“B’Ivrit: A Hebrew Language Media Roundup” is a monthly look at the news through the eyes of Israeli media consumers.
1. Rumors and news
Israel was abuzz with rumors on Saturday night. Rumors of the worst kind. Stories spread like a wildfire, passed on in family group chats, shared by friends, and whispered among the many thousands who gathered in Tel Aviv for the weekly protest demanding an immediate release of the hostages held by Hamas in Gaza.
All these rumors told the same story, one that Israelis found hard to accept: The IDF had recovered bodies of six hostages; all of whom had been recently executed in Gaza. A list of their names was also circulating.
At newsrooms across Israel, editors and reporters heard the same rumors, which originated on Telegram and Whatsapp news groups. These unofficial, unverified and many times inaccurate channels of information have grown tremendously popular since October 7, as Israelis desperately seek any bit of news about the war, the hostages and their loved ones.
With no official confirmation and no independent sources verifying these rumors, the established media chose to err on the side of caution. Not a word was said or published about the terrible news that had already reached almost every household in Israel.
As night fell, an IDF spokesperson, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, issued a statement confirming only that several bodies had been discovered in Gaza and urging the public not to spread unsubstantiated rumors.
Israelis went to bed with the heavy feeling of an unavoidable disaster about to happen. By Sunday, the rumors had turned out to be true. Six young Israelis who had been taken hostage on October 7, who had survived 11 months in captivity and were scheduled to be released in a cease-fire deal still being negotiated, were murdered.
Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Carmel Gat, Eden Yerushalmi, Alexander Lobanov, Almog Sarusi and Ori Danino, were shot by their Hamas captors as IDF forces approached the tunnel in which they were being held underneath Rafah. The Telegram and Whatsapp groups were right.
The tragedy highlighted a question Israeli media has been grappling with for the past year: Does traditional media still matter? Is there any point in maintaining journalistic standards when every Israeli has direct access to the rumor mills manufacturing questionably sourced news?
It’s not only about accuracy and reliability. The Israeli media, bound by law to adhere to military censorship guidelines, refrains from publishing news that is deemed harmful to Israeli national security. It also avoids publication of information that could hurt families of victims and fallen soldiers. The press waits until a formal announcement is issued about a soldier who lost their life, knowing that this is the only way to make sure that family members have already received the notice in an appropriate way and are not hearing it on the news. The unregulated Telegram and Whatsapp platforms many times ignore these sensitivities. And even more often, they’ll publish fake news that only increases panic and anxiety in a country already living on the edge.
2. A nation in a state of shock
As expected as the official confirmation of this horrible news was, the shock was still unimaginable. Deep in their hearts, Israelis had hoped for a miracle. They prayed that the rumors would turn out to be false, that this was all a big fake-news campaign.
When reality hit, the Israeli media moved into its role as the national consoler and convener. All TV networks and news radio stations immediately shifted into breaking news mode, upending their regular programing in favor of around-the-clock reports about the hostage tragedy.
Within hours, TV networks were no longer reporting the news. Instead, they became a venue for collectively mourning the dead, an open forum for experts, reporters, family members and people on the street to express their feelings and to create a virtual town hall of grief and mourning.
Then the Israeli media, first the TV networks and later the newspapers and websites, dedicated much of their air time to venting the anger felt by Israelis in their homes and on the streets.
The near-consensus opinion reported in the Israeli press was that Netanyahu and his government had betrayed the hostages, that his insistence on imposing new conditions was the reason a cease-fire deal had not been reached and was the cause for six Israeli hostages returning from Gaza in body bags.
The newspapers, going to print at the end of this tumultuous day, tried to capture the national feeling of devastation and anger. “The pain and the rage,” read the headline in Yediot Aharonot, Israel’s largest centrist daily. The entire front page was devoted to an aerial photo of the streets of Tel-Aviv, where hundreds of thousands of Israelis gathered to express their dismay and anger at Netanyahu. Alongside the main image, the paper placed six photos of the murdered hostages. The front page commentary, above the fold, was by Yediot’s top columnist Nahum Barnea, who wrote, “Their blood is on our hands.” Barnea pointed not only to Netanyahu, but also to his entire cabinet, to the military commanders and to heads of Israel’s intelligence, as bearing responsibility for the murders.
The liberal-leaning Haaretz went with an editorial headline stating that “pain is turning into anger,” while center-right Maariv focused on the massive demonstrations following the news from Gaza, with a headline reading “Mother of all protests.”
Even editors of the Adelson-owned right-wing Israel Hayom, who usually defend the Netanyahu government, could not ignore the national sense of disaster. “We failed,” read the headline, which went on to explain that “in the equation between demolishing Hamas and saving the hostages, the government has thus far registered a resounding failure.”
3. Hersh
Each and every one of the six young Israelis murdered after 11 months in Hamas captivity was an entire universe. Their stories, dominating the airwaves and plastered all over the newspapers, introduced Israelis to six extraordinary people who loved life and living, were adored by their friends and family, tried to save others on October 7, and had great plans for the future.
But somehow, Hersh Goldberg-Polin stood out. The 23-year-old American-Israeli, who made aliyah with his parents and sisters, had become the face of the struggle to bring back the hostages. Why Hersh? In part, because of the tireless work of his parents, Rachel and Jon, to keep Hersh and his story in the news, to make sure that every world leader knew about him and was willing to fight for his release.
Americans got to know the family through Rachel’s frequent media interviews and public appearances, in which she always ended with a direct call to her son: “If you hear me: We love you, stay strong, survive.”
Israelis watched as the Goldberg-Polin family captured the hearts of listeners across the world. They also learned how Hersh never missed a game of his favorite basketball team, Hapoel Yerushalayim. How he’d sit in the center section, make as much noise as possible and celebrate every victory, which wasn’t too often with this small Jerusalem basketball club. Dozens of fans of the team came to Hersh’s funeral Monday wearing red shirts emblazoned with his silhouette and the words “We’re sorry.”
Rachel and Jon Goldberg-Polin brought the story of their son, and of all the hostages, not only to Israelis but to media consumers across the world. Last month, they did so when addressing the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. In front of tens of thousands of Democratic delegates and supporters, and with tens of millions watching at home, they delivered an emotional appeal that left many in tears.
Shortly after the speech, on the sidelines of the convention, Rachel told me she could hardly talk when they came on stage. “I had been told for the last few days that we’re going to have a negative reception,” she said. “I could see people chanting ‘bring them home’ and I was so shocked that I started to weep because I couldn’t believe it.”
Jon, standing next to her, told me that he’s glad that their message went through so well and that Democrats embraced their son’s story. “But,” he added, “there are only two people in the world who can sign a deal and bring Hersh home, and they aren’t here tonight.” Those two people, he explained, were Hamas leader Yahye Sinwar and Netanyahu.
4. Netanyahu under siege
Attacking the way Netanyahu is conducting this war and pointing out his responsibility for the October 7 attack have become mainstream in the Israeli press. It is no longer limited to left-leaning columnists or critical commentators. With the exception of Bibi’s two strongholds—the settler-right-wing Channel 14 news channel and Israel Hayom daily—the broad swath of Israel’s media could be considered anti-Bibi.
This fact has not escaped Netanyahu. Alongside attempts to curb the freedom of critical media outlets through regulations and business maneuvers, he shows favor to the few platforms that openly support him. Since the beginning of the war, Netanyahu has not given a single media interview to an Israeli outlet except for Channel 14. His main modes of communication with the public are pre-recorded video messages or prime-time statements given with no press in the room.
On Monday, as anger was boiling over in the streets, Netanyahu hosted a rare press conference. He spoke for more than 20 minutes before taking any questions, trying to make the case that his insistence on holding on to the Philadelphi Corridor on the Gaza-Egypt border, widely seen as the obstacle that prevented reaching a hostage release deal, is, in fact, a strategic necessity. Netanyahu went back to his longtime rhetorical favorite—graphics as props—and presented a slideshow of Gaza maps and Hamas documents to prove his point. Twitter immediately came up with memes to ridicule his show, and media outlets were quick to fact-check his claims, finding that the same Netanyahu who now claims that the Philadelphi Corridor is essential for Israel’s security did nothing to address the issue in the past decade and a half during which he served as Israel’s leader.
But for Bibi, all this is no more than background noise. Netanyahu proved once again that he is a master of manipulating the media. His press conference was timed for shortly after 8 p.m., when Israeli news channels broadcast their prime-time news shows. Instead of dedicating the shows to protests in the streets and the funerals of the murdered hostages, all channels aired Netanyahu’s press conference, providing him with valuable TV real estate and with an unmatched opportunity to make his case directly to the Israeli people.
5. To show or not to show Hamas’s cruelty
Hamas has demonstrated a rare talent for cruelty and a unique ability to conduct psychological warfare. From time to time, the terror organization has published video clips of the Israeli hostages, speaking to their captors’ camera, pleading with their loved ones to demand that the Israeli government adhere to Hamas demands and bring about their release.
The Israeli media, to its credit, has been careful not to fall into the Hamas trap and refrained from airing the videos, which were clearly filmed at gunpoint.
In some cases, however, families of the hostages depicted in these clips give their permission to broadcast the videos. Such was the case with the clip of Hersh Goldberg-Polin released on April 24. His lower arm amputated due to an injury he sustained from Hamas on October 7, an otherwise healthy-looking Goldberg-Polin tells his family in the clip how he misses them and wishes to be home with them soon. This was the last time he was seen alive.
On Sunday, after the murder of the six hostages, Hamas released videos of the victims. Only one of them aired, with the permission of the family. In the 12-second black-and-white video, 24-year-old Eden Yerushalmi says: “To my dear family, I love you so much, so much. And I miss you.” Other families chose not to have their children’s videos from captivity shared with the public. All Israeli media outlets agreed.
Top image: Recent Israeli newspapers (Credit: Oren Rozen (CC BY-SA 4.0))