I was born in Israel, and I am happy to live there now. But I grew up in America, I was raised American. I went to school there and I spent my formative years there. In many ways, I still see myself as an American. I make it a point to vote in every election. I keep up with US politics. And even though it’s been ages since the city gave me anything to feel proud about, I still consider myself a proud son of Portland.
So, what I have to say, I say not only as an Israeli speaking to a different people, but as an American speaking to my own.
This war has changed a lot of things. For Israel, except for discovering the wonderful inner faith and outer strength of its soldiers, most of these changes haven’t been for the better. But it’s changed a fundamental aspect of America as well. The war has led to a number of unpleasant firsts for Israel, but it is also the first time in a war that the American people are willingly relying on information coming predominantly from its enemies.
However much the country might try to turn a blind eye to it, the fact remains that Hamas is America’s enemy. Among those murdered on October 7th were Americans. American citizens were among the kidnapped, and five remain in captivity to this day.
Hamas has consistently sought to publicize its plans for the future of the United States, openly warning that “The West is next.” A simple look at the protests and riots happening around the country should be enough to prove that Hamas is actively seeking to bring down the United States as well as Israel.
Besides being a direct nemesis, Hamas is also acting as a proxy for Iran. This is the same Iran that proudly chants “Death to America”, a country it refers to as “The Great Satan”. Iran has made no secret of its desire to see America eradicated nor of its support for efforts towards that end. It has poured billions of dollars towards achieving that goal, with Hamas no small recipient. Hamas is only too happy to help the cause. Clearly, whether or not it’s in direct conflict with the United States, Hamas sees the American people as its enemies, and has shown that it’s willing to act accordingly.
This doesn’t just mean that America is accepting news from journalists whose country of origin is at war with the US. It is the journalists themselves who are at war with America. Multiple major media outlets, such as Associated Press and Reuters employed Palestinian Arab journalists who were on the spot during the October 7th invasion and massacre. A report by media watchdog HonestReporting found that not only did these journalists have prior knowledge of the impending genocide, but some were active participants in it.
Recently, rescued hostage Noa Argamani was revealed to have been held captive in the home Abdallah Aljamal, a cameraman, editor, and reporter for Al Jazeera.
The very journalists who fight the war on Hamas' side go home the same night to report on it.
And despite the fact that Hamas is openly in conflict with the United States, Americans see nothing questionable about using this same Hamas as a primary source of information. It’s an astounding change in policy. It would be like Americans in the Second World War getting their information primarily from the Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda and the 3A Movement. Or if America received its information on the Vietnam war from the Viet Kong.
Yet since the war began, American media outlets have consistently relied on information from such tainted sources as the Gaza Health Ministry, under the direct control of Hamas. They even take information from Hamas itself, either directly or through its network of spokespeople in the West. This is like learning about 9/11 from Osama Bin Laden, but it seems that in a growing segment of the American community, this is also becoming the preferred source of information.
The result has been a never-ending series of fabricated horror stories about alleged Israeli atrocities. Stories which, without exception, have been proven to be lies. The Al-Ahli Arab Hospital explosion, the forced starvation of the entire Gazan population, the rape of Arab women by IDF soldiers, the fire that killed civilians at Rafah. All of these were reported as facts by the American media. And all of these were indisputably disproven, something which was then ignored by this same media, who instead chose to move on to the next lie.
It's not even Israel that disproves many of these claims. The U.N., after vilifying Israel for months claiming that it has killed over 30,000 citizens, was forced to admit that even according to its own research, the numbers were less than half of that, and most of those were likely Hamas militants. Yet U.S. media that reported the original statics as facts never issued an apology for the damage those claims caused.
Critics try to argue that this is actually an evolution in journalism. They dust off the old chestnut that “there are two sides to every story.” But a lie is not one side of a story and this reasoning also ignores the important detail that the media, in fact, consistently only portrays the side of Hamas.
Worse still, the media betray the very principle of what journalism is. Journalism is not about presenting every opinion on an issue. It's not a forum designed towards providing a place for every voice to be heard. Journalism is about investigating every aspect of an issue, discovering the truth, and presenting that verifiable truth to the public. If one person says it’s raining and another says that it’s sunny, the job of a journalist is not to report both observations, it’s to look out the window and report the weather.
For Israelis, this is nothing new. The media’s biases against the Jewish state have been unambiguous for decades. In every war, Israel takes it as a matter of course that Western media will do whatever they can to attack and vilify the Jewish state, with the truth becoming just another casuality.
But it marks a turning point for Americans. Now that the American people themselves are directly affected, at times the targets of these attacks, will they sit back and not only allow these attacks to continue but accept them as the single source of truth?
I see myself as an Israeli and as an American. And this shocks me . As an American, I have to ask why our media outlets are siding with our enemies. Until now, this would have been considered sedition and those involved would have been found guilty of treason. We as Americans must demand answers and hold those responsible accountable.
And as an Israeli, someone watching this from the outside, I have to ask Americans, why are you letting this continue? Your own media has become willing to cooperate with an aggressor against your country while you sit idly by. Why are you allowing your once great journalistic institutions to erode? Why are you passively sitting by and accepting the propaganda of those who want you dead?
The fourth estate has become the fifth column. Why are you letting the column stand?
It's up to the American people to fight to restore journalistic integrity in their institutions. It won’t be an easy fight and will likely require a good deal of soul-searching as to how it could have been allowed to get this far. But it’s a fight that’s worth having. Because in the end, it’s up to the American people to decide how their story will be told.
Ilan Goodman is a museum collections professional and exhibition curator. He also serves as a rabbi and educator. He made Aliyah to Israel in 2011 and lives with his wife and children in Beit Shemesh.