A short guide to Israel’s progressive Anti-Trump political and media elites
Honorable President Trump,
Welcome to our country. Although Israel is a small country, and our media is not as developed and biased as that in the United States, but here in the Land of the Jews there also is slanted media.
There is no need to present its agenda to you: anyway, most of its insights on the world are taken from “The New York Times” and private briefings from the Obama White House. But nonetheless, as a special presidential service, here in “Mida”, we wanted to acquaint you with some of the news programs and people that you will most likely come across during your visit.
Anti-Trump Politicians
Honorable President, it’s important that you know that many of the elected officials are just megaphones for the Democratic Party.
Already in December 2015, 37 Arab and extreme Left wing Knesset Members (MKs) wrote to Prime Minister Netanyahu and demanded that he cancel his meeting with you in the letter captioned: “urgent – reaction to the racist statement of candidate Donald Trump”.
The letter’s initiator, MK Michal Rozin (Meretz), demanded that Netanyahu “publicly criticize Trump’s racist remarks” and the head of Meretz, Zehava Galon declared that the American president is “a liar, violent, a racist, a harasser, corrupt, temperamental and unqualified” that “built his campaign on fear and hate”.
This is the extreme Left. But surely you will be pleased to discover that 10 “Zionist” MKs such as Eitan Cabel, Amir Peretz and Erel Margalit, and even two coalition members Roy Folkman (Kulanu) and Yakov Margi (Shas), also signed the letter. Opposition Leader and head of the Zionist Union, Isaac Herzog, was careful not to sign the letter but he made sure to explain to journalists that “Trump’s statements are shocking and repugnant”.
Yair Lapid, head of Yesh Atid, that represents the political center in Israel, wasn’t so pleased with your nomination. “I have no problem with people who speak their mind in public. I have a problem when what they say is rude or racist”, said Lapid when asked about you. Surprising? Not really, since six of his 10 party members signed the letter boycotting you.
In conclusion, Merav Michaeli, chair of the “Zionist Union” party, wrote the morning after the election that “it’s not the morning we hoped for”. In her opinion, November 9 was “a difficult day in which a person was elected that raising the flag of hatred, insult and denegrationof women and others. It’s a difficult day for all of the women and men that looked up to the first woman who had a real and justified chance to be elected the first woman to lead the free world”.
Print Journalism
Honorable President, we are sorry to report that the Israeli media is not very different from the American left wing media.
Let us begin with the Israeli brand best known around the world: the “Haaretz” newspaper that also has an English edition. During the presidential campaign, Haaretz enlisted its services on behalf of Hilary Clinton and the Left. Here are some examples: “Trump: ISIS’ useful idiot”, the caption of an article by Haaretz’s messenger in the USA, Chemi Shalev, who stated in another article that you are a “racist, liar, retiree, inciter, cynic, and mostly a reckless manipulator”.
Haartez’s foreign affairs editor, Asaf Ronel, thought that you are Assad and ISIS’ “dream candidate”, and that your election “is expected to give a motivational boost to the terror organizations to attack Western targets”. After your election victory, Haaretz’s editors felt like they were in a “horror movie”, as tweeted by the commentator Sefi Hendler: “God help America because the Americans were negligent on duty yesterday”.
In general, you will feel at home in the pages of “Haaretz”. There, as in the media you are used to, they delight in comparing you to Hitler, regularly disseminating the message that you are Putin’s agent that “will return Russia to its greatness”. In their opinion, Putin is your “idol”, and they claim that this “hampers free movement in Syria”, a declaration published just hours before the tomahawk attack.
You should know: Haaretz’s international writers are especially angry because since you were elected, their pipeline of leaks has been sealed, and they have to deal with real journalism. Maybe you should consider a special fund for career retraining of frustrated fake-journalists .
Another well known Israeli brand, “Yediot Acharonot”, didn’t try to hide its way of thinking. After your election victory, Sima Kadmon, the paper’s senior commentator, reacted in a historical article, where she nicknamed you “a rude bully, sexual harasser, that cheated the tax authorities”, and the “first alien president”. She also hinted that the American president is a sex offender of minors, when she spoke to the average American in wonder “would you leave your 13 year-old daughter alone in a room with the new president?”
Kadmoni is not alone. During the campaign, 31 articles were published in the opinions section of Yediot Achronot about the American election. According to “Presspectiva”, a website which critiques media, 24 of those articles were against you while seven were designated as “neutral”. No article represented the view of the majority of American voters.
Broadcast Journalism
With your permission, we will turn to broadcast journalism.
The most viewed channel in Israel, Channel 2, has been in deep shock for more than a year. Already when you won the Republican primaries, presenter Yonit Levi and international writer Nitzan Horowitz asked in a news show: “What is up with this party, is this all that’s left of it?” An interesting question especially after they determined that “Trump conquered the Republican Party against its will”, and that you are only “a white man that is afraid of everyone else”.
Channel 2’ s international news editor, Arad Nir, stated that you are “not suitable to be president” because you “taunt bereaved parents, Muslims, Mexicans, NATO and the European Union. You ridicule China. You spurn international agreements where the USA is a signatory. You disdain the country where you live and manage your business affairs”.
Nadav Eyal is the international news editor of the competing channel, Channel 10. Last January, moments before your inauguration, Eyal nicknamed Putin your “solution” that succeeded apparently to put you in the White House. “Almost 30 years after the fall of the Soviet Union and precisely now, when she is shrunken and struggling, Mother Russia succeeded in electing an American for its own purposes, and escorted him, step by step, loan after investment, to the White House”, wrote Eyal in the magazine “Liberal”.
Eyal was also the one who advised Moav Vardi, Channel 10’s political correspondent, to ask you in a joint press conference with Prime Minister Netanyahu about your connection to “rising anti-Semitism” toward American Jews.
Yes, there is still no word in Hebrew for “fake news”, here it’s simply called “the media”.
Honorable President Trump, welcome to Israel. We hope for and wish you success.
