The Honest Report

Misinformation about Israel in the news media isn't new, nor is it unfortunately rare. But the problems are often much deeper than one recognizes. The headlines, photos, slant and angles used in articles and broadcasts all contribute to further misinformation about Israel in the media, but the real issue is the very themes which the news media uses to understand and classify Israel and the Palestinians alike.

I'm Robert Walker, and welcome to the Honest Report podcast. Please subscribe to our podcast, leave a review, and share our show. If you're interested in sponsoring a podcast, please go to the HonestReporting Canada website.

Hamas and Islamic Jihad aren't just terrorist groups; they are masters of disinformation. And that means Israel isn't just fighting a war against rockets and bombs; it is fighting a war of persuasion, against opponents who will tell any lie to get their way.

In this most recent armed engagement between Israel and these Islamist terrorist groups, images of Jews dancing at the alleged burning of the Al Aqsa mosque went viral, before becoming unmasked as utterly untrue. But once the image goes viral, the damage is done.

I'm Robert Walker, and welcome to the Honest Report podcast. Please subscribe to our podcast, leave a review and share our show, If you're interested in sponsoring a podcast, please go to the HonestReporting Canada website.

There is a threat that Israelis continue to regularly face which does not attract the media attention that it used to: terrorism.

Just in the last week, there were two separate terror attacks targeting Israelis in Judea & Samaria, commonly called the "West Bank." The first attack was an attempted suicide stabbing attack by a 60-year-old Palestinian woman. The second attack was a shooting attack by a 44-year-old Palestinian terrorist who killed a 19-year-old Israeli and wounded two other yeshiva (Jewish seminary) students.

The media dictum that "if it bleeds it leads" should be at play here, but regrettably, our media for the most part ignored these attacks and that's not okay.

I’m Mike Fegelman and welcome to the Honest Report podcast. Please  subscribe to our podcast, leave a review and share our show. If you're   interested in sponsoring a podcast, please go to the HonestReporting Canada website.

It's not "Semitic Semantics"!

In recent weeks, a growing list of US news media outlets have announced they are removing the hyphen from the word antisemitism,  and turning the two words into one. Here in Canada, CBC and the Globe and Mail have also updated their style guides to refer to just "antisemitism" or "antisemitic".

Of course, removing the hyphen won't remove antisemitism from the world, but it will provide a greater understanding of this age-old hatred targeting the Jewish people.

I’m Mike Fegelman and welcome to the Honest Report podcast. Please subscribe to our podcast, leave a review and share our show. If you're  interested in sponsoring a podcast, please go to the HonestReporting Canada website.

The term "greenwashing" accuses Israel of using its environmental bona fides in order to hide its alleged human rights abuses against the Palestinians. The greenwashing libel against Israel also accuses the Jewish state of being, contrary to all established evidence and reality on the ground, of actually not being environmentally friendly at all, and, using selective cherry-picked information, advocates of the greenwashing lie claim Israel is a harmful contributor to the world.

It goes without saying that no country, Israel very much included, has a perfect track record when it comes to any topic, including the environment. But to accuse Israel of environmental abuse when it’s clearly false, and then to refuse to give Israel any benefit whatsoever for its impressive accomplishments, is an exercise in propaganda, not truth.

I’m Mike Fegelman and welcome to the Honest Report podcast on Earth Day 2021. Please subscribe to our podcast, leave a review and share our show. If you're interested in sponsoring a podcast, please go to the HonestReporting Canada website.

When Israelis celebrate their independence on Yom Ha’atzmaut, they find joy in the responsibility and freedoms of self-determination in their historic homeland - as well they should. Israel has, in a short 73 years, proven what can be possible when there is little more but determination and chutzpah. But the long and arduous arc of Jewish history has taught a powerful lesson that Israel does not only exist for moral, ethical, legal or historic reasons. Rather, it exists for a very practical reason as well.

Israel’s independence celebrations always follow the commemoration for the Holocaust to show the steep cost when there is no Jewish State in the world. Without the existence of Israel, antisemites around the world would feel emboldened to do what they want to the Jews, knowing that ultimately, this small, stateless people would be extremely vulnerable. And that is precisely a major motivator behind those who seek to destroy, demonize or de-legitimize Israel today. While there are certainly many legitimate criticisms to be made about Israel, none of these can justify denying Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state.

To do that would be to once again render the Jewish people vulnerable to the worst murderers in history. Fortunately, every single year, Israel reminds its people, and the world, not only that is has a right to exist, but of the potential consequences should it disappear. When the news media reports on Israel, that is a narrative often forgotten.

I’m Mike Fegelman and welcome to the Honest Report podcast. Please subscribe to our podcast, leave a review and share our show. If you're interested in sponsoring a podcast, please go to the HonestReporting Canada website.

You probably didn’t hear this update in the news yet, but it’s absolutely true: Israel and Iran are at war.

Now, before you go to Google and start feverishly checking for a headline about Israeli warplanes over the skies of Tehran, let me be more specific. Israel and Iran are in a state of war, but not quite in the sense that most of us think. Israel and Iran are at war, with real weapons, real rockets, real guns and real casualties. In other words; this is not a cold war, but very much a hot one. So why aren’t we reading headlines about fighter jet battles in the skies? Because unlike most armed conflicts, this one is taking place just below the surface, between proxies and allies, terrorist groups and spies, and much of what is taking place, even if reported by the media, gets just a minor mention.

Today is April 11 and news swirled about a cyber attack by the Israeli Mossad against Iran’s Natanz nuclear facility which caused extensive damage to Iran’s main uranium enrichment facility. Iran first said an “accident” occurred but later blamed the attck on “terrorism”.

This is the shadow war taking place between Israel and Iran. I’m Mike Fegelman and welcome to the Honest Report podcast.

Please subscribe to our podcast, leave a review and share our show. If you're interested in sponsoring a podcast, please go to the HonestReporting Canada website.

Beyond the headlines and contrary to the dominant media narrative of a dysfunctional Israel, the Jewish state's electoral challenges actually showcase a remarkable resiliency and commitment to democracy.

While Israel’s regular elections are a running joke, and for good reasons: Four trips to the polls in two years is a sign that there is a real need for reform in Israel’s democratic system. But with that said, this minor flaw also demonstrates four incredible strengths of Israel - the fact that it holds elections at all, the smooth transition after elections, the ability of Arab parties to run for office and be elected, and how Israel does not hold its elected officials above the law, but on par with everyone else.

Find out more in episode 5 of The Honest Report with Mike Fegelman. Please subscribe to our podcast, leave a review and share our show. If you're interested in sponsoring a podcast, please go to the HonestReporting Canada website.

Even in diversions like sports and entertainment, there is a pernicious hatred that never seems to die. Antisemitism has been called the world’s oldest hatred for its remarkable agility and ability to morph, depending on the circumstances. And it has been around for a long time, and like a cockroach, antisemitism never seems to die. In some situations, Jews are assailed as crooked and greedy capitalists, while simultaneously being a fifth column of communists. In other situations, Jews are godless atheists, or people without any morals at all, while sometimes they are religious extremists, following the archaic strictures of Jewish law.

So, then, it is without much surprise that even in sports and entertainment, antisemitism continues to be given a massive platform, amplified and shared around the world.

Find out more in episode 4 of The Honest Report with Mike Fegelman. Please subscribe to our podcast, leave a review and share our show.  If you're interested in sponsoring a podcast, please go to the HonestReporting Canada website.

Critics of Israel claim the Jewish state deserves little credit for vaccinating the Palestinian population, because it was Israel’s responsibility and obligation all along to do so. Despite the fact that this is emphatically not the case, but this entire argument really misses the biggest problem. And that is that while the Palestinian Authority and Hamas have always been happy to paint Israel as the biggest human rights abuser in the region, the question that the Canadian news media really ought to be asking is: how do regimes which receive billions of dollars annually in foreign aid manage to, in the midst of a global health crisis, suddenly appear to be completely unable to purchase vaccines for their population?

Spokespeople for Hamas and the Palestinian Authority and Hamas would love to say that these are cash-strapped regimes because Israel has choked off their revenue, but it turns out that this is not quite true. In fact, when it comes to lining the pockets of Palestinian leaders and paying Palestinian terrorists salaries, the Palestinian Authority and Hamas seems to have no problem doling out cash - and a lot of it.

Find out more in episode 3 of The Honest Report with Mike Fegelman.

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