""Then Ayala Hasson turns to the bus driver in Be'er Sheva and offers him to describe the attack in his own language ("Describe in your own language") - and then the bus driver describes the event exactly in Ayala Hasson's own language, and even is precise and opens with wishes for health and healing for the victims. Why did Ayala Hasson imagine that there was a difference between her language and the bus driver's language?" [Adam Baruch, Communication, p. 14].
This brief description largely characterizes what is happening in the media, in newspaper editorials, but also on the street these days: everyone is trying to speak the language of the media. Everyone is telling the same narrative, and everyone is offering the same rituals.
What is the language of the media? Who determines it, and what happens to those who deviate from the new conversational norm? It depends on who you ask and when.
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In other words: there are the days before the ground entry, the executioner's body, and the days that follow.
In the early days of the operation, everyone knew that Hamas had to be crushed from the air. The Air Force, aided by brilliant intelligence, located the whereabouts of Hamas terrorists and terror leaders, and eliminated them with admirable systematicity. "The Air Force identifies the target with the help of intelligence, and launches a missile at the sources of the fire," the boy from the small yeshiva in Modi'in Illit would explain to his friends. In those very words.
The commentators all also know how to say that there is no desire to enter Gaza. Even if there is, 'it is a limited entry.' Two or three days at most.
Who are these commentators? Since the major news channels have not yet replaced their key people, I take the liberty of revealing that these are the same people who said only about a month ago that the IDF would find the three kidnapped boys within a few days, and close in on the kidnappers, since 'they have nowhere to run.' As is known, the boys were found by chance by civilians 18 days later, and the kidnappers are still walking around freely.
These days, the discourse on a 'ceasefire' is still considered legitimate. No one wants to enter Gaza, and commentators know how to talk about the many unnecessary victims that could be piled up in a guerrilla war waged face-to-face. Netanyahu accepts the ceasefire, and even the boy from the small yeshiva in Modi'in Illit knows how to say that 'the ceasefire is the wisest step from a political perspective.' In those very words.
In the meantime, Hamas has indeed been 'severely hit,' as commentators say, but for some reason the missiles continue and its heads have not yet crawled out of the hole. Then comes the second phase.
In the second stage, the body of the operation, the discourse suddenly turns - to talk about tunnels. Where were the tunnels - the terror tunnels - during the ceasefire three days ago? Why is it that the fact that the residents of the south complained for years about their fear of any sound of digging, suddenly no one remembers?
Meanwhile, the guy from the small yeshiva in Modi'in Illit knows how to talk about the 'strategic threat' of the tunnels and the fact that 'if we didn't destroy them with necessary ground operations, we would encounter a 'mega attack.'' In those exact words.
These days, the talk about the ceasefire is already taking on a connotation of hesitation. 'A ceasefire will benefit Hamas. It will arm itself in the meantime, and also cut out political coupons,' the boy from the small yeshiva in Modi'in Illit will say. In those very words.
In the meantime, it is also forbidden to voice any opinion that is not consensual, or in other words, a statement that is inconsistent with the line that Naftali Bennett, armed with a short shirt and formerly a commando, leads in his interviews with CNN and Al Jazeera. The fact that between the disgusting Gideon Levy, Bennett and Lieberman, there is another spectrum of opinions has completely disappeared from the media discourse.
What will be the third stage? If, God forbid, the campaign continues, the number of casualties increases, and the Hamas leaders continue to fight without considering (how surprising) the deaths of their hundreds of women and children, Netanyahu will become one of the most hated people in the system. Something like Olmert in the Lebanon War.
The man who has been considered by commentators, and hence by all of us, to be a balanced, measured, non-aggressive, and calculated man, will in a few days become, by commentators, and hence by all of us, hesitant, fearful, spineless, and responsible for the failures that preceded the war, and all of them will be remembered with longing in the late Sharon, the initiator of the disengagement.
Even the boy from the small yeshiva in Modi'in Illit knew how to say, 'We are missing the figure who could constitute a strategic weight with real deterrence against Hamas.'.
In these very words.
