The monthly "Seventh Eye" publication deals with criticism of the press. In recent issues, it presented a comprehensive critique on the Yediot Acharonot daily, the newspaper which was once "the national voice-piece", or as they called it, "the newspaper which has a country." Excerpts which were covered by the media are reminiscent of murky regimes, disgraceful conspiracies of which the only semblance to a free, liberal press is purely coincidental.
The appearance of the Rightist paper "Israel Today", which threatened the monopoly of Yediot Acharonot, was to help Netanyahu. It turned Yediot Acharonot into an arena for a war against the Prime Minister.
At first, it tried to stifle the rival paper. A bill was presented in the Knesset to suppress it and halt its circulation. The MKs who promoted it received promotions in the paper through positive coverage, as per quote from the former chief editor, "It was clear to us that whoever supported the bill was a friend of the editorial board, and received information which sponsored his parliamentary career (though none of them were served with a charge of bribery and disloyalty, as in the case of Netanyahu). While on the other side, those who were against the bill were labeled as enemies.
In one case, Ehud Barak, Security Minister, exposed an IDF army base to Yisrael Hayom. The paper's reaction was a series of articles against him.
Netanyahu was the focus of the battle. A columnist who once worked for the paper said, "It was a fight to the bitter end. I personally am not a fan of Bibi but their opposition was exaggerated. At the meetings for the weekend edition, it was stated very bluntly: 'We've got to publish X amount of articles against Bibi.' That was their objective. We had to come up with ugly photos of Bibi and his wife for that edition."
Incidentally, to this day, there continues to be an ongoing campaign in the paper in this despicable style. And each time an article appears attempting to show as if Netanyahu is not interested in the return of the hostages, it is accompanied with photos depicting him smiling ear to ear in order to impress the reader public and suggesting: See how cruel this man is? The same picture is used again and again in which, at some occasion in the past, he happened to smile.
This is how the free press looks in Israel. People assume that they are reading objective, up to date information which the public deserves to know, while in reality, the editors are a manipulative board bent on furthering their own political, social and economic agendas.
Raise the Banner
We could have dealt with an entirely different subject here if, cholila, the terrorist's plan in Tel Aviv had been actualized. But far more newsworthy is the miraculous fact that the murderer, finding his way in southern Tel Aviv near a shul and bearing a mega-load of explosives on his back, failed to accomplish his deadly mission with a premature detonation, which killed only him.
It took the police many hours to conclude that this was meant to wreak tremendous havoc but was miraculously thwarted. And how did the police record it? A "work accident."
Terrorists have not used this method for a long time. Perhaps they have given up their goal to reaching 'resort facilities' [prisons] and are resorting to different modus operandi, that is, self-immolating terrorists, or shahidim.
As for us, we must continue to pray and hope that the failure of this act will serve to prevent future ones of this kind. May Hashem preserve us from such disgusting murderers, whose fellows in Israeli prisons are petitioning for better conditions and higher calorie food!
