Media Bias & the Collapse of a Democratic Pillar: Chris White Reports for EU Today from Tel Aviv

I was sitting at a table in the Kentish Town of Deal last week and got talking about my upcoming trip to Israel. The couple at the next table informed me that they are Jewish and living in constant fear due to anti-Jewish attitudes.

Mike’s Bar, Tel Aviv

In part they blamed it on biased media coverage of events in Israel.

Today I found myself sitting at a table it Mike’s Bar in Tel Aviv and talking to a Jewish couple at the next table. They told me that although life may appear normal they have a permanent sense of danger.

The Israeli couple declared that anti Jewish attitudes are rife in the UK and across Europe and blamed increasing racial hatred on the media and biased false reporting.

As a member of a multi racial and mixed religion group of journalists on a fact finding visit to Israel I am repeatedly hearing negative comments about the media, and particularly towards that of the UK.

We were informed by experts that a British government decision to stop Israel being supplied with weapons that were considered to have been responsible for Palestinian civilian destruction in Gaza was due to “biased misreporting by the media”.

The news has wider implications, and came from Ilan Babli, the Marketing Director of Israeli Aerospace Industries (IAI).

His briefing made clear that one of foremost weapons development companies that made a net profit of $185 million and had a revenue of $2.5 billion in the first half of 2024, is now working on “replacing” the weaponry that Israel has been denied by the UK with their own version, (likely to be superior).

I should make clear that I am a minor figure in a growing campaign to restore media standards in the UK, and the increasingly biased reporting which is a major factor in the destruction of our democracy.

When I asked Mr. in response to his oblique remark about the media whether he blamed the media for the British government’s decision he replied in the affirmative, and his personal anger was obvious.

More importantly he commented that “After this war we will have new technologies that have not been seen before in the world. We are a company that makes changes. The things we do are for good reasons.”

He predicted that “Defence budgets will increase around the world because that is where we are at. What we see on TV and what we hear is not the way things really are. the media have become very problematic”.

Heartbreaking stories.

We were briefed by survivors of the October 7th attacks. Each of them was critical of the international media. We visited Kibutz where huge numbers of people died horribly and that have had to be abandoned because of drone and missile attacks from both Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.

According to reliable reports drones and missiles have been launched with one landing near Tel Aviv since we arrived.

We were taken to a top secret Iron Dome base somewhere in northern Israel and met with young computer experts who have been efficiently taking out drones and missiles in very large numbers using their counter missile systems.

But they reported that Hezbollah is using low flying UAV missiles that can twist and turn in flight and are almost impossible to eliminate using current systems that only fly upwards in a high arc.

At a meeting in the top secret Israel Aerospace Industries headquarters we were told that work is moving apace to develop a system that will cope with these new UAV threats.

This morning I was informed that a UAV fell near Tel Aviv while I slept in my hotel.

I turned on the television to hear a British International television news broadcast and was amazed to hear the Israeli Ambassador to the UN being aggressively interrupted because civilians had died in an Israel attack on Beirut.

There was no mention of attacks by Hamas on Israel.

Nor was there any mention of the fact that Iran has supplied a phenomenal amount of rocket and drone weaponry to Hezbollah in Lebanon. Media bias or lazy reporting? It’s either one or the other.

There is a golden rule in traditional responsible reporting that ALL sides of a situation must be reported. Anything less and it becomes biased. The reporting of the conflict in Lebanon will go on but if anyone is listening perhaps the people who have had to abandon their homes, have lost family and friends should be quoted in the same report.

On the political front, where the standards mentioned above amount to fair and balanced reporting, correspondents and presenters should investigate the information given to me over a week ago that Israel has been negotiating for an agreement with Lebanon to include the demilitarisation of its southern region but that Lebanon has been locked into deals with Iran and Hezbollah.

If it helps they should call Dr Michael Milshtein, head of the Palestinian Studies Forum – Dayan Center, TelAviv University.