A year after the terrible Meron disaster, last night the current affairs broadcasters opened the special security squadron and mobilized the energy in which they are most skilled: rising and falling sirens of fear and calm.
Too bad, the right dose was both to fear and to rejoice.
This is the place to remind all the studios in all the channels: Lag B'Omer is still an important holiday in Israel, and the ascent to Mount Meron is a joyous tradition in which large sections of the public have taken part for decades.
But the presenters of the afternoon editions, the energies of holiday joy are less of an interest to him.
They functioned last night like the commanders of the forces on the ground, with the single and only message "only that the incident will pass in peace."
So it's true that commercial television feeds and profits from sowing fear among viewers, after all, the intensification of hysteria is worth a rating - but in between you can get a holiday joy and put things in proportion?
Here are some numbers: The merriment in Meron attracted about 400,000 celebrants in the years before the disaster, which is three times minus minus the mountain visitors in the year of the terrible disaster, which was the year of the Corona.
This year the number of visitors to the mountain was approved by only a few thousand people, a number equal to the amount of water and pretzel sellers in normal years.
Every beginning researcher knows that if the mountain knew how to contain three times as much as last year, and last night a few thousand were allowed to climb it, add to that the police's vigilance and extreme caution - the potential for danger does not really justify a collective panic.
"Did you manage to sleep at night?", Almog Boker asked one of the people responsible for the safety of the visitors on the mountain, in an item that was entirely devoted to security arrangements, and he is not the only one.
Even in the parallel channels, only the post-trauma was present, and one may ask: if the Israeli media is supposed to function only as a panic room - what about a much-needed holiday coverage in our tradition?
At the same time as the atmosphere of repression, the approval of the Minister of Internal Security, Amar Bar-Lev, for the holding of the flag parade in Jerusalem was reported - let us pray that the joyous marches on the capital's holiday will not become security updates and miss the point.
Coverage of Meron's revelry, all channels
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