The Bottomless Demand for Stories of Israel’s Malevolence

The tell in this piece is the word “bottomless.” Not “heated,” not “contentious,” not “hard to verify in wartime.” Bottomless. That’s the appetite the author is describing: a constant demand for fresh proof that Israel isn’t just fighting, but uniquely evil. And once you notice that hunger, a lot of the last year of coverage snaps into focus. The most lurid claims travel fastest. The careful corrections crawl, if they come at all. Outrageous claims are not bugs in the system. They are the product.

We’ve watched officials and journalists pass along stories that should have triggered basic skepticism, and instead they got polished into moral certainties on social media by lunchtime. It’s never “we don’t know yet.” It’s always “we know exactly what this means.” The piece argues, rightly, that some people in power have learned there’s a reward for feeding the narrative: fame, fundraising, influence, a new seat at the table. If the story makes Israel look monstrous, the burden of proof mysteriously shrinks.

None of this requires pretending Israel is perfect or that war is clean. It requires something far more ordinary: the same standards we demand everywhere else. Verify. Slow down. Admit uncertainty. And yes, apply that standard to Hamas propaganda, NGO press releases, and anonymous “officials” the same way you’d apply it to an American sheriff’s office or a corporate PR shop. When the press fails that test, it doesn’t just smear Israel. It poisons public trust, then acts shocked when people tune out. Credibility doesn’t survive a one-way skepticism.

For Americans, including conservatives who have been told for years to “trust the experts,” this is familiar. We’ve seen how a preferred storyline can become a conveyor belt, and anyone who taps the brakes is treated like a moral suspect. That dynamic is why so many voters responded to Trump in the first place, because he didn’t pretend the media class was neutral when it plainly wasn’t. If the goal is real accountability and fewer civilian deaths, start with reality. Stop rewarding the most sensational version of events just because it flatters your politics.