One of the biggest problems of bias in the American press on Palestine and Israel is how the American media and press both follow Israel’s lead in reporting the news. For starters, there is the treatment of Israel as the main, if not the sole protagonist, in which everything is first and foremost related from the Israeli point of view. “Israel says” is a common form of stenography in the media and press.
Conversely, Palestinians, to borrow Edward Said’s famous expression, are denied permission to narrate. It is common in the U.S. press to read about Israel and the Palestinians with several quotes from Israelis; you may not see a Palestinian quoted until, say, the 9th paragraph, if that.
Then there is letting Israel set the chronology by which every act of Palestinian resistance resets the conflict’s clock, as if Israel had done nothing to provoke Palestinians — as if the occupation is not a permanent state of violence against Palestinians.
Under this selective time frame, Palestinian violence appears irrational since the preceding Israeli violence is outside our view. Israel then acts like it is the side that is retaliating, responding to violence, and engaging in self-defense.
And about the term self-defense: It is a misnomer when applied to an occupier. A nation that occupies another people and faces resistance and responds by trying to put down that resistance is not engaged in self-defense, but repression.
Moreover, Palestinian resistance against armed Israeli soldiers and settlers is not terrorism. Too much of the American media follows Israel’s label in characterizing Palestinian resistance against armed combatants — legal under international law — as terrorism, when terrorism is the use of violence against civilians in the service of a political goal, which is what the IDF and Israeli settlers do when they engage in violence to expel Palestinians from their land and colonize it for themselves.
(And since the corporate and legacy media treat Israeli officials as authoritative, it’s worth pointing out that a former Israeli foreign minister conceded as much: “Somebody who is fighting against Israeli soldiers is an enemy and we will fight back, but I believe that this is not under the definition of terrorism, if the target is a soldier.”)
Another term that the American media and press have let Israel uncritically impose on them is “hostage.” This term has been used interchangeably to describe both Israeli soldiers and civilians captured and held by Hamas. Let us be clear: A soldier is not a hostage. A soldier in uniform, let alone actively engaged in battle, when captured is a detainee or a prisoner of war. And yet, we have read nonsensical headlines about Israeli soldiers held hostage by Hamas.
Father of Israeli hostage Nimrod Cohen prepares for long-awaited reunion: “We started the count”
Cohen’s son, an Israeli soldier, was captured by Hamas and taken hostage near the Gaza border on Oct. 7, 2023, when he was just 19 years old. — CBS News [italics mine]
An Israeli soldier was taken hostage on October 7. In ceasefire plea, his mother releases video of his brutal capture.
The family of an Israeli soldier held hostage by Hamas has released new footage of the moment he was pulled from his tank and captured by Palestinian militants during the October 7 attacks. — CNN [italics mine]
Freed US hostage Edan Alexander’s parents speak out in exclusive ABC News interview: ‘It finally happened’
Edan Alexander, now 21, is from New Jersey and moved to Israel at the age of 18. He was 19 years old and serving in the Israel Defense Forces when he was captured during Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack. — ABC News [italics mine]
