How Did the Israeli Media Bring Down Bibi? A Perspective Editor Reveals Fascinating Insights

The general media reports on the outbreaks of different waves of the COVID-19 virus, often accompanied by images of Orthodox Jews. Why is this the case? To understand this deeply, we reached out to the man who has followed the general media for many years, written about it, criticized it, and even authored a book on it, journalist and writer Chanan Amior, formerly a journalist at 'Ayin Hashvi'it', now editor and researcher at the media criticism site Perspective, and author of the book 'The Workshop for Consciousness Engineering'.

"It's important to know that the images of Orthodox Jews during COVID-19 are not a one-time indication, or that these were simply the first pictures available for the news editor when reporting a new variant entering Israel. This is nothing but intentional consciousness engineering aiming to discredit the Orthodox community and associate it with the pandemic," clarifies Amior.

When asked for another example of media's consciousness engineering, the veteran journalist doesn't struggle to provide one. "There's one case that particularly stands out to me. It was when 'Yedioth Ahronoth' journalist Nahum Barnea wrote about how under the siege on Gaza, Israel was preventing the entry of hygiene products to the strip to punish its residents because they are under Hamas rule. I decided to confront Barnea and clarify the issue in depth, as the Arab saying goes: 'Confront the liar at his doorstep.' I approached Barnea and simply asked: 'Who is your source for this information?' Barnea responded that it was Amos Gilad. I didn't hesitate and asked Gilad, only to discover, to my embarrassment, that the information was not true. It's known that this isn't the first time left-leaning media outlets have done such things. And this, if you will, is the easiest and simplest way the media uses to engineer our consciousness."

This case is not isolated. "It turns out the media world is rife with the insertion of messages and thoughts, implanting the real messages it's interested in through the backdoor, often without you noticing," notes Amior. It's no surprise that this consciousness engineering focuses primarily against religion generally, and against the Orthodox community specifically. In the process, the media battles the right and acts to serve the narrative of the radical anti-Israeli left.

The 'Disabled' Who Turned Out to Be Healthy

When a friend suggested to Chanan Amior to publish media criticism columns on the 'Ayin Hashvi'it' website, he could not have imagined where journalistic writing would lead him. 'Ayin Hashvi'it' is a site identified with the left, and Amior was given a platform for publication, under what he defines as the 'pet right-winger' label. Following those writing days, at 'Ayin Hashvi'it', Amior became a journalist uncovering wordplay, distortions, and deceptive tactics used by the Israeli media on its listeners and readers.

"I engage in exposing readers to the truth behind the reports," Amior explains his activities on the Perspective website and in his book, "or as I like to call it, the lie behind the media's consciousness engineering."

The result of his many years tracking the media in Israel yielded Amior's book: 'The Workshop for Consciousness Engineering'. The incident described above with Nahum Barnea appears in the book alongside many other examples. In the book, Amior explains to the baffled reader how the media engineers Israeli citizens' consciousness through six main techniques. "In my book, I present the main techniques used by the media to engineer consciousness under the guise of news, commentary, or investigations. I believe the book's strength is not only in explaining how it's done but in its plethora of examples that vividly illustrate the grim reality we face, including exposing the lies of Israel's most senior journalists, which makes it a bestseller."

However, long before that, during his time at 'Ayin Hashvi'it', Amior managed to uncover significant events the media preferred to hide. One notable one was the story of Vicky Knafo's protest against the Netanyahu government. Knafo, it should be recalled, led a social struggle against the government. As part of this, she organized a protest march from her home in Mitzpe Ramon to the Ministry of Finance in Jerusalem. She walked the journey to Jerusalem, covering 205 kilometers over the course of an entire week. "I revealed the fact that of all the mothers who marched, only Knafo actually walked the entire distance, while the other protest participants only walked when the media covered it, and for the remaining journey, they traveled by cars and buses. Moreover, Amior exposed the fact that a mother who took her child in a wheelchair along was not disabled at all."

"These exposures greatly embarrassed the orchestrated campaign the mothers conducted against Netanyahu, then finance minister leading the government cuts, because it proved that the masterminds do have money to travel by bus or cars, contrary to their claims," explains Amior.

Additionally, the book reveals sharp divisions within the Haaretz newspaper. "There was a period when disagreements erupted between the editor-in-chief and the publisher, concerning a pilots' letter refusing orders. The editor wrote a response against the refusal, while the publisher supported it. I revealed that the editor resigned not by choice but as a consequence of his stance."

Despite his journalistic achievements, after three and a half years, Amior decided to leave 'Ayin Hashvi'it' and transition to 'Perspective'. This site, according to him, became an effective watchdog against publishing lies about Israel. 'Perspective' is a widely-read site that operates alongside popular social media accounts. "Thank *Hashem*, we succeed in influencing, publishing reports that reach major media tools in the country, and most importantly, forcing media outlets to correct distorted reports," notes Amior with satisfaction.

The Two Children 'Removed' from the Picture

Operation 'Guardian of the Walls' naturally brought the media battle against Israel to the headlines. In the most talked-about case, the well-known American newspaper The New York Times published images of children killed in the war. The images published by the newspaper included two Israelis: a Jewish child from Sderot, may his memory be blessed, and an Arab girl from Lod. Haaretz newspaper referenced the cover story in the American newspaper and published almost the same article the next day, except Amior discovered that Haaretz made a 'slight change' to The New York Times cover: as you might have guessed, Haaretz newspaper excluded the two Israeli casualties from the article.

"They featured on the entire upper half of the front page the images of the deceased children, under the title 'They Were Only Children'. Compared to the Gazan children included in Haaretz's list, the two Israeli children who were killed by Hamas fire, Ido Avigal, may his memory be blessed, a 6-year-old from Sderot, and Nadine Awad, of blessed memory, a 16-year-old from Dahmash, near Lod, were not mentioned in Haaretz. Those were the only children whose names and pictures were missing in the Hebrew version, which included only 66 names and images of the deceased children, out of 68.

Haaretz front page

"Sadly, even at the time, Haaretz showed no special empathy towards the death of the 6-year-old from Sderot, Ido Avigal, may his memory be blessed, and the front page of the newspaper the day after his passing included a succinct report of a few words, without a picture, and even without mentioning his name.

"After we identified the case, we highlighted the issue, and in response to our publication, Amos Schocken, Haaretz's publisher, was forced to address it. Schocken defended the blatant removal of the children's images with a personal attack on me, claiming it was my 'usual deceit', but the facts are clear: The New York Times listed 68 children, whereas the Israeli newspaper left out the 2 Israelis. This event ended with a rare apology."

Another of Amior's exposures that stirred controversy was when Channel 13 News published a story about Rabbi Naumberg. During the report, various statements were attributed to the rabbi, and the report depicted these statements as very negative, suggesting the cessation of funding for the institution he heads. Then Amior stepped in. "We basically exposed that they cut sentences of his," he explains. "And the statement, on which basis they decided to attack him, was made in the context of presenting the opposite stance. As a result, we managed to lead to an apology on their part, and they took down the article."

"The Orthodox Are to Blame"

Amior also addresses the most dangerous and problematic consciousness engineering ever seen in Israel: the connection made by the media between the COVID-19 pandemic and the Orthodox community. If in the first wave, it could somehow be explained by the large number of cases among the Orthodox - problems began to surface with the outbreak of the second wave of the COVID-19 virus, which occurred in distinctly non-Orthodox areas like the Hebrew Gymnasium in Jerusalem, Herzliya, and Kfar Saba. But the media, in an inexplicable move, rushed to publish stories about the renewed outbreak of the virus, featuring prominently images and footage of Orthodox Jews.

Is the fact that many COVID-19 reports were accompanied by images of Orthodox citizens an indicator of a trend? "It could have been assumed so if this 'error' occurred once, but it didn't. In many cases, by numerous media outlets, and despite the criticism hurled at these media outlets for doing so - they continued to publish footage of Orthodox Jews in items related to the COVID-19 outbreak. The picture presented by the media, both literally and figuratively, was of a clear connection between Orthodox Jews and COVID-19," Amior is convinced. "The media, under the guise of news, commentary, and investigations, is essentially brainwashing the readers through consciousness engineering."

(Illustrative Photo: Yonatan Sindel / Flash 90)

Amior has no doubt that the images of Orthodox Jews in COVID-19 outbreak reports were intentional. He completely dismisses the response from Channel 13 News after one of these incidents, claiming "the choice of images was random, and it was a human error without any intention to harm." "The images presented in media outlets are not placed there haphazardly. Additionally, choosing an image is a very orderly process that goes through a procedure before approval." For all these reasons, Amior believes that this is not a coincidence or mistake, but an intentional act. Surprisingly, despite the criticism directed at these media outlets, they continued to do it repeatedly. Amior explains that they did it for two reasons. One: their hatred for Orthodox Jews is deeply rooted and stronger than their journalistic values, and two: "because they hope we won't catch them," he says.

"It happened even when the COVID-19 outbreak didn't occur in Orthodox areas, and when you hear about an event in Dimona, and see a picture of Orthodox Jews - the image enters consciousness much more - because a picture is worth a thousand words. Moreover, a large portion of readers only browse the headlines and don't see that it's taking place in Binyamina. Instead, they look at pictures of Orthodox Jews and understand that there's another outbreak among the Orthodox."

"How Bad It Is Here"

The Israeli media holds the dubious title of having the lowest confidence in the West. Two out of three Israelis do not trust the media. "Approaching media in Israel requires a very limited trust," Amior emphasizes. "It's not for nothing that the Israeli media holds such low confidence. It earned it honestly. Many times, media outlets choose anonymous sources of questionable reliability, publishing articles based on them, resulting in collaborations with propaganda organizations under the guise of news. For instance, an organization like 'B'Tselem' can provide a prepared story to a media outlet, with an edited image of an Israeli soldier forcibly putting a Palestinian child into a vehicle - and the article will be published without the journalist verifying its accuracy in many cases. These organizations feed the media ready-made content - and unfortunately, the consumers are media consumers in Israel who struggle to identify consciousness engineering."

The flourishing of consciousness engineering by the Israeli media occurred during Netanyahu's government. Throughout Netanyahu's tenure, the media significantly took sides in the fight against the former prime minister, doing everything to lead to his downfall. How is this done? Amior presents one of many examples. "They would inflate, and even invent, negative news, while simultaneously hiding and covering up the positive news. This way, it was possible to convince the Israeli public that things are terrible here, and when things are bad - the public votes against the incumbent leader.

"In one case, a ranking of the world's strongest powers was published. The ranking was published by the University of Pennsylvania, considered one of the best and most influential universities globally. The ranking placed Israel as the eighth strongest power out of the top ten strongest nations in the world. In other cases, and in other countries, this would surely be top news, but not in Israel's media; instead, they mocked it. One media outlet described the investigation as 'not serious' and 'ridiculous.' But let's remember, we're talking about the prestigious University of Pennsylvania.

"In another instance, there was a claim in the media that Iran's development budgets were sharply rising compared to Israel's budgets which were sharply falling, and at that time – from an investigation we conducted – the picture was entirely the opposite," notes Amior.