their good fortune for coming out alive.
These are moments in which media outlets, especially TV networks and online news websites, are fully devoted to their role as a public resource.
Questions, doubts and any kind of polemic are left aside, at least for a while. This much is clear: As soon as things quiet down and the missiles stop raining on population centers, the Israeli media will gladly return to criticizing, fighting and arguing.
2. Israeli Media Joins the Celebration
When not covering the missile attacks, Israeli news outlets were busy reporting, with awe, on the unprecedented military achievements of the Israeli Air Force in Iran.
“History,” declared Yediot Aharonot, in its one-word headline a day after the Israeli strike. “After years of preparation, the Air Force took control of Iran’s airspace and is attacking relentlessly,” the front page story read. A series of opinion columns in the paper, which is usually known for its critical approach toward Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, praised the bold attack, while raising some questions about Israel’s goals and its exit strategy.
The right-wing, Adelson-owned Israel Hayom, went into full celebratory mode, with a headline announcing that the attack on Iran is “for the future generations,” above photos of plumes of flames engulfing Iran and a shot of two Israeli pilots, helmets in hands, embracing after the successful attack.
The liberal-leaning Haaretz chose a matter-of-fact headline: “Israel launched war against Iran, attacked nuclear facilities and assassinated senior officials. Tehran responded with hundreds of missiles, three Israelis killed.” The paper’s columnists, six of them quoted on the front page, sounded a skeptical tone about the attack, questioning the military operation, its end goal, the level of coordination with the United States and Netanyhau’s motivation.
In the TV studios, which switched to a 24-7 all-news live mode, the word “historic” came up time and again, as reporters and commentators noted that this is the first time in decades Israel is involved in a full-scale war against a nation state, and that the surprise attack on Iran would inevitably “change the face of the Middle East forever,” as stressed by a military affairs correspondent on Channel-12 TV.
The excitement is almost understandable. After 18 months of fighting in Gaza, which has taken a huge toll in human life and has failed to produce a conclusive victory, Israel’s attack on Iran was seen not only as a dramatic strategic move, but also as providing a glimmer of hope that Israel is returning to its golden age, that the sluggish tit-for-tat confrontations with regional terror groups and adversaries are now over, in favor of an innovative, daring, successful, 1967-style Israeli military dominance.
The Israeli media has tapped into this popular sentiment. A feeling of national pride, albeit mixed with concerns and anxiety over the impact of Iran’s retaliatory attacks, has settled in at TV studios and among media pundits. Journalistic objectivity has been set aside, as often happens in emergency situations. Now, the Israeli press is rooting for the IDF Air Force and even for the Netanyahu government.
3. Hostage Families Fighting for Media’s Attention
Naturally, the Iranian war took over the entire media discourse in Israel. As it should.
But what about all the other news?
While Israel is fighting Iran in a major war, tens of thousands of Israeli soldiers are still battling Hamas, the humanitarian crisis in Gaza is nowhere near being resolved, diplomatic pressure on Israel to end the war in Gaza is mounting, and the political crisis surrounding the Netanyahu government is at a boiling point.
All these stories can wait. Coverage of the current war with Iran is more important and more demanding.
But one issue cannot be set aside: the future of 53 hostages still being held in Gaza, at least 20 of them believed to be alive.
For families of the hostages and for released hostages fighting to end the ordeal, these are very frustrating times. After more than 600 days, they now have to fight to keep their case in the news and are begging for the media’s attention. “Even now, when the focus is on Iran, we mustn’t forget that we have 53 hostages who could die or disappear any day,” wrote Ruth Storm, whose son Eitan Horn is still in captivity in Gaza.
The hostage families know very well that their best chance at getting their loved ones back is by keeping up the pressure on the Israeli government, and that the way to achieve that goal is through public and media attention. But now, with dramatic news breaking every minute of the day, their tragic story has become second in importance in the eyes of the Israeli press.
Clearly everyone is focused on the war and on the Iranian missile attacks terrorizing Israelis. But the hostage families don’t have the privilege of allowing the focus to shift toward Iran and away from their plight. For their loved ones, even a week of being outside the media spotlight could be detrimental.
4. Is the Iranian Regime Crumbling?
Covering Iran is almost impossible. The Western media has very little access to Iran, and even when it does, it is very difficult to gauge public sentiments in an authoritarian regime in which public dissent could mean a death sentence.
For the Israeli press, this mission is doubly difficult. No Israeli reporters are on the ground, there is no option of communicating directly with the regime, and there is hardly any chance of engaging with everyday Iranians.
As a result, much of the reporting in Israel about the mood and sentiments of Iranian citizens relies on videos shot by dissidents on their phones and disseminated through social media platforms and on reports by anti-regime Iranian reporters in exile.
What Israelis get to see are mostly clips of Iranians expressing their dismay with the regime and their gratitude to Israel for standing up to the ayatollahs. “Praise Netanyahu: Iranian citizens welcome the Israeli attack,” reported I24 news, an Israeli news network broadcasting both in Hebrew and in English. Their report included the voices of unnamed Iranians celebrating the Israeli attacks. These types of reports were seen on most news outlets, some even venturing to place phone calls to dissidents in Iran, who spoke about the regime on the verge of crumbling.
How much of this is a true reflection of the political situation in Iran and how much is Israeli wishful thinking? It’s impossible to tell. But with a regime that has effectively shut down any real press access, and with an Israeli media eager to hear that democratic change is about to come to Iran, we can expect to see more of this reporting as the war continues.
5. Faking the News
Is all the news we’re getting about the Iran war true?
Most of it seems to be reliable, but there’s no shortage of fake news that has made its way into the mainstream media in Israel and across the world. Blame it on AI that makes creating fake imagery much simpler, or blame it on the restricted media coverage in Iran that leads some outlets to cling to unverifiable sources. Either way, there seems to be more fake content than in previous wars.
MAKO, the website owned by Israel’s Channel-12 news, listed some of these blunders, including an Iranian video depicting the capture of an Israeli Air Force pilot (fake), footage of top Iranian officials fleeing the country with their families (fake), and even a clip supposedly showing a Tel Aviv building hit by an Iranian missile and includes the claim that the building housed F-35 fighters and a submarine (fake, fake, fake).
Sometimes, it’s not about wishing to spread fake news but simply about sloppiness. Maariv, a centrist Israeli daily, plastered over its front page a dramatic photo of fire and destruction presumably in Iran following the Israeli attack. The only problem: It was Beirut and not Tehran, and it was taken in 2020, not this week. It had nothing to do with an Israeli attack.
