Eydar - The media's virtual reality world

Dror Eydar
Israel Hayom
07 November '11



http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=786

1. Amid the sea of verbiage washing over the public discourse both in favor of and against action on Iran, there is a hidden assumption that is not articulated but that has loomed over the discourse since the electoral upset of the Israeli Left in 1977. Those who saw themselves not only as the chosen leaders of the Jewish state but as the makers of Jewish history were removed from the stage in one fell swoop. Ever since, they, their descendants and their political and media clones refuse to recognize the legitimacy of the people's chosen alternative leadership.

For journalists Nahum Barnea, Amnon Abramovitch and their vocal circle of friends, Benjamin Netanyahu does not really have a popular mandate for critical historic decisions -- with the exception of a diplomatic agreement custom-tailored to their ideological creed: In other words, full withdrawal from, and the destruction of Jewish settlements in, Judea and Samaria. What's more, the fact that these journalists are more or less the same age as our country's leaders plays its part. "Who are those guys to decide our fate?" they mutter angrily and contemptuously.



Not to mention their attitudes toward Ehud Barak, which borders on madness. It is understandable. After all, he is the person on whom the Left hung its hopes for a restoration of the old order following its historic blunder in 1977. But Barak exposed what his flock of followers refused (and still refuse) to recognize: the absence of a real partner for ending the conflict. The attitude toward him is like the attitude of the ultra-Orthodox community toward a Torah scholar who left the fold, or the treatment of heretics by the Spanish Inquisition. Against the backdrop of this psycho-political assumption, that the Right has no mandate to rule, the similitude of a "debate," plays out.

2. A few words on the Histadrut labor federation strike. Suddenly, Histadrut Chairman Ofer Eini is the defender of contract workers. But the whole sorry state of contract workers came about because of Eini and his cohorts. It came about due to the impossible conditions the Histadrut forced on employers, making it impossible to fire idle workers, and impossible to improve efficiency without the sword of a strike being swung over their heads. In this way, a slave market has developed under the noses of the large workers' unions represented by the Histadrut. Here is a conspiratorial thought that is not far off the mark. Just recently, electricity rates went up by 4.72 percent. This past August, another 10% rate hike had been approved due to fears over the interruption of natural gas supplies from Egypt. But the supply has been renewed and rates are still going up. Here are some of the possible hidden reasons for the rate hike: "an increase in managers' salaries," "renewal of the vehicle fleet," "free electricity for all employees," "the inability to fire thousands of superfluous workers," and others, perhaps? Does anyone talk about this? Shhh, keep quiet. Eini keeps these issues hush hush because he brandishes the threat of a strike. That is why electricity rates go up. But why is it that consumers can demand justice over cottage cheese but not electricity?

3 Sunday morning on the "Ma Boer" (What's burning?) radio show: host Razi Barkai hosts journalist Ofer Shelah. The topic of the strike is hashed and rehashed into a mush. Although the interviewers lean toward the Histadrut, they do allow voices from the other side to be heard. And then the topic turns to the dismantling of settlement outposts. The guest, Science Minister Daniel Hershkovitz (The Jewish Home) tries to speak about settlements, saying that a significant chunk of land defined as Palestinian "private land" is actually not owned by anyone, and that there are solutions to this issue worth discussing.

But the interviewer had his own agenda. Are you going to defect from the government or not? We asked a simple question. There are hundreds of settlers with the sword of destruction hanging over their heads, says Hershkovitz. and we need to talk about that. Sir, you are at the Tel Aviv Army radio station, his hosts lead him to understand. In these parts the settlers are rivals who must be discussed in political terms only, not human ones. Hershkovitz is still in the middle of a sentence when they move on to the next topic. The Judicial Selection Committee has asked to appoint judges to the Supreme Court. Two guests are brought on, both ideological twins of the radio hosts. One of them has submitted a petition opposing the convening of the committee, lest, God forbid, judges with a conservative world view be appointed. The second guest, attorney Shlomo Cohen belongs to the Dorit Beinisch and Aharon Barak camp. The word propaganda pales in comparison to the nature of his "analysis."

Cohen repeats the key words "settlers," "religious," and "taking over" again and again. He also says that Justice Minister Yaakov Neeman and Environmental Protection Minister Gilad Erdan represent the extreme right-wing (!). The hosts merely mumble in response. After all, they support judges who represent their political views and why should they care about judicial pluralism when their own radio show does not even keep up the appearance of objectivity?

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