The feeling on the street in Israel
The media accuses us of genocide, but it's simply not in our upbringing or our military training.
Life in Israel continues to be characterised by disbelief. When the rulers of Gaza brutally attacked Israeli innocents in 2023 and retreated to their tunnels, we entered a psychological tunnel of our own, from which we have yet to emerge.
Local news reports announce the number of days since the war began. At the time of writing, Israeli hostages remain in Hamas captivity. Released hostages testify to starvation, torture and sexual abuse at the hands of Hamas. Yellow ribbons are everywhere. Daily rallies countrywide demand a deal, any deal, for the safe return of the hostages and the soldiers sent to Gaza to find them. 
We feel betrayed by the international media. Attacks on Israelis are presented as justified while Israeli suffering is ignored. The media accuses us of genocide, but it’s simply not in our upbringing or our military training. The same cannot be said of Gazans; every soldier I’ve spoken to has told of bedrooms in Gaza with weapons and children’s books inciting the murder of Jews.
Genuine Palestinian distress is devalued by media fabrications: a syndicated picture of “starvation” in Gaza showed a child with cerebral palsy and hypoxemia. There is a mountain of similar false reporting.
Accusations of apartheid rile me. As a lawyer, I worked with Arab attorneys and appeared before Muslim judges in Israel. In Edinburgh, I asked a protester if and where he had seen segregation in Israel, which he insisted was endemic. It was clear he’d never been. “Ach, you’ve been brainwashed by the Zionists!” he responded. And there’s the rub. People believe whatever supports their preconceptions, which often come from the media. They are unaware that many Palestinians are Israeli citizens, that Arabs, Muslims, Druze and Bedouins serve in the IDF, that numerous Arab countries are allied with and support Israel in its fight against Hamas. But they equally refuse to see that disruptions and violence in their own societies are caused by mobs crying Free Palestine, and not by Israelis or Jews.
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