Newspaper Fails to Accurately Report Middle East Conflict (Yet Again)

I opened the Detroit Free Press this morning and saw the bold headline, “Israeli tanks hit Syrian launcher; fears of regional conflict arise.” The article did report that the strike was in response to “a stray mortar shell [that] flew into Israeli-held territory, the first direct clash between the neighbors since the Syrian uprising began nearly two years ago” (Detroit Free Press, 11/13/12, 3a). Headlines are meant to grab attention, and this one indeed grabbed mine. But why did the headline not say, “Syrian President possibly trying to drag Israel into regional conflict”? Why did the headline not say, “Israel justifiably defends itself”? Or, perhaps more importantly, why has there been no headline in this newspaper for the last week revealing the fact that more than one hundred rockets have been sent from Hamas-controlled Gaza toward Israel? Why is the Free Press not reporting that Gaza militants (!!) are now asking of Israel a cease-fire so that Israel will not respond militarily? And why am I feeling certain that, if Israel chooses to defend its western board, somehow Israel will be labeled the aggressor in the situation? Why is it that, in recent decades, Israel always seems to get blamed for battles it did not start and accused of wars it hopes only to end?

In our Torah portion this week, Parashat Toldot, it would be easy to blame Israel as well. Israel—or as he was known at this point in Genesis, Jacob—sees that his brother Esau has no interest in the birthright that he, Esau, has inherited as the first-born son of Isaac and Rebecca. This was, of course, the very same birthright that Isaac inherited as the “rightful” son of Abraham: a product of Abraham’s special, unique covenant with God. The p’shat, or simple, plain meaning of the Torah text, suggests that Esau came back from the outdoors “ayyef.” In Modern Hebrew, ayyef connotes “tired,” but the Etz Hayim Chumash among others translates it as “famished”—in desperate need of food and drink. What did Jacob do? Rather than offer his famished brother nourishment, Jacob asks Esau to sell him the birthright. “I am at the point of death,” Esau responds, and conceded to Jacob’s demand of the birthright in exchange for food. It would seem, then, that Jacob practically “stole” the birthright from his brother.

Our rabbis, however, explain the text differently. They argue that a more nuanced-read suggests that Jacob understood his brother’s character—anger, faithlessness, trouble—and knew that he, Jacob, must act for the sake of God and their family’s descendants. Jacob valued the birthright far more than Esau ever did or would. And perhaps Jacob was told by his mother Rebecca of God’s revelation to her: “Two nations are in your womb, two separate peoples shall issue from your body; one people shall be mightier than the other, and the older shall serve the younger” (Gen. 25:23). We have to be very careful, our rabbis suggest, in only looking at a snippet of information; it might not reveal the whole picture. Jacob was surely the one intended to become Yisrael.

Like the story of Jacob and Esau, the Middle-East conflict has many layers and a long history; it is a complicated and centuries-old. What a shame that newspapers like the Free Press would use an attention-grabbing headline such as Tuesday’s or others that would convey half-truths and perpetuate broad misconceptions. Let us so work to educate our friends and our community to the whole picture of what is happening in the Land of Israel, so that no one will be misled by inaccurate snippets of information. And let us pray that the day will come soon when Israel, the country and the people, will live in both peace and security, and that every person—Jew and gentile, Israeli and Arab—will be able to sit under his vine and fig tree and none shall make them afraid.