IDF Spokesman: 21 fighters were killed in the battle in the Gaza Strip / IDF Spokesman
It was a hard evening that turned into a hard night and an even harder morning.
As in any long relationship, where the parties understand each other not only when they speak but also in silence and the ability to read between the lines, so also in the relationship between the Israeli media and its consumers.
In every home in Israel it is clear that when the phrase "hard battles" (also "heavy exchanges of fire" or "fierce battles") hovers over the headlines, it is a sign that the news is not what we are told, but the opposite: what is still not allowed in the publication.
This is how it happened that already from hours in the afternoon all the news was covered in the shadow of the terrible couplet, the one that every Israeli already knows in detail in their bottom line: there are families among us right now whose knock on their door is about to change the course of their lives forever.
The rumors on social networks turned out to be true.
Ruskin's capture in the shadow of tragedy/screenshot, arc 12
But even when three names of paratrooper officers are allowed to be published, the ear continues to hear the same disturbing buzz that suggests that even worse is yet to come.
how do you know
Every few minutes, between item after item from Rafi Rashef's studio, through that of Oded Ben Ami and up to Keren Marciano and Yonit Levy, they pass to the reporter Nitzan Shapira in the field.
The "area" is not the area of the battles (except in a specific article, within the main edition, in which Shapira accompanied the fighting forces), but a junction in the south.
Shapira has nothing to say, beyond very general sentences according to which "echoes of explosions" can be heard from where he is, but the very fact that they are embedded every quarter of an hour in other news, screams that an event is unfolding before us.
This event will continue to unfold all night, will become a headline in the morning according to which ten more names must be added to the names of the three killed reported last night - and at 07:46 the number rises to 21 (unfortunately perhaps not final, but as of the moment of writing these lines), a number that the soul seeks to repel outright, even in a continuous atmosphere in which we are already accustomed to the Gospels of Job.
More in Walla!
Pietro is celebrating a round birthday and you enjoy a once-in-60-years sale
In collaboration with Pitro
IDF fighters in Gaza. The difficult news was actually leaked to the mouth of the morning program/IDF spokesman
Big on Ruskin's system
On their faces, names and addresses, among the fallen are settlers, residents of the central cities, new and less recent immigrants, secular and religious.
What they all had in common, beyond the day of their death, was that their country called them and they came, despite the criticism, despite the differences of opinion.
You don't need to wrap yourself in fake statesmanship to understand that this alone has an important lesson for all of us, according to which it is okay for there to be differences of opinion in the news studios, as long as we remember that on the front lines there are those who fight shoulder to shoulder - and unfortunately also fall side by side.
In the studio of Niv Raskin's morning show, there are actually no major controversies.
There they used to summarize the previous evening's news, usually by rotating panelists from a regular circle.
But this morning they delivered the main news.
Raskin is a veteran presenter, but it seems that the morning news was heavy and big on the shoulders of his editor, mainly because she should have already known what she was up against.
For example, it is impossible for two former "Yesh Atid" ministers, MK Meir Cohen and MK Orna Barbibai, to sit on the panel.
It's not like the two voiced their opinions on controversial political issues, but there's still merit to the flaw in the placement of two representatives from the same party as anchors for a continuous news broadcaster.
Those who claim homogeneity in the news studios mean exactly that.
Beyond the hard news, it seems that what bothers Raskin is the unfair competition from the unofficial news platforms, those that roll between Telegram channels and WhatsApp groups.
Unfortunately this causes him to lead a fruitless discussion in the studio.
He complains about much worse numbers to which he was exposed in the rumor channels, as well as about the publication of single names and even names that fall.
It is indeed a sick evil, but the complaint has two problems:
the first is that it is impossible to educate the public - spreading rumors and consuming them are human weaknesses.
Anyone who refrains from consuming them, let alone from spreading them before they are publicly received by an authorized source, condemns himself to ignorance, that is - a decree that the public cannot abide.
The second problem is that in this case the rumors were true: the scary numbers circulating on the networks were not disproved but only officially validated.
It is impossible for messages not to go through exactly at the appointed time.
IDF Spokesman, Daniel Hagari/screenshot, IDF Spokesman
The IDF did not arrive on time
A few words about the IDF spokesman, not about Brigadier General Daniel Hagari himself but about the format of messages to the media.
One of the reasons against participating in the rumor media is the thought of the families at home, those who become anxious in the face of the unofficial news.
But - and this is a big but: if a press release is scheduled for 07:30, then it has to start exactly on time.
It is understandable that every moment more details are added, that there is an attempt to update and make the message more accurate, befitting a party that is not authorized by him.
Still, since there is no end to the updates, the IDF (and the studios) must understand that it is not possible to show the familiar stage so empty and tell viewers that a statement from the IDF spokesperson will be delivered shortly.
This waiting effect, given the square with the two microphones at the bottom of the screen, puts an entire country into anxiety.
It's good for the news tension and attracts the viewers to the screen even relatively early in the morning, but it's so obscene that I don't even want to suspect the broadcast channels of doing it on purpose - and because of that, the coordination mechanism between the IDF spokesperson and the media must be more accurate.
It is impossible to subordinate any news to its agenda.
Yonit Levy/image processing, screenshot |
n12 official website
Yonit Levy is a mind engineer
The news of Job's ranks hitting the studios precisely after a night that was, on the whole, not bad for the prime minister: the headlines talked about the continuation of the fighting, just as he had promised, and at the same time reports began, according to what he said to the families of the abductees, according to which Israel put its own proposal on the negotiating table.
You don't have to be a big fan of Netanyahu to admit that, at least for now, he was right - despite the thinning of the forces, the fighting doesn't stop, and it's just a shame that it puts a little stress on those who are used to doubting him.
Thus, at the end of the news about the deepening of the IDF's activity in Khan Yunis, Yonit Levy asked a strange question to Major General Yisrael Ziv: "We see this fighting in Khan Yunis, but is it true to say that Israel is having trouble reaching a decision?" And the answer takes the viewers to the regions of "the day after", the one whose discussion is constantly rejected by the prime minister.
The decent viewer (not the "bibist" but just the one with his eyes in his head), cannot help but watch this, without thinking that the senior presenter of the main edition has an agenda that seeks to lead a sour discourse - and she will not even let headlines that testify to the opposite reality confuse her. That is, it is clear that Israel is still far from reaching a decision, even the Prime Minister himself will admit this, but the framing of news that heralds the continuation of the fighting, in this context, is manipulation - or as as they like to say in circles close to Netanyahu: "mind engineering".
This is not the only thing that Levy repeats as a mantra. Her second fixation is the issue of the abductees. To be clear, there is no moral criticism here: the abductees are a wound that does not stop bleeding in the soul of every Israeli - and rightly so At the same time, it is impossible to filter at the end of every piece of news (for example, at the end of the above conversation with Israel Ziv) "and there is also the whole issue of the abductees."
Yes, there is this "subject of the abductees", we are aware of it and remember it even without Levy's constant reminder, which is "pushed" into almost every discussion and turns a legitimate and even correct moral position into a nuisance that harms the very matter, since the only ability of the families of the abductees to continue to manage An effective fight in their case is only in the way in which they correspond with the public's will for a military decision.
Even the person who manages their media campaign, Ronan Tzur, understands this well: in order to remain rooted in hearts, they must not be portrayed as an obstacle to military achievement.
It is cruel, but this is the reality that Levy may have trouble understanding - if most Israelis were to be offered the Sabbath of all the abductees in exchange for continued Hamas rule, the offer would be rejected outright.
Responsible for the exciting moment of the news broadcasters last night.
Adva Dadon/screenshot, News 12
Tears of journalists
And there was also one moment of grace, a sad moment like no other, which dissolves for a moment the media facade that is obliged to remain matter-of-fact.
It was when Adva Dadon presented an interview she conducted with the late Major Eli Levy, from Tel Aviv, MP in Tzanchanim, who fell yesterday in the Gaza Strip.
At the end of the interview (filmed on November 15), she dubs Levy (the officer) to talk about his partner , to tell her how much he loves her. A few days ago I took issue with Dadon's style here, but this time, it must be admitted, he shocked the situation in a way that cannot be moved, until Dadon also choked with tears.
Crying, just like laughter, has the power to stick - and so does Yonit Levy received the broadcast from her in a choked voice. There were no tears and no breakdown, but the fragment of a sob that flashed for a moment made every eye in the house tear up. Yes, even a news network that has become accustomed to reporting on events that are not difficult, has moments of breakdown.
More on the same topic:
Gaza war
Raskin dialect
yonit Levi
Lord Dadon