Published: 7 November 2023
Last updated: 5 March 2024
Clarifying Israel’s perspective on the war with Arab-language media is an infuriating experience.
Just moments after being awoken by sirens on the terrible morning of October 7, the telephone calls started streaming in. International calls from the UK, France, Germany. I had already read preliminary reports of the massacre unfolding in the Gaza perimeter on my phone, as faint blasts of Iron Dome interceptions sounded over Jerusalem.
Nevertheless, I decided to return to the sanctity of Shabbat and Simchat Torah, and not pick up the calls I knew were from BBC Arabic, France24 Arabic, and Deutsche Welle Arabic. Instead of joining my community in synagogue dancing with Torah scrolls, I would pray at home, alone, in dread.
Since the start of the war nearly a month ago, staring into my laptop camera wearing a dress shirt and suit jacket has become my routine. Unlike many friends my age, I haven’t been called up for reserves. But I view my attempt to convey Israel’s point of view to an increasingly hostile Arab world as my civil service right now.
I have noticed the tone on these European Arabic-language channels change as Israel intensifies its strikes on Gaza. The turning point may have been the explosion at al-Ahli hospital in Gaza on October 17.
One of my Arab contacts blasted the bias of Al Jazeera, but encouraged me to never pass up a chance to speak there.
“Why did Israel target the hospital?” I was asked by one interviewer, live, just one hour after the explosion. “We have no details of what happened there,” I replied, in shock. “You don’t know that Israel targeted the hospital.”
As days went by, intelligence information surfaced confirming the explosion was most likely the result of a failed rocket launch by Islamic Jihad. But the assertion that Israel deliberately targeted the hospital continues to be made on nearly every interview I give – two weeks later - either by interviewers or Arab guests.
