Op-Ed: Army Base Incident: Media Reports are Exaggerated

Arutz Sheva ^ | 14/12/11

[Eleutheria5]

Rabbi Eliezer Melamed makes clear in response to an inquiry that the media reports concerning violent incidents in the Shomron are an example of the media's notorious hyperbole.

Question: Rabbi, what is your reaction to the violent incidents which took place Monday night in the Shomron against the Brigadier Commander, Deputy Brigadier Commander, and soldiers?

Answer: I don't know exactly what happened, but of one thing I am sure: Whatever the media reports is extremely exaggerated.

The mainstream media and IDF spokesmen's reputation for this - and I do not mean the soldiers themselves and their dedicated field officers - has been acquired over many years. There hasn't been one story with whose facts I was personally familiar that was reported correctly.

And I'm not talking about a slight falsification due to human error, or even prejudice owing to a leftist viewpoint which misinterprets events, but of intentional bias.

The I.D.F. spokesmen undertake this method because this is the nature of an army. The army uses all the means in its possession to beat the enemy – including falsifying, exaggerating, diversion, etc.

Woe unto us if the army did not prepare itself in such a way against the enemy.

But woe unto us that in recent years the government and the Minister of Defense use the army and its methods against the Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria – representatives of the Jewish nation throughout history.

The distorted reporting in the mainstream media stems from a clear mobilization to malign the 'settlers' by all possible means, in order to prepare public opinion to destroy the Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria.

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[Eleutheria5]

But compared to the 'season' in 1944, when the Hagana set out to destroy the Irgun through a campaign of intimidation and informing, this is mild. Jewish nationalism has survived much worse. But we must prepare for some hard times.