They don’t like him.
The “they” here would be the media, American and global. The “him” would be ….take a wild guess.
For once it isn’t President Trump. There is, unbelievably but in fact, someone out there that is targeted for as much disdain from the media and the political Establishment as the President. That would be Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu.
And why is Israel’s main man so disliked? Easy to see.
The Prime Minister is no shrinking violet. A simple perusing of recent headlines illustrates the point. Samples:
From The Hill:
Delegates at UN walk out ahead of Netanyahu’s speech
The Hill’s story reported:
Screenshot via Fox News/UNTV/SnapStreamIsraeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed a nearly empty auditorium Friday in the United Nations General Assembly, as delegates walked out to boycott his speech during the high-level gathering.
Israel is increasingly isolated internationally as Netanyahu pushes forward with the war against Hamas, the militant body governing the Gaza Strip and which triggered the ongoing conflict with its terrorist attack against Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
But not so fast. Pulling a stunt like walking out/boycotting - of and at the United Nations no less - can backfire. Newsweek, it must be said, get’s it. The Newsweek headline was this:
Netanyahu’s Empty Seats Became His Strongest Prop
Bingo.
Newsweek reported:
A half-empty chamber is supposed to communicate isolation. In the diplomatic imagination, absence is a judgment. The speaker is no longer worth hearing. But modern politics has made that symbolism (and much of diplomacy’s old modus operandi) unstable. Today, rejection can be repackaged as proof of courage, condemnation slowly starts being called persecution and the establishment’s refusal to listen becomes, in the hands of a practiced populist, evidence that the speaker is saying what the establishment cannot bear to hear.
Benjamin Netanyahu understands this grammar well.
To say the least, understand the media the Prime Minister does.
He well knew that the cameras were zeroing in on him. He realized that his manner in front of those cameras had to be seen as polite and reasonable. And he also knew the wisdom so well expressed by the ancient Chinese warrior/philosopher Sun Tzu, whose words to the wise were expressed long ago when he wrote:
If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.
The Prime Minister of Israel not only knew himself and what he wanted to say. He knew the United Nations and Israel’s enemies thoroughly. He knew that his very appearance would be infuriating to Israel’s adversaries in his United Nations audience. So all he had to do was take the podium that would provide the spotlight for a speaker addressing the UN’s General Assembly. Knowing full well that his mere physical appearance, let alone the words of his speech, would so infuriate Israel’s enemies that they would do exactly what he expected them to do:
Get up and in quite made-for-television fashion walk out on him.
Not realizing that in doing so they would create in the eyes of some (but not all) a sympathy both for the Prime Minister personally and his country. A country that is seen by many as a lone fierce defender of freedom and human rights in the Middle East.
It was a classic lesson about how to behave when the television cameras are rolling.
This being the ultra-high speed 21st century, events are already rolling on to the next chapter. But all by itself the Netanyahu United Nations speech was an old television lesson re-enforced. To wit:
Be careful how you behave when the camera lights are on and the cameras are rolling. The resulting image can be, depending on how the subject or subjects behave in front of those cameras can be good - or bad - for those at the center of attention. Not to mention, when it comes to a hot button political issue, doing good or bad to the cause at hand.
All of which is to say, Prime Minister Netanyahu did his country proud in his media-wise UN appearance. As his opponents and those of his country’s very existence did not do their cause well with the cameras rolling.
In short, in the 21st century, it is way past time political leaders need to understand both the media and how whatever they do or don’t do in front of the cameras can either help or hurt their cause.
The other day, Netanyahu’s televised performance with undertones of Israel’s Prime Minister in the lion’s den of the United Nations, helped his cause. He set his speech up as The Media versus Bibi. And the media helped him win.
