Earlier this week, Prime Minister Netanyahu gave an exclusive interview to Qatar-based Al Jazeera – the same biased network that ignores wild incitement and daily calls to murder him and his family; a network whose journalists and editors tirelessly work in favor of the campaign that exerts constant pressure on law enforcement to indict him.
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And yet, despite the hostile setting, the interview was conducted entirely in Hebrew and was headed by a cordially female anchor who giggled politely even when scolded by her interviewee.
Everything looked familiar: the décor, the colors, the soundbites, and the prime minister's conduct. Things are as they have been throughout the past four election campaigns and in the moment of truth, everything the prime minister says about Israeli media doesn't matter – especially not to the media itself.
Some pundits still warn the public of how bad Netanyahu is for Israel. News items will detail statistics about the coronavirus pandemic – businesses that have gone under and families that have lost loved ones – and recount the specifics of the criminal indictments against the prime minister.
However, with just a little over a month until the elections, Israel media allows Netanyahu to do with it as he wills. He commands prime time and dominates online and print media – mostly to tell outlets how poorly they are doing.
And they take it. They take it all – the attacks, the delegitimization, the constant lambasting – he kicks them and they fall to their knees and genuflect, grateful that the almighty leader is giving them a few moments of his time. Stockholm syndrome, anyone?
For the past four election campaigns, with the exception of a handful of cases, Israel's media has failed to confront the prime minister. Moreover, it never refuses him. Battered, bruised, and exhausted – that's the way Netanyahu likes the media.
Any other interviewee who behaved as Netanyahu does would be thrown out of the TV studio. A public relations manager offering an outlet an interview with an individual who moments ago clobbered that very same outlet would be laughed out of the room. No service provider would go back to a client who gave them a terrible review and undermined their livelihood. Social media blocks users who are verbally abusive, and journalists file defamation suits against members of the public who slandered them even though random social media users usually have zero traction.
The kid gloves with which Israeli media treats Netanyahu proves that what he thinks to be true is, in fact, true: He can do whatever he wants and get away with it.
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