Journalist: The French ‘Understood Nothing’
Ha’aretz has a fascinating feature today about Annette Levy-Willard, a journalist with the Frency daily Liberation and author of a book about the second Lebanon war, Trente-trois Jour en Ete: Chroniques d’une Guerre Surprise (Summer Rain: A Reporter’s Diary of the 2006 War Between Israel and Hezbollah). Levy-Willard recounts:
“It was important for me to narrate this in an eye-witness style,” she says. “I understood that the French, who had been fascinated by the war in Lebanon, understood nothing about it.
“On the one hand, they saw the strong Israeli army and on the other, the poor Lebanese victims. But what was in between, what came between the two sides – Hezbollah – they did not see.”
Levy-Willard, who to a large extent balances this picture in her book, stresses that French radio and TV, not press, tilted the balance in favor of the Lebanese and against Israel.
“There is some logic to this,” she says. “The footage from Lebanon looked better than that of an empty Haifa. Especially since there were numerous pictures of bodies in Lebanon – something Israelis do not permit. And a body will always be more photogenic than a pool of blood on the ground.”
Levy-Willard says the State of Israel will always lose in the French media, and not merely because of the refusal to photograph bodies.
She recalls an interview with a soldier who had just left the battle in Bint Jbail and was shaking all over, clearly in a state of trauma. Next to her stood a reporter for French radio, who completely ignored the soldier’s plight and asked him: “Don’t you feel arrogant?”
“He in no way wanted to hear what the soldier had to say,” Levy-Willard says.
“To a large extent, to this day, De Gaulle’s well-known saying about the Israelis, that they are ‘a domineering nation that is full of itself,’ is still emblazoned on the minds of Frenchmen.”
Some members of the French press are also aware of this: A critique of her book in Le Monde stated that “Levy-Willard portrays what has never been seen in the European press – the mood of the Israelis. She allows them to speak. More than that, she listens to them.”
More from SNAPSHOTS
Reuters Falsely Links Jerusalem Embassy, Two-State Solution
January 9, 2019
The Jerusalem office park which houses Guatemala's embassy Multiple recent Reuters articles incorrectly report that moving the Brazilian embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem is a dramatic move away from the two-state solution. For instance, [...]
American Lutheran In Jerusalem Affirms that IDF Soldiers Are “Stormtroopers,” Backtracks
December 19, 2018
Rev. Carrie Ballenger Smith is a pastor at the Church of the Redeemer in Jerusalem. She ministers to the English-speaking congregation that meets at the Lutheran church, which is located in the Old City of [...]
The Washington Post Ignores Antisemitic Attack in Los Angeles
November 29, 2018
The Washington Post has warned about a “rising tide of antisemitism.” But as CAMERA has highlighted, The Post’s coverage of antisemitism has frequently been selective and is often politicized. More recently, the newspaper even ignored [...]
Think Tank: Iran Was Closer to Building a Bomb Than Previously Thought
November 23, 2018
A Nov. 20, 2018 report by a Washington D.C.-based think tank, the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) argues that Iran’s illegal nuclear weapons program was “more advanced than Western intelligence agencies and the [...]
AFP Headline Casts Palestinian Assailant as Victim
November 21, 2018
Agence France Presse yesterday published a throwback headline, bringing us back to the period almost two years ago in which media outlets serially produced headlines which depicted Palestinian attackers as the victims. The wire agency's [...]
More Hypocrisy and Anti-Semitism From Linda Sarsour
November 19, 2018
In an earlier CAMERA exposé, we pointed out the self-serving allegiances and disgraceful hypocrisy of Linda Sarsour (of Women's March fame). We demonstrated how she poses as a universal activist who embraces all marginalized people [...]
Small Steps: Improved NY Times Language on Target of Hamas Rockets
November 15, 2018
Earlier this week, we pointed out how a New York Times article about fighting between Israel and Hamas neglected to inform readers that Palestinian rockets were fired indiscriminately toward civilians in Israeli towns and cities. [...]