In early 2023, I was invited to a briefing with the IDF chief of staff. It was like dozens of other briefings I had attended over the years. We, the journalists, were ushered into a conference room where the top IDF officer took center stage.
He delivered an hour-long presentation and then fielded questions. Out of the two hours of discussions, Hamas and Gaza occupied perhaps 15 minutes. That was it.
On the one hand, this lack of focus wasn’t surprising. It reminded me of a story I heard recently about a Military Intelligence briefing given to members of the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee just six months before October that went on for hours and concentrated primarily on Iran and Hezbollah.
As the intelligence officers were packing up their things, a Knesset member asked about Hamas.
“Nothing new,” one of the officers replied, according to members of the committee I spoke with. “They are deterred.”
This belief – that Hamas was deterred in the months leading up to October 7 – was the prevailing mindset within both the IDF and the government. The problem was that the media simply accepted this assessment at face value.
It was taken as absolute truth, without scrutiny or challenge, and it is time to admit: this unquestioning approach was negligence on the part of the press.
Consider what happened after the IDF’s operation against Hamas in 2021, called Guardian of the Walls. At the time, Israel claimed to have dealt a serious blow to Hamas by targeting what it called the Metro – a strategic tunnel complex built in Gaza over a period of years.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, along with top IDF officers like then-chief of staff Aviv Kohavi and operations chief Aharon Haliva, proudly declared that Hamas had been severely weakened. Haliva, who would later become the head of Military Intelligence, even predicted that the 2021 operation would deliver five years of quiet.
This never happened, and the quiet lasted barely two years. Yet, where were the media during this period? Sadly, nowhere to be found. Most journalists were merely repeating what they were told.
Articles and TV reports hailed the military’s achievements, praising the IDF for supposedly crippling Hamas. There was no critical analysis or questioning of these claims.
I know this because I was one of those journalists. Like almost all my colleagues, we didn’t ask tough questions or demand evidence. We believed the narrative that Israel was too strong to face any significant threat and that its enemies had been neutralized.
After the Metro bombing, I wrote a series of features on the remarkable precision-strike capability the IDF had seemingly developed. I look back at some of those reports now and realize how while some of the stories were accurate, they completely missed the real story of what was happening right in front of our faces.
We now know how that complacency ended. While there have been countless calls for commissions of inquiry within the IDF and the government, very little attention has been given to the media’s own failures.
Fifteen months after the war began, many journalists have reverted to old habits. While some were initially critical, they are now back to parroting official statements, asking few questions, and providing little real scrutiny.
Media failures
This is not what the media are meant to do in a democracy. Journalists are not supposed to simply regurgitate what they are told – whether it is claims like “Hamas is deterred” or “Sinwar doesn’t want war.”
The media’s role is to hold officials accountable, to scrutinize their policies and decisions, and to ask the tough questions that demand substantive answers. This means refusing to accept vague, unsupported statements and instead demanding critical reporting, analysis, and commentary.
The media’s function in a democracy is twofold. First, it ensures that leaders act in the public’s best interests. Second, it forces those in power to challenge their own assumptions, question prevailing narratives, and continually reassess their strategies.
This constant scrutiny helps prevent groupthink and complacency.
Perhaps if we, as journalists, had pushed back against the widespread belief that Hamas was deterred, the IDF might have conducted a more thorough review of its intelligence and policies.
If we had insisted on better answers than just “they are deterred,” the government might have felt compelled to hold serious discussions about Gaza and to pressure the IDF and the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) to reassess their conclusions.
Perhaps this could have made a difference.
I write this not because I believe the IDF or the government deliberately mislead the public, but because unchallenged assumptions lead to mistakes. The media’s role is to question authority, to challenge the status quo, and to act as a safeguard against errors in judgment.
When we fail in this responsibility, we enable flawed policies to go unexamined, creating the conditions for disasters like October 7.
Unfortunately, the Israeli media today are weak and struggle to fulfill their mission. Public broadcaster Kan faces threats of closure from the government; Yediot Aharonot’s owner is on trial with Netanyahu; Haaretz has lost significant advertising revenue due to government sanctions; and TV channels operate under heavy regulatory oversight, leaving them dependent on the state.
While these challenges are real, they do not absolve the media – owners and journalists – of their responsibility. The press must rise above these obstacles to fulfill its vital civic duty.
Consider what happened just this past week. The IDF Spokesperson’s Office invited military reporters to a briefing at the Northern Command to highlight the army’s successes against Hezbollah. And there were successes.
Hezbollah’s senior leadership has been decimated, its infrastructure in southern Lebanon destroyed, and many of its bunkers and command centers in Beirut’s Dahiyeh district lie in ruins.
However, there are also significant gaps in the ceasefire mechanism and critical questions that remain unanswered. While IDF Spokesperson Brig.-Gen. Daniel Hagari will naturally emphasize the army’s achievements, the media must approach these claims with skepticism.
It must ask the tough questions, demand accountability, and avoid simply amplifying official narratives.
Sadly, that is not what happened. Instead, this week’s headlines focused on “unprecedented intelligence penetration” of Hezbollah and the thousands of weapons the IDF captured during the war.
But is this what the public needs? Is this what the IDF needs? The answer is a resounding no. It might be what they want, but it is not what they need.
At a minimum, the Israeli media should refuse to attend unsourced briefings where officers can make unverifiable claims without accountability. Yet, once again, stories based on anonymous “officials,” “officers,” and “sources” dominated the news.
As someone who spent a decade as a military reporter, I understand the challenges of getting military officers to speak on the record. But after 15 months of war, it should be clear what happens when journalists fail at their jobs.
Has there been any soul-searching within the media? Unfortunately, no. Journalists are quick to demand that Netanyahu appoint a state commission of inquiry or call for IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Herzi Halevi to step down, but they rarely turn the lens inward.
Do they genuinely believe they bear no responsibility for the misconceptions that led to October 7?
All of us in the media were complicit. As we enter a new year, it is time to create a new media culture in Israel – one that not only has the tools to do its job but also the resolve to fulfill its democratic role.
It is time for journalists to move beyond repeating official narratives and to genuinely speak truth to power.
The writer is a senior fellow at the Jewish People Policy Institute and a former editor-in-chief of The Jerusalem Post.