The television and internet channel , Al Jazeera, was established to protect Qatar from countries that covet it, but along the way it became a huge media tool on any scale, crossing borders, languages and classes and having an influence on the policies of countries, fostering an anti-Israel attitude in Europe and America and radicalizing the Those who already hold anti-Israeli views.
Al Jazeera is the most influential international channel that comes from a small country called Qatar. In terms of ratings, it is in the league of CNN and BBC.”
A bill that came up in Israel recently (and was born as a result of Al Jazeera), states that if the Prime Minister is convinced that the broadcast content of a foreign channel broadcasting in Israel actually harms the security of the state, the Minister of Communications may, with the consent of the Prime Minister and with the approval of the Cabinet or the Government, order actions, such as: stopping the broadcasts of the foreign channel, closing the offices of the foreign channel, Giving an instruction on the removal of the foreign channel’s website or seizing a device used to provide content, which will not be intruded upon.
The Minister of Communications of Israel, Karai, said in connection with the law – “The Al Jazeera channel is used as a propaganda arm of Hamas. The channel encourages the armed struggle against Israel. It is impossible to tolerate that a media outlet, with press credentials from the Government Press Office and with offices in Israel, will act from within against us, Certainly in time of war. We received an effective and quick tool to act against those who use the freedom of the press to harm the security of Israel and the IDF soldiers and incite terrorism in time of war.”
What is Qatar?
A really small country, with an area half that of Israel, and a total of 400-300 thousand citizens live in it (out of 2.7 million inhabitants, most of whom are migrant workers). But as far as its gas reserves are concerned, it is placed third in the world after Russia and Iran. The smaller it is, the richer it is – a lot of money except for citizens, which leaves it with huge surpluses of money to waste.
And what does she spend her money on?
Why not?! But mainly to influence the world.
Her need to influence is beyond the ego, it is first of all for protection. Her fear of the neighboring countries who covet her rich lands is a justified fear and only protection from the US and Europe prevents all those who covet her from realizing their plans.
Qatar’s desire for global influence and the production of its security is related to the story of the establishment of Al-Jazeera in 1996 :
After the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990 (following which the Gulf War broke out), Kuwait hired the services of a leading American public relations firm, Hill & Knowlton Inc, to convince that the Iraqi invasion was against the American interest. This is after the Americans supported Iraq for a whole decade in the war against Iran.
Qatar realized that if Kuwait needed a public relations office to push its interests, it would be better for it to take its own media power. This is Al Jazeera’s main role – to make sure that no country attacks Qatar or acts against its interests. Therefore, it is also worth the huge amount of money invested in it.
Over time, Al Jazeera became a media tool that unites around it the Arab world in general – the following of Al Jazeera today crosses borders, languages and classes.
The great success of Al Jazeera in Arabic whetted Qatar’s appetite, which led to the establishment of the channel in English in 2006?
Hatred of Israel united the Arabs around – Al Jazeera
The background for establishing the channel in English is rooted in the second intifada in Israel, when the Arab world started watching broadcasts that covered the events literally around the clock, and the ratings soared. Al Jazeera realized that what unites the viewers – from Afghanistan, Jordan, Iraq and other countries – is the hatred for Israel. The coverage of the September 11 attacks in the USA brought with it a huge jump in ratings. At this point, the channel added English subtitles to its broadcasts, and in 2003 it launched an English website.
Three years later Al Jazeera was launched in English. They brought in the biggest stars, and paid huge salaries to those who joined. The money also bought the positions of those stars who preferred to align themselves with the owner’s policies in order to continue enjoying the sums they cannot earn anywhere else.
Today, the estimates speak of investments in Al Jazeera of about one billion dollars a year. These are huge sums by any standard, when the network itself minimizes advertisements.
Al Jazeera also made an attempt to establish an American channel in 2010 and thus appeal specifically to the local audience, but precisely this initiative failed. The channel was closed three years later after a rather large investment.
How does Al Jazeera’s tremendous success in English translate into numbers?
The channel reports 430 million viewers worldwide. CNN claims double the number, so Al Jazeera in English is probably the third most popular English news channel in the world, after CNN and the BBC. It is very popular in countries like Australia, Canada and the UK. The socio-demographics of the viewers is that of the global elite, a public that is mostly educated and liberal.
Attitude to Israel:
All of Al Jazeera’s articles refer specifically to the Israeli occupation. The accepted terms are ‘the occupied West Bank’ and ‘occupied Jerusalem’. At no point did they feel the need to be objective.
Their leading line – on both English and Arabic channels – is that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza (in November, Al Jazeera in Arabic aired Mirav Leshem Gonen, the mother of the abducted woman Romi Gonen, who had to hear the interviewer say: Is there evidence of murder and rape? The narrative is distinctly pro-Hamas, only in polished English.
To what extent does Al Jazeera manage to realize the real goal for which it was founded, which is to influence public opinion in the West?
Al Jazeera had exclusive access to many places that other channels did not have access to, for example Kabul and Kandahar during the war in Afghanistan. CNN had no foothold there. After the September 11 attacks, Al Jazeera was the first to broadcast tapes in which Osama bin Laden delivered his messages. In a recording broadcast on October 7, 2001, bin Laden said: America was struck by God at its most sensitive point. He wanted to voice his side, and the only ones he felt close to and trusted to see the tapes without editing were Al Jazeera journalists.”
So when Qatar and Saudi Arabia are many, Al Jazeera increases the flames against the Saudis in the way they cover them. This is how they push the Saudis against the wall, because Al-Jazeera is very popular there as well, it is a real weapon for Qatar. It is constantly readjusting itself, through it, in front of different countries, according to changing interests.
Leaders are influenced by media and public opinion, and public opinion in the West is influenced by Al Jazeera. Al-Jazeera certainly has a part in the demonstrations we have seen around the world against Israel and in favor of a ceasefire in Gaza and it has significant political influences on politicians around the world, even in countries friendly to Israel.
