By Gunnar Schupelius
War against Israel raged for a week. The reporting was unfair and full of false claims, says Gunnar Schupelius.
Israel is recovering only slowly. In a single week (May 6-13), 1,478 rockets and mortar shells fell on the small country and its residents, at a rate of up to 60 rockets per hour.
The deadly missiles were fired by the Islamic Jihad terrorist group, which has established itself in the Gaza Strip outside of Israel. The declared goal of the group is to destroy Israel and to kill and expel the Jews. It is supported by Iran.
It was a week of war, a raid. The people huddled in the bunker. And just because Israel has the most advanced missile defense system in the world, a bloodbath was prevented.
In the reporting in Germany it sounded very different. The “Frankfurter Allgemeine” wrote about “conflicts”, not about war. ZDF reported “mutual rocket fire”.
When the Israeli air force bombed the launch pads in the Gaza Strip and shot dead six “Islamic Jihad” commanders, the daily newspaper “taz” claimed that the violence “flared up”.
Everywhere it sounded as if the government in Jerusalem had instigated the war. But it was exactly the opposite: on May 2, Khader Adnan, a member of “Islamic Jihad” died in an Israeli prison after 87 days of hunger strike. Only a few hours after his death, the first rockets were thrown at Israel.
When the shelling didn’t stop, the Israeli Air Force, which has a duty to protect the country, intervened. The story was told the wrong way around or with gaps in most of the German media.
Even the federal government did not contribute to the clarification. On May 11, amid the barrage of missiles, Secretary of State Baerbock said that a “two-state solution” alone offered “a fair and long-term chance” for Israelis and Palestinians to live in peace.
It may be, but “Islamic Jihad” doesn’t want two states, only one. The other Islamic terrorist groups Hamas and Hezbollah are also pursuing this goal.
Israel vacated the Gaza Strip 18 years ago, which could long have been a thriving state if not terrorists but civilized Palestinians were in power there.
Is it normal for a country to be hit with 1,478 rockets in a week and then, if it fights back, be considered an aggressor? What country in the world put up with that? What people in the world have to live under the constant threat of annihilation?
Israel deserves fair reporting. But the view of the Jewish state in this country remains one-sided and lacks any sympathy.
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