A friend of mine from France sent me an article by Bernard Langlois where he lists the ten magic rules in the Western media’s Middle East coverage and thanks to which the Arab-Israeli conflict becomes perfectly clear to Western public opinion.
Rule 1: Any act of aggression between the Arabs and the Israelis was always initiated by the Arabs and Israel is always in a state of self-defense.
Rule 2: The Palestinians, Lebanese and all other Arabs have no right to kill Israeli civilians because that’s what the Western media calls “terrorism.
Rule 3: Israel has every right to kill Arab civilians, which is what the Western media calls the legitimate right to self-defense.
Rule 4: When Israel kills vast numbers of Palestinian civilians, Western powers think it sufficient to ask Israel to exercise restraint, which is what the Western media calls a positive stance by the international community.
Rule 5: The Palestinians and Lebanese have no right to detain Israeli soldiers, even if their number doesn’t exceed two, three or even one, as in the case of Gilat Shalit.
Rule 6: Israel has all the right to detain any Palestinians even if their number in its prisons exceeds 12,000 including women, old men and at least 300 children; Israel isn’t even obliged to prove any charges against them.
Rule 7: Every time the Western media mentions Hezbollah, it’s should always accompany it by the phrase “Iran-backed .
Rule 8: Whenever Israel is mentioned the Western media refrains completely from noting that it is backed by the US and Western powers to avoid cultivating an unbalanced image of the Middle East conflict.
Rule 9: Never to mention that the land where this conflict is taking place is occupied territory as well as never to talk about UN resolutions, breaches of international law or the violation of the Geneva Convention because this might hurt the public’s feelings and cause psychological distress.
Rule 10: Israelis speak English, French, German and Italian more proficiently than Arabs of all nationalities and so the Western media finds itself forced to give the Israelis and their supporters more space than it gives the Arabs in its programs and news reports, which, in turn, justifies the 10 aforementioned rules and exemplifies the Western version of “media objectivity.
The friend who sent me the article said that he was grateful to the French writer because thanks to these rules, of which he was unaware despite the fact that they are carefully adhered to in all Western media, he now understands the Middle East conflict perfectly. There is nothing confusing or mysterious anymore, because truth and falsehood are crystal clear: everything Israel does is the truth and everything the Arabs do is false, even if the media doesn’t say so openly. The western reader doesn’t like to be addressed in a direct, didactic fashion, but prefers to be given hints. It is enough for those who relate the news of the Middle East to have certain convictions for them to be reflected in what they write.
“But we Arabs have the same convictions, I wrote back to my friend. “that’s why Arab leaders have a peace initiative which they keep presenting again and again in every Arab summit, even when Israeli aggression is escalating and Israeli military leaders threaten the Palestinian people with a Holocaust unparalleled throughout history; for truth and falsehood are, indeed, crystal clear.
Mohamed Salmawy is President of the Arab Writer’s Union and Editor-in-Chief of Al-Ahram Hebdo.