European Media Hostility to Israel Has Anti-Semitic Roots
By Tom Gross

A "pretty strong degree of anti-Semitism" in Europe is at the root of the hostile coverage Israel receives in parts of the European media, media mogul Rupert Murdoch said on Thursday.

Murdoch, owner of broadcasting and print media throughout the world, was in Israel as part of the state's 60th birthday celebrations. He made the comments in an interview with The Jerusalem Post.

Murdoch added: "If you go to the BBC, the French press, places like that - they start as hostile, and it's very difficult to overcome. But you've just got to press on and do what you can."

Almost the only prominent media in the world that give Israel a fair hearing are those belonging to Murdoch: Fox TV, The New York Post, The Wall Street Journal, the British tabloid The Sun. Even Murdoch, however, has at times had to struggle to keep some blatantly anti-Israel coverage, occasionally bordering on the anti-Semitic, out of his European media, which includes the Sky News network and The Times of London.

And the Fox News ticker tape refers to Palestinian terrorists who bomb Israeli towns as "militants," while terrorists elsewhere in the world are referred to by it as terrorists.

Impressed with Israeli Spirit and Resilience

Rupert Murdoch was in Israel recently for Shimon Peres's "Facing Tomorrow" presidential conference.

In a briefing that I attended in Jerusalem, Murdoch praised Israel for using its "human capital to make up for the lack of natural resources and help carve a modern society and a technological leader out of desert."

To help maximize that Israeli human capital, he said he would join a task force that would explore setting up a new Jerusalem high school for technological excellence together with Mort Zuckerman, owner of the (rival) New York Daily News, and Leslie Wexner, owner of Victoria's Secret and other clothing chains.

Murdoch, 77, also said he has spent two days before the conference "privately walking the streets of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem" and had been very impressed with the Israeli spirit and resilience and the progress the country had made.

However, he noted, "Israel has this huge problem of hostile neighbors, financed and promoted by an Iran which has unlimited money and is led by Islamic extremism."

"Islamic extremism is going to be around for a long time," he added. "The greatest danger is if nuclear weapons were to fall into the hands of non-government extremists, who wouldn't hesitate to put a bomb onto Tel Aviv or New York City. That's by far the biggest danger to the world."

<<<

European Media Hostility to Israel Has Anti-Semitic Roots By Tom Gross

European Media Hostility to Israel Has Anti-Semitic Roots
By Tom Gross