At this point I'm becoming wary of many of the tweets about what's happening in Israel. I keep seeing context-less photos and videos from blue checkmarks—partisans of both sides of the conflict—that make stunning conclusory claims that are not linked to any major-media reporting.
Still images not linked to reporting can be misleading or they can be representative. There's just no way to know from simply seeing one on Twitter. Likewise, video that shows a building being destroyed is awful at one level if it's occupied and another if it was evacuated first.
One thing is clear: the violence must stop. Now. Aggressive actions that target civilians or create an identifiable risk of civilian casualties must stop immediately. Good-faith brokers need to be on-scene to push diplomacy and aid workers and UN observers should be present also.
The men who made these events happen—a group that prominently includes Benjamin Netanyahu and Trump—should be held to account. And IMO the world needs to move more aggressively than ever before to compel the parties to a resolution. No one can afford another generation of this.
I'm tweeting this because I keep seeing images and videos that shock my conscience—almost always of violence perpetrated by Israelis. My view of the Israeli government has been venomously critical for years. Even so, I have to keep reminding myself not to RT context-less media.
This is fundamentally a journalism issue. There need to be enough reporters on the ground to report tank/troop movements and missile strikes via published reports—not just the retweeting of images/videos from accounts unaffiliated with the journalists. I fall into this trap, too.
One general comment I'll make is that disproportionate responses to attacks—where one side kills 10 civilians for every 1 of their own killed—haven't brought peace to the region for 70+ years. Yet Netanyahu offers this bloody catharsis for what is clearly his own political gain.
Citizen journalism of the old kind—I'm writing a book on the new kind—is valuable: people using their cell phones to capture events few others are seeing. But I wish I and everyone else in media remembered more than I or they do to put warning labels on any unverified multimedia.
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