The New York Times Excuse

The New York Times Excuse

April 20, 2010

Even in the absence of a day with headlines on incursions into Gaza, missile deliveries to Hizballah, political scandal, or espionage, the New York Times never misses an opportunity to write plaintive articles about Israel. That Ethan Bronner’s article appeared on Israel’s independence day makes it all the more obvious that any cause for celebration in Israel can be turned into one of desperation by the lords of media.

Bronner’s article (“Mood Is Dark as Israel Marks 62nd Year as a Nation”) takes Israel’s day of Independence as an excuse to extract quotes from some of the most despondent Israeli editorials and global opinion polls, and hawk them as truths. The thesis of the article: the mood in Israel is dark, very dark. According to Bronner there is a “darker than usual” mood in Israel, which enjoys “bipartisan quality” support.   If this were indeed the case, one would expect a thorough explanation for this malaise. But that is the point. Malaise is a function of inertia; it is a product of paralysis, pathology of sorts.  What is happening in Israel is just the opposite.  This is not a news piece, nor a “memo from Jerusalem.” It is just another excuse for peddling despondent stories about Israel masquerading as truth.

As for the reasons of this despondency: a maniacal Iranian regime threatening Israel’s existence, Syria’s delivery of scud missiles to Hizballah, and a sense that Israel is again being fronted with the responsibility of confronting Iran, these hardly figure into Bronner’s piece. Instead, there is a quote from a Ha’aretz editorial, accusing Israel of  “wallow[ing] in a sense of existential threat”, or anecdotes about Israel’s materialist culture. 

It’s no surprise Bronner didn’t look further. That would have justified a cause for celebration. That Israel’s economy continues to beat out OECD countries, leading by more than one percentage point in forecasted growth. Or that Israel is one of only two countries, which has raised its interest rates since the collapse of Lehman. There is also its precision-strength deployment of a mobile hospital for treating Haitians, which makes UN units look like Middle Age “blood letting” modules. Or that Israel ranks as the leader in venture capital funding per capita in the clean tech space. Also, Israel’s benchmark TA-25 stock index has surged more than 50 percent in the past 12 months buttressed by newfound hydrocarbon deposits. Israel has also reduced by 1/5 its consumption of water this year. But these were articles that appeared only in the last month. The notion of good news in Israel is just too much for the New York Times to bear.