BOOK REVIEW | The Suppression of Guilt: The Israeli Media & the Reoccupation of the West Bank

Abstract

If there was a common element in the Israeli media coverage of the 2003 military operation “Defensive Shield,” it was a consistent refusal to accept any guilt for what happened in the Palestinian territories. That is what Daniel Dor argues in The Suppression of Guilt: the Israeli Media and the Reoccupation of the West Bank. If houses were abolished, civilians killed or Palestinian allies arrested, Israeli action was presented as a necessary response to Palestinian action, according to Dor’s provocative work. Dor’s analysis of Ma’ariv, Yediot Ahronot, and Ha’aretz, Israel’s most important newspapers, and its two major television stations Channel 1 and Channel 2 is humbling. After reading The Israeli Media & the Reoccupation of the West Bank, even steadfast optimists who believe in independent media will have to admit that news outlets, at least during war time, tend to dispense with balanced and independent reporting. As Dor shows, most press and television reports on the military action in Ramallah, Nablus and Jenin had nothing to do with free and critical journalism; instead they mirrored the public fascination with soldiers at work and the general political guidelines of the Israeli government. This was most extreme in Ma’ariv, Yediot Ahronot, and Channel 2. Ha’aretz and Channel 1, meanwhile, retained some sense of independence and dared to present alternative views on “Defensive Shield”, be it voices from the Palestinian side or pundits from within Israeli society. Nonetheless, their coverage converged on the general question of guilt and who bore initial responsibility for the conflict, a debate which echoes discussions about the Israel-Hizbullah war in Lebanon. Dor argues that these media agreed on one central point: that the Israeli government was forced to react in 2003 due to the ongoing Palestinian bomb and suicide attacks. Analysts who claimed the contrary were clearly under-represented in the media; if they found their way into the press or onto television, their statements or articles were presented on the rear pages or outside prime-time.