Diplomatic relations among the Abraham Accords countries are at a historic high and have resulted in bilateral cooperation in many areas. However, there is an important area that still needs attention, especially in the face of polarized mainstream media in the US and UK; a media alliance.
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The mainstream media is rife with disinformation, bias and polarized views of the Abraham Accords countries, where each country faces different kinds of attacks. For instance, the UAE is pilloried for its human rights violations, while Israel is portrayed as a violent occupier. The only beneficiaries of this polarization are groups pedalling extremist ideologies.
The problem with a liberal mainstream media, as with representatives of liberal political parties such as the Democrat Party, is that they have been dominated by leftists, who impose their leftist views at all costs. For instance, their emphasis on human rights extends to all groups, irrespective of their ideological roots. Leftists view political Islamists as moderate Muslims and terrorist groups are defined only as those who commit actual genocide and plant bombs, such as Islamic State and Al-Qaida.
In fact, the violent ideology of those terrorists is actually driven by political Islamists, illustrated in the books of Muslim Brotherhood theorists like Hassan al-Banna and Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Leftist Westerners also equate taking on political Islamist groups with taking on Islam, thus countries such as the UAE, who oppose political Islam, are considered human rights violators and sometimes, ridiculously, accused of being Islamophobic.
Israel comes under attack by being portrayed in the mainstream media as the aggressor and a brutal occupier without any mention of Israeli attacks being in retaliation for radical groups such as Hamas targeting innocent Israeli civilians.
The mainstream media also views Israeli Jews only as foreign immigrants and a cause of conflict, ignoring their ancient roots in the Middle East. The mainstream media even tried to undermine the success of the Abraham Accords, especially those governing relations among Arab Gulf countries. Some writers have said that these peace treaties serve no purpose since there hasn't been a war between Arab Gulf countries and Israel, while other media outlets argue that peace should first be established between the Israelis and the Palestinians.
As a result of this, Abraham Accords countries should establish a media alliance to combat the bias and polarization generated and perpetuated by the mainstream media. One approach could be to establish a joint media venture, such as a joint satellite news channel, that would include citizens from Abraham Accords countries to call out and address the polarization and bias in the mainstream media.
In fact, it is not only the Abraham Accords countries that are faced with mainstream media disinformation, but also conservatives in the US and other countries. In response to this, there are now conservative media companies: in news channels, there is the One America News Network and Newsmax TV; and in entertainment, there is The Daily Wire trying to face down the dominance of Hollywood, which has moved quite far to the Left.
Also, since the usage of social media, especially among young people, is high, it is worth utilizing these channels by training users to challenge the bias of the mainstream media about their countries. This is called citizen diplomacy. But the most important point that needs to be taken into consideration is that extreme reliance on social media might make users vulnerable to censorship by the big-tech companies that own these platforms since they have also moved quite far to the Left. Therefore, the Abraham Accords countries must create their own alternatives to these social media platforms just as the conservatives have established Parler as an alternative to Twitter.
The main reason that a media alliance among the Abraham Accords countries will be successful is that these countries are all driven by pragmatism, not ideology, whether they are on the far left or the far right. Their main concern is prosperity and development for their people and the world would do well to learn from their example.
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