https://www.thenewdaily.com.au/opinion/2025/06/26/middle-east-reporting-truth
It is said that truth is the first casualty of war.
Rarely has truth shown signs of life since Hamas savagely attacked Israeli civilians on October 7, 2023, killing 1200 and taking 250 hostage.
Official sources for the attack are advocates for their own side, which is understandable. But media reporting, too, is laced with preordained editorial positions.
The resulting Israeli attacks on Gaza have so farkilled tens of thousands of people and left many more homeless.
Beyond understanding the horror of it all, non-partisan observers in the general public are left largely uninformed.
Peak bewilderment was achieved last week when the ABC’s 7.30 interviewed Israel’s Deputy Foreign Minister, Sharren Haskel.
While the minister provided valuable information, her most controversial statement was that “there is no starvation in Gaza”.
On this claim, viewers were left confused. Well, I was anyway.
For more than a year, harrowing video footage has shown emaciated children in Gaza dying of malnutrition, with international aid agencies claiming there is no food for them.
So, what is the truth?
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) – presumably a credible and independent organisation – reported that more than 5000 children were diagnosed with malnutrition in the Gaza Strip in May alone.
In this instance, this dispute about facts was not the ABC’s fault. But it did involve someone or other falsifying the truth – there has been starvation or there hasn’t.
Numerous media outlets continue to report that Israel’s behaviour in Gaza amounts to genocide by Zionists.
Genocide is the deliberate killing of a large number of people from a particular ethnic group with the aim of destroying that group – in this case Palestinians.
Is that an accurate description of the behaviour of the Israel Defence Forces carrying out the wishes of Prime Minister Netanyahu? Or are some units of the IDF recklessly or indifferently killing Palestinians?
What is the truth? We may never know. The media has been unable to inform us.
Have we forgotten the horror of an estimated 50 Israeli citizens still being held captive by Hamas 20 months after their capture?
We hear almost no media reporting of their suffering, presumably because their anguish at not knowing whether or not they will survive to the end of any day is not “a yarn”.
Meanwhile, legal experts have condemned the US for breaching international law by bombing Iran’s nuclear facilities located deep beneath mountains, guaranteeing blanket coverage by anti-Israel media outlets.
Never mind that it is generally agreed that Iran has enriched uranium to 60 per cent, well above the 10 per cent used in nuclear power plants.
There are no other uses for 60 per cent-enriched uranium other than taking it further to 90 per cent, which is weapons grade. That can be done speedily.
What do these legal experts and media outlets expect the US and Israel to do? Wait until Iran – a country whose leadership routinely pledges death to Israel and death to America – achieves weapons-grade enrichment?
It’s hard enough to form judgments about right and wrong when all the facts are relayed accurately by the media.
But when media outlets have an editorial position favouring the Israelis or the Palestinians and slant their reporting accordingly, it is impossible to be well informed.
What is certain is that claiming gods or prophets are on your side in waging war against an adversary is no more than than a pretext for justifying violence.
Early in my time as 32-year-old adviser to former prime minister Bob Hawke, we visited Jerusalem and Bethlehem where Hawke sought to promote a two-state solution – the Palestinian state comprising Gaza and the West Bank. Jews and Palestinians living side by side in peace.
Today, that two-state solution is more elusive than ever.
Amid the ongoing horror of Gaza – and of Hamas slaughtering and kidnapping innocent Israelis on October 7, 2023 – the least we should expect of the media is that it report the facts as it can best ascertain them and refrain from disseminating propaganda.
