Robert Besser is a news editor who has worked in television and newspapers in the United States, Asia and the Middle East.
During the upcoming final phase of the Gaza war, can the Jews at last find a way for Israel to reduce the power of the international press as they spew, 24 hours per day, their toxic anti-Israel hatred?
Writing about his leftist newsroom at the American National Public Radio, in abbreviated form here is what veteran NPR editor Uri Berliner wrote in 2024, “There’s an unspoken consensus about the stories we should pursue and how they should be framed…one story after another about…racism….climate ….Israel doing something bad..... It’s almost like an assembly line.”
This statement well describes the media enemy that Israel must no longer simply blunt, but must overwhelmingly defeat.
Looking ahead to the upcoming Gaza battles to finally destroy Hamas, I hope, here are some ideas about how to defeat the foreign media, even as they seek to prevent an Israeli victory in Gaza and keep Hamas in power.
For these are the lessons in shutting down the foreign media as taken from the American and British playbooks during their wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and as far back as the Falkland Islands.
1--Prevent the transmission of all images from Gaza that harm Israel’s national interest.
This means turning off cellular and internet services in Gaza to prevent all images from being transmitted throughout the world.
And critically, as other democracies do, Israel must temporarily disable satellites that allow the transmission of phone signals, news pictures and internet from Gaza.
2--Continue to prohibit foreign journalists from entering Gaza. Again, both the Americans and British denied access to their battlefields to foreign journalists during their recent wars. And so must Israel.
3--Only allow pro-Israel international media to have contact with Israeli politicians, generals and decision makers in government.
The newsrooms of the unfriendly foreign media operate with an anti-Israel religious fervor, and it is no longer possible to expect reporting from them that will be anything except biased and untrue. While we might not be able to convince the leftist media to listen to us, Israel certainly does not have to assist them when they seek to harm us.
Also, by preventing images from leaving Gaza we will buy time for the IDF to carry out all combat objectives. For when our soldiers must move quickly before international pressure forces another ceasefire, it is then that soldiers are lost who might not have been harmed in a slower, better prepared forward movement.
Also, in today’s era of instant communications it is possible for Hamas military planners to simply tune into satellite television news to learn the movements and locations of the IDF. Israel must close down these news transmissions from Gaza.
How then should Israel respond when the foreign press and other countries scream that Israel is undemocratic and violating the rules of a free press?
First, throw these charges back into their sneering, self-righteous media faces.
The international media does not say a word about the lack of press freedoms in the 53 Moslem countries. And they don’t utter a single criticism about the lack of a free press in China, Russia, Iran, Cuba, all of Africa and most of Asia.
They only scream when the Jews act to temporarily restrict the foreign press.
So when the leftist media howls, let them know that they are applying a double standard to Israel and, in truth, that the leftist media are Jew-hating racists.
Also, we could remind the unschooled, unread journalists that democracies were not harmed when their newspapers were severely restricted and censored during World War II. Rather, press freedoms returned to normal after the war was concluded.
By the way, how has Israel been repaid for allowing the international press more freedoms to report within our country than from any other country in the Middle East?
According to a Yougov survey reported in June 2025, learning about Israel from their news media has resulted in only 13 to 21 percent of Europeans having a favourable view of Israel, compared with 63 to 70 percent whose views were unfavourable.
In giving freedoms to the foreign media, Israel mimicked western liberal values and, for our troubles these news organizations defamed and libeled us.
In my native Chicago we call this one more example of how nice guys finish last.
While the anti-Israel media coverage in past wars has been compared to a media pogrom, the lying and cheating, the defamations and blood libels spread by the international media since October 7 might be more rightly compared to Israel having been crucified by the foreign press.
Additionally, if Israel’s strategic planners want to reduce the impact of Arab and non-Arab protesters on the streets of western cities, then close down the transmission of all pictures and video from Gaza, which are the fuel that energizes this Jew-hating rabble.
Israeli media strategists must understand that objective journalism is dead.
The ideal we had of foreign reporters seeking out truth and faithfully reporting it no longer exists.
In 2025 Israel is forced to confront today’s generation of uneducated leftist journalists who believe it is a woke religious obligation to never report facts that do not support their mentally ill narratives about Israel.
Israel is in the midst of a number of wars…particularly with the media. The war we control, which is the military war on the ground, we are winning.
In the war we do not control, the media war, Israel is losing because we are up against zealots of the leftist religion who exclusively populate most international newsrooms. Unbelievably, leftist journalists will actually be criticized by co-workers if they do not publish lies and defame Israel at every opportunity, even when reviewing Israeli dance troupes or in writing about Israeli football or basketball.
And remember, the media war is still warfare. It is still about winners and losers, just like it is on the battlefield.
For generations, Israelis have repeated that they must always win on the battlefield because there is no choice (אין ברירה).
Today, we need to bring that same ethos to Israel’s war against the foreign media.
Israel should cooperate with the friendly foreign media, while blocking the unfriendly media who have loudly declared themselves to be our enemies.
Also, in today’s world Israel should behave like the superpowers and disrupt the transmission of all images coming from Gaza, as well as continue to allow no unfriendly media into Gaza.
The facts speak for themselves. We have not yet learned how to protect Israel from the hate of the foreign media.
But just as every Israeli soldier gives 120 percent, pushing harder and farther than what is believed humanly possible, so those fighting the media war being waged against Israel must take on the same fighting spirit of our combat soldiers. For there is no choice but to find ways to overcome the anti-Israel narrative transmitted by the foreign media.
For those in Israel waging this battle against the foreign news media, there must be no more going home at 5 pm. There must be no such thing as a five-day work week.
There is also no choice but to appoint leaders of Israel’s media battle who are not diplomats, but warriors, and are prepared to wage bloody war and accept nothing less than victory.
Additionally, Israel must discard its out-of-date ideas about embracing a free press while we wage an existential war. For the safety of Israel and all Jews worldwide is far, far more important than are school boy slogans about a free press.
Let us be clear eyed and realistic as we wage war against the foreign press. These news organizations have declared war on the Jewish state and every leftist newsroom in the world has become an encampment located outside the walls of Jerusalem, awaiting orders to attack and burn down the Temple.
So let us leave the safety from behind our walls and march to join the battle.
And above all, let us remember that in the media war there is no option other than defeating the enemy, because אין ברירה.
There is no choice.