According to Jewish tradition, the key to God redeeming the Jews from Egypt was our crying out to him. Pesach literally means “the mouth that speaks.” As an ex-pat American, free-speech is deeply ingrained and any attempt to take it away raises the alarm. I really feel that we are on the cusp of the final redemption and the biggest battle will, like in Egypt, be fought over speech.
Free speech is currently in serious danger. This seems counterintuitive as the internet has allowed each individual to send his words out into the world in a manner never before possible. But it is precisely this power of the masses that endangers freedom of speech.
As a journalist, I am fighting against a wave of criticism. To be candid, serious introspection shows that some of the criticism is justified. I need to improve my journalistic standards, writing less click-bait and more stories focused on my mission as a servant of God to bring light into the world.
But almost all of the criticism I get is not what I cannot write or that what I wrote is inaccurate. Almost all of the criticism is what I SHOULD have written, that what I wrote is “fake news” because I did not present a different story (even after I demonstrate that my facts are accurate). My articles are fake news because they support a certain narrative.
Intellectual honesty demands that I see all sides of an issue. Aristotle said (and my rabbi quoted this) that It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it. My most inspiring study partners and friends are those who show me things I never considered or was aware of.
But, as a journalist, there is no requirement to present all sides of a story, though sometimes (only sometimes) it makes for a better article. Very few media present both sides today. When I write about Israel, I see it as a personal mission to shed light on the lies that the mainstream media perpetuates. Judea and Samaria are NOT occupied territories. The international laws that try to claim they are illegally occupied do so unsuccessfully and express a double standard that is applied ONLY to Israel. The Temple Mount is NOT holy to Islam. Palestinian is a made-up term. And a man (woman or child) that gets shot while in the act of trying to kill or actually killing someone else is not a SUSPECTED terrorist.
It used to be that news WAS the fact check but now news has to be fact-checked. So fake news is now defined as anything that does not entirely agree with a reader’s world view. Free speech was supposed to be ensured by the constitution. Plurality needs to be present or democracy ceases to exist. A respectful exchange of ideas is the only way to grow intellectually. I am encountering people who not only try to silence me, but they tell me what I MUST say; which pronouns I must use, any agenda that is not precisely left-wing is hate speech, being republican (or rejecting any policy that falls out of the mouth of a Democrat politician) (or not rejecting every word that falls out of Trump’s mouth) necessarily means I am racist.
Yes, objectively speaking, this is ALL coming from the left-wing. I can think of no parallel from the right. When I was younger, I was a socialist and since I was so high-minded, I was secure in the belief that anything I was involved with could never become anything like the oppressive monster every socialist regime inevitably became. Now, I have witnessed how that happens. Very idealistic people who have every intention of fixing the world try to suppress my speech rather than rely on the clear reason of their arguments. Any fact or logic that does not entirely fit into their ideals is “fake news.” I am anti-science if I bring science which does not agree with their science (which is anti-scientific method if you think about it). Anyone who does not 100% agree with them, even if they 90% agree, is eaten alive. In left-wing world, blacks are racist if they do not think like what blacks are supposed to think like, black CANNOT be racist since they are black, Jews are racist unless they reject Israel and Torah, and Israel is racist for just about everything including breathing (but only Israel). I am still a liberal but liberal values can no longer be found on the left, not in Israel and certainly not in the US.
We are living in amazing times. The remarkable thing about prophecy is that it seems impossible until it happens, and then when it does happen, it appears in a totally unexpected manner even though we knew it would happen. This is what we are seeing in the headlines today.
I will continue reporting on the news and how it applies to prophesy in the firm belief it is not fake news. I will write the truth, as accurately as I can, regardless of the people who refuse to see what is happening right in front of their eyes.
