After 600 Days of War, Is It Time to Retire the Phrase 'Tikkun Olam?'

After 600 days of war, is it time to retire the phrase 'tikkun olam?'

Last night I watched an interesting exchange on Israeli television. On the sad occasion of 600 days of war, anchor Niv Raskin of Channel 12 interviewed Ilana Dayan, one of the most famous journalists in Israel and host of the highly regarded investigative television program Uvda, about the role of journalists in this ongoing crisis. Journalists do not do tikkun olam, Dayan said — they do not “repair the world.” What journalists do, in her view, …

Israeli television has turned the war into a continuous spectacle, moving between propaganda, entertainment, and the commercialization of pain.