The Media and Terror

Almost three weeks ago two terrorists walked into a residential home in a small community and, in cold blood, slaughtered five people. In a world mostly inured to violence and death this act was a watershed moment to many people throughout the world. The point that drew such outrage from many was the age of some of the victims. Elad aged four and Hadas, three months were amongst those who lost their lives.

The media coverage has been, in many cases, predictable. Main stream media outlets refusing to label the act as terrorism, referring to the perpetrators as “intruders” instead of terrorists, attempting to be “balanced” and calling the subsequent Israeli plans to build in Judea and Samaria the reason there is no progress between Israel and the Palestinians. With that, there was an even broader injustice done. An injustice that was not limited to the liberal side of the media world.

What would the world have said if only the parents, Udi and Ruth, had been killed? Of course, the media, by labeling the victims, not as civilians or even Israelis, but as settlers gives the impression that at worst they deserved what they got and at best it was their own fault for being where they shouldn’t be. If one were to take even that into mind, what else would happen? It would be a blip on everyone’s news radar. It wouldn’t even make the front pages of most newspapers. It still would have meant two people murdered in cold blood, it still would have meant six orphans, it still would have meant ideological terror run rampant amongst innocents.

The media affects the way we think, the way we experience the world. Its effects can be subtle to the point of us not even noticing them until it’s too late. It desensitizes us to death and destruction to the point that it takes something exceptionally barbaric to shock us awake.

For many years Israel refused to publish pictures or footage of the results of the many terror attacks it has suffered. It was felt that it showed weakness and dishonored the dead who were shown. This, unfortunately, resulted in the loss of initiative in what has become a PR war. It is a sad state of affairs when we need to show the decapitated body of a three month old lying in the blood of her murdered father to elicit a reaction from the world.