The Suppression of Guilt: The Israeli Media and the Reoccupation of the West Bank

This fascinating book shows how and why Israel's media supported the Israeli state's 2002 assault on the West Bank, `Operation Defensive Shield'. The author, a teacher at Tel Aviv University, previously worked as a senior news editor at two of Israel's leading newspapers. All Israel's major papers reported that the army, secret service and police agreed that the second Intifada was caused by popular frustration at the long stalemate in negotiations and by anger at Sharon's visit to Temple Mount. Yet they all chose to lead with Prime Minister Barak's claim that Arafat was entirely to blame, supposedly because he had rejected Barak's `generous' peace offer at Camp David. But sources close to Sharon were reported as saying in April 2002, "We are crazed now. Dear friends, please welcome Crazy Israel! It should be clear to everyone that Israel is no longer a doormat, a victim, a silent victim. From now on, we'll screw anyone who hurts us. Palestinians crossing the line? We'll give it to them. Syrians crossing the border in Lebanon? We'll screw them. The Palestinian Authority turning into a terror factory. We'll exterminate it. From now on, these are the rules of the game. The only rules." The media reflect the government's belief that Israel is an innocent society only ever forced into violence by the Palestinians. The media always present Israel's aim as self-defence and the Palestinians' aim as destroying a state (Israel), not as creating one (Palestine): this avoids all mention of the Palestinians' central demand for national self-determination. The media present Israeli bad deeds as exceptions, mistakes, unintended, Palestinian bad deeds as innate, typical, deliberate. As Dor writes, "all the different media ... suppressed ... reports which would suggest unreasonable or immoral acts committed by Israel intentionally, both at the level of government policy and at the level of IDF conduct on the ground. Most significantly, the media suppressed reports which strongly indicated that the goal of the entire operation was not the fight against terrorism, but the reoccupation of the West Bank and the destruction of the Palestinian Authority." Dor's account shows how the media reflect and maintain people's sense of themselves, presenting the news in a way that supports existing opinions. He sums up, "the Israeli media effectively prevent Israeli society from developing a discourse of responsibility, a discourse which, regardless of the struggle over the `origins of the conflict', understands that Israel, and Israelis, have to assume responsibility for the solution of the conflict, because at present, in reality, the Palestinians are under Israeli occupation and not the other way around. In this, the Israeli media effectively contribute to the continuation of violence."

As in his book Intifada Hits the Headlines, Professor Dor demonstrates how tunnel vision, timidity and collective myth-making have too often divorced Israeli editors from the real "facts on the ground." He has opened a vital debate on the Israeli media. Keith Spicer Director Institute for Media, Peace & Security University for Peace Geneva