Iran Is Out To Destroy Israel. So Why Won’t The Media Say So?
The New York Times and other news sources are guilty of the sin of omission.
The Iran-Israel shadow war has gone on for decades. But the media avoids putting the dispute in context.
I’ve been reading The New York Times forever, and last week I sat down and sent off a Letter to the Editor. I did it because the subject -- the Iran-Israel conflict -- is so critical, and because I thought the reporting by “the paper of record” lacks context, leaving readers seriously under-informed on the two sides’ motives for their actions.
The issue is particularly timely now as talks are just underway in Vienna on whether the controversial 2015 nuclear agreement between Iran and the U.S. (and other world powers) will be reinstated. It was canceled in 2018 by the Trump administration. Advocates assert that the deal was the best way to monitor and slow down Iran’s nuclear program, which is on track to develop a bomb. Critics, including the Israeli government, insist that it is too little, too late and that Iran’s leaders are stalling as they accelerate their nuclear efforts.
My letter to The Times was prompted by a news story, "Israel Attacks Spur Upgrade Of Iran Sites" (Nov. 22), which described Israel's use of sabotage, cyberattacks and alleged assassinations of key scientists to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon. But the article never mentions the reasons for Israel’s actions. I wrote: “It should have noted, if not highlighted, that Iran's religious, political and military leaders have long called for the destruction of the Jewish state, describing Israel as a ‘cancer’ requiring a ‘final solution.’”
“No other country regularly calls for the destruction of any other,” I pointed out, and “as long as the ayatolllahs and their media continue to demonize Israel and accelerate Tehran's efforts to create a nuclear bomb, Israel will do what it believes it must to prevent that dark day from happening.”
Five days later, another news story in The Times -- this one on the widening cyberwar between Israel and Iran -- also avoided the issue of foundational motives for such actions.
To be clear, it isn’t just the Times that avoids what many editors may believe is obvious regarding Iran’s deadly animus toward Israel. The Washington Post, for instance, in covering the conflict, sometimes refers to Iran as “Israel’s No. 1 enemy.” But the articles don’t tell us why that is. The same goes for other mainstream American news sources guilty of what I think of as a sin of omission.
I wasn’t surprised or upset that my letter to The Times wasn’t published. I understand that The Times often receives more than a thousand letters a day and publishes five or six. But having been in the position of reading and choosing letters for publication for many years, I know first-hand that they can make a lasting impression on the editors who read them.
(One example from more than 30 years ago: A Baltimore Jewish Times news story, reporting on a tragic train collision, ran a headline that read something like “Orthodox Couple Among Crash Victims.” A reader correctly questioned whether we would have written “Conservative Couple” or “Reform Couple.” Point well-taken.)
It seems evident to me that Iran, a revolutionary state that leads the world in support of terrorism in the name of Islam, is an avowed enemy of the Jewish state and seeks its destruction. The late Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khomeini, and former President Ahmadinejad, asserted that “Israel must disappear from the map,” and Iranian media employ similar rhetoric.
In response, Israel’s leaders make reference to The Begin Doctrine, which vows never to allow an enemy to develop weapons of mass destruction that can be turned against the Jewish state. Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, like his predecessors, has made it clear that Israel will use any means at its disposal to prevent another Holocaust.
I believe the ongoing battles between Jerusalem and Tehran -- sometimes rhetorical, sometimes deadly -- must be understood in the context of an aggressor, Iran, and a defender, Israel.
Am I right in concluding that this background information is critical to the reader’s understanding of the conflict?
I asked several colleagues who have reported for The Times from the Mideast for their perspectives and they explained why it isn’t so simple.
Ethan Bronner, who was The Times Jerusalem bureau chief from 2008 to 2012 and is now an editor at Bloomberg, said the question I raise “is a legitimate but not straightforward one.”
He sent me a link to a 2019 analysis piece in Ha’aretz, the left-leaning Israeli daily, that questioned the widely held Israeli assumption that Iran is committed to destroying the Jewish state. The writer, Tzvi Bar’el, noted that some Iranian officials say their country does not intend to literally put an end to Israel, but rather that Israel’s policies and conduct will lead to its own destruction.
Bronner said that while he fully understands Israel’s need to take seriously the risk that Iran would use nuclear weapons against it, “it might be hard in a neutral news story to say that Iran is committed to destroying Israel. That may be one reason The Times doesn’t do it routinely.”
Another problem, he said, is “how much and how often to include historical context in any story.”
In the past, Bronner has said, only half-joking, that if an Israeli soldier shot a Palestinian throwing rocks, many readers would want the story to read: “A soldier in Israel -- the only country in the entire region that gives a damn about human rights and decency -- shot a Palestinian teenager who was throwing rocks -- and they can be lethal if they hit you.”
Another former Times foreign correspondent, who asked not to be named, agreed that the issue of fair coverage here is “complicated.”
“Israel’s efforts to sabotage Iran’s nuclear capabilities deserve applause,” he said, “but with recognition that those efforts violate Iranian sovereignty and, presumably, international law as well.”
What about Israel’s own news organizations? Do they explain regularly the threat Iran poses to the state or assume their readers know all too well?
David Horovitz, founding editor of the popular website Times of Israel, explained: “Israeli media frequently highlights Iranian leaders' oft-stated desire to see Israel's elimination. Particularly blatant Iranian calls to that end, and public demonstrations in Iran calling for Israel's downfall, make headlines here.”
He added that “Israelis don't need reminding of the threat; it's widely regarded as the greatest current threat to Israel's well-being. But every twist and turn in the free world's face-off against the Iranian regime resonates here, and is prominently reported, within that nationally understood context of the potential impact on this country.”
Like the Israelis that Horovitz describes, I suspect that many American Jews, including me, care deeply about the survival of Israel and view Iran as a potential existential threat. That’s why we want news organizations to make sure their readers know the vital motive for Jerusalem’s engagement in a range of efforts -- sometimes lethal -- to prevent the destruction of the world’s only Jewish state.
Maybe more letters to the editor will help.