4 | MARCH 7 • 2024 
J
N

from the executive director
The War of Words Must 
First Be Won at Home
R

ecently, I was invited 
to participate 
in a round table 
discussion led by Yaakov 
Katz, a senior reporter at 
the Jerusalem Post. As an 
esteemed media 
veteran, Yaakov 
speaks to 
diverse groups 
around the 
world about the 
crisis in Israel. 
Yaakov briefed 
attendees on the 
realities of what is happening 
on the ground in Israel from 
a political, military and a 
human perspective. He also 
spoke about how the war 
is being approached in the 
worldwide media, an area 
which particularly piqued my 
interest. 
Before joining the Detroit 
Jewish News, I spent the 
majority of my career in 
public relations. I have, 
therefore, always been 
fascinated by how people 
communicate, particularly 
about difficult issues. If 
there is one important lesson 
I learned during my 25 
years as a communications 
professional, it was that 
words matter. 
As such, one of my biggest 
frustrations about the war 
in Israel is how our country 
has been represented in the 
media. Countless stories in 
the mainstream media vilify 
Israelis while classifying 
Hamas, not as the terrorists 
that they are, but as freedom 
fighters and victims. It 

is enraging. After all, for 
many, perception is reality. 
So, how do we go about the 
seemingly insurmountable 
task of changing that 
perception, both in the 
media and beyond? 
I was later able to catch 
up with Yaakov one-on-one 
where we discussed these 
issues and more.
Yaakov said people ask 
him these questions quite 
frequently, and his response 
was simple. “The greatest 
enemy that we face is 
ignorance,” he explained. 
“There are a lot of people, 
including Jewish people, who 
just do not know the facts. 
We have kids in schools 
who do not know the basics 

about Islam or our history. 
Then they go to college, and 
they do not understand why 
people are chanting intifada 
and occupation at them. So, 
before we go and preach to 
the media and to the whole 
non-Jewish world that they 
should be more sensitive and 
smarter, what about taking 
care of what we are doing in 
our own homes? 
“It’s about knowing the 
basic information. It’s about 
knowing the history. It’s 
about knowing the context. 
It’s about knowing the story 
of the different rounds of 
peace talks and what went 
wrong and why they didn’t 
work. This isn’t happening in 
a vacuum. That information 

is sorely lacking in so many 
people.”
Yaakov went on to stress 
that we all have the ability to 
speak up and to help spread 
a message. “If we care, we 
can’t sit on the sidelines 
today,” he said. “We all are 
a platform. Everybody plays 
a role, everybody has a 
voice and everybody has an 
opportunity to help spread 
the message that they think 
needs to get out there about 
Israel. 
“The deep-seated bias 
and double standard against 
Israel is not something 
that can be changed easily. 
And it is going to be a 
massive uphill battle. But 
we shouldn’t give up and we 
should continue to try. But 
we should also recognize 
that we don’t need to go after 
every headline in the New 
York Times. We should really 
focus on doing what we can 
to get that message out. And 
we all have opportunities. 
We could all speak to people. 
We could all spread the 
message on our social media. 
Everyone can do something. 
Everyone has an opportunity 
to play a role that can be 
significant and important.” 

Marni Raitt 

PURELY COMMENTARY

Yaakov Katz was previously the editor-in-chief for the Jerusalem 
Post where he is now a senior journalist. As an expert on Israeli 
military and defense, he is a regular guest pundit on national 
and international news outlets speaking about the crisis in Israel, 
and he is also the author of Shadow Strike: Inside Israel’s Secret 
Mission to Eliminate Syrian Nuclear Power and co-author of two 
books: Weapon Wizards — How Israel Became a High-Tech 
Military Superpower (with Amir Bohbot) and Israel vs. Iran — The 
Shadow War (with Yoaz Hendel). 

