HONEST REPORTING

HONEST REPORTING    honestreporting.com

Honest Reporting’s mission is to defend Israel from media bias. To do this, their small but highly effective staff speed-read about one hundred foreign newspapers daily. As of today – after two weeks of persistent reminders, the British Daily Mail just corrected a false statement suggesting that Israel’s chief rabbi predicted apocalyptic Biblical war. One can also read on HR’s Twitter feed, “HR is taking action after Airbnb’s recent decision to boycott Israeli homeowners, which violates a number of American laws.” I believe that their leadership role has led to Airbnb reversing the decision. They continuously work to correct factual misstatements so that news readers get a fair and balanced view. Clearly, headlines often scream out a distorted message. HR seeks to correct the record with the facts.

Young, often inexperienced journalists arrive in Jerusalem – to cover Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Gaza, etc. – all from this comfortable perch in the heights and safety of the holy city. HR seeks to  assure that reporting out of Jerusalem is accurate and follows the same standards of journalism that would be applied to other nations. To publicize its work, HR has a web-site (honestreporting.com), a daily newsletter from Israel, a FB page and a twitter feed, videos etc.

How else would you know “The president of Chad, Idriss Debry, was due to arrive in Israel today….(This) African nation which is majority Muslim severed diplomatic ties with Israel in 1972…” Hmmmm??  And “Qatar is reconsidering its cash transfers to Gaza. It seems Qataris realized that delivered suitcases filled with cash to terror thugs made for terrible optics….” Interesting??

Many of the journalists stationed in Jerusalem are not acquainted with the circumstances of Israel’s birth as a sovereign nation in 1948 and its continuing struggles in a very rough neighborhood where Palestinian children are taught to hate Jews and to deny Israel the right to exist. So Honest Reporting, through its special outreach division, Media Central, offers journalists expeditions, for example, to the Golan Heights with analysis of the unique military and strategic issues of bordering Syria. 

While HR focuses on media education and monitoring, we were part of its semiannual premier mission for tourists – our group of 22 included both Jews and non-Jews. individuals from four continents – North America, Australia, Europe and Africa. It was an amazing experience to meet with distinguished scholars  -- such as Prof. Gil Troy and Prof. Eugene Kontorovich (writing in the Wall Street Journal, Nov. 26, 2018, Op-Ed page, "Airbnb's Anti-Israel Hypocrisy). We sat down with members of Israel’s diverse communities --  an Ethiopian Immigrant newscaster Tsega Malaku; an anonymous Arab Muslim from a refugee camp in the disputed territories; IDF Colonel (Res.) Grisha Yakubovich, our guide in Gush Etzion in the Disputed Territories; a Druze IDF officer who serves his country with unswerving loyalty, and many more. In sum, we were immersed in the politics and the history; we got to know various parts of Israeli society -- together these opportunities gave us insight into the complexities of the state of Israel. Lots of input, many questions, no simple answers, all seen against the backdrop of a modern, thriving society.

Always the threat of latent (or obvious) antisemitism

Fake News  

PHOTO gives the message that the Israeli soldier attacked the Palestinian boy
RESEARCH uncovered that photo of boy was added. The brutal attack portrayed had not occurred.