Portrayals Of The Palestinian-Israeli Conflict In American And Iranian Newspapers

Discuss About The Portrayals The Palestinian Israeli Conflict.

There is much ideological difference between the policies of the western media and the Middle Eastern media (Brüggemann et al., 2014). Essentially the western world is liberal and the media is liberally outspoken, whereas the Middle Eastern media is conservative and most of times follows the state policies and religious decrees. The Gaza conflict is a long-drawn struggle that has been historically going on between the Palestinian state and Israel. The main ground of the conflict lies at the Gaza strip. Often it is reported in the media how armed conflict is going on in the region (Brantner, Lobinger & Wetzstein, 2011). There are Palestinian terrorist groups such as Hamas, Fatah, the Palestinian Liberation Organisation and others. The objective of all these organisations are to make an independent Palestinian State, either over the whole of Israel or over a large area greater than the present Gaza Strip.

The American newspapers claim to report the conflict in an impartial manner, however often it is seen that the media reports sometimes come in favour of Israel. Again the newspapers in the Middle East and the Iranian newspapers often show great partiality towards the Palestinian cause. The same incidents are reported in different news media in completely different tone (Fowler, 2013). The language in which the news is reported changes the dynamics of reporting. Apart from that some of the newspapers of Israel and Palestine are also analyzed taking into consideration, the reports based on the conflict.

There are various linguistic theories that can be applied to understand the impact of the language and the various objectives behind the use of such language. In fact linguistic is the science of understanding the purpose of expressing similar facts in different terms. One of the approach to the study of language is the Critical Discourse Analysis in which language is seen more as a social practice and custom rather than viewing language as a strict mechanical tool for interpersonal communication. The scholars working with this approach generally state that there is a relation between social practices which are non-linguistic and the spoken or written language of a particular society. The power relations in the society are reinforced through usage of language. Therefore, it cannot be strictly referred as a language theory but also a social theory which weighs social power relationships through the usage of language. The language that is used in the newspapers have typical linguistic features that can be distinctively separated from the language used in the books and journals, this is mainly because the newspapers use language in order to establish a particular point of view. This is especially true in societies which are driven by religion. The newspapers which have a particular ideology endeavour in establishing those by using language in particular way.

Different Perspectives on the Conflict

Sociolinguistic theory is a similar theory that combines the causes and effects of language in social context, and what is the effect of a particular society on language and linguistics. The usage of language and method of expression varies between several social groups and the way that social group has evolved with time and the major events that are associated with that particular social group. The social groups can constitute of religious groups, or ethnic groups and similar other divisions. In the societies that are dominated by religious philosophies, the news media is also seen to be having partisan views about various issues. Israel and Palestine, both of these nations are established by religious and scriptural historical injunctions.  The newspapers cannot escape the influence of religion and ethnicity while reporting incidents from these regions.

The American policy has been to provide moral support to Israel in its struggle with the terrorist organisations of the Gaza strip, on the other hand the Iranian and other Middle Eastern newspapers have been historically supporting the Palestinian cause of a greater Palestinian territory. Therefore, the newspapers of these countries had adopted a similar policy of reporting the incidents in language that serves the policy of the nation. The aim is to understand the pattern in which language is used to establish a particular viewpoint as the truth by the newspapers in terms of Palestine and Israel conflict, and the view of the

1.1 Aim- The aim of this study is to investigate linguistic features of newspapers in USA and Iran depending on their coverage of the conflict at Gaza.

1.2 Research Questions-

• How linguistic features are used by the newspapers in Iran and USA to represent conflicts in Gaza between Palestine and Israel?
• How does politics impact the linguistic features and usage of language in the media of USA and Iran while reporting the Israel and Palestine Conflict?

The background of the research is divided into three parts, which are Historical Background, Theoretical background and Contemporary scenario. The historical background discusses about the various historical events that has resulted in the situation that prevails today in the area. The theoretical background on the other hand explains theoretical concepts about the present scenario at the region and how the US and Iranian newspapers use language in their newspaper reports to depict the stories from their view point.

The conflict at the Gaza strip has a long historical context. The Holocaust during the World War II had been the killing field of the Jewish in which more than six million of the Jewish population were killed, this resulted in a worldwide desire from the Jewish community to have their own country. The Palestinian land was considered by them as their traditional mother land, this was because the scriptures of the Jewish people have such mentions. Therefore they wanted to settle in this land which was not agreed by the Arab Muslim population already living there. There was a war in which large part of the Palestinian state was now declared as Jewish territory. The Gaza strip was the land where the previous Muslim Palestinians settled. Various armed organizations had been engaging in trying to win back the old Palestinian land (Hirsch-Hoefler et al., 2016). Hamas controls larger part of the Palestine and their aim is to radically reestablish the previous political system. This aim is also supported by Iran as a state policy and that is reflected by the newspaper reports and the language of the reports in Iranian newspapers.

Linguistic Theories and their Application

The cause of Palestine as a nation has been one of the most used political agendas of Iran. The famous speech of Ayatollah Khomeini’s “Islamic Unity” underlines the need of Iran’s support to the Palestinian cause and there were underlining anti-Israel narrative in the speech and also defending the western powers from interfering with the internal policies of the Islamic nations in the Middle East and other parts of the world.  The official position of Iran has been to put the Islamic countries of the Middle East at one side of history and the United States and Israel on the other side. These are the two camps which are at loggerheads to establish their own control over the struggle on the Palestinian nation. The problem between the two camps has resulted in the international community being divided into two groups who support the either camps. There are various camps of media observers and academic thinkers who have analyzed the ways in which the western media, especially the American media has reported the conflict, and the levels of bias that characterizes the media reports. However there has been lesser research on the nonwestern media and those of the Middle Eastern countries (Gelvin, 2014). This paper endeavors in analyzing the American along with the Iranian newspapers to understand the difference in the linguistics of reporting.  

Angell (2010) investigates the novel discretionary and vital connection between the United States and Israel. Looking at an extensive variety of money related, institutional, and ideological elements that have been perceived as being compelling in the U.S.' being determined to extend help for Israel, researchers point to the lopsided media portrayal of the Israel Palestinian Conflict in the type of Israeli victimhood and Palestinian animosity: The American media scope of Israel has a tendency to be unequivocally one-sided to support Israel, particularly when contrasted and news scope in different majority rules systems. A key piece of protecting positive open states of mind toward Israel is to guarantee that the prevailing press scope reliably supports Israel and does not call U.S. bolster into question in any way… (Mearsheimer & Walt, 2012).

In February 2005 Israel, the Palestinian National Authority, Hamas and Islamic Jihad focused on a truce, which as indicated by a few imprints end to the Second Intifada. The second Intifada which is also known as the Al Aqsa Intifada. This began in late 2000, and the reason shown by the activists was the Israeli occupation on Palestinian land. This began with the incident when Ariel Sharon and the Israeli police force entered Palestinian mosque. However Palestinian suicide bombings against Israelis kept after the February truce, and opposite end-dates and in addition an uncertain end period have been proposed by others (Allen, 2012).

Objectives of the Study

Simultaneous to the Second Intifada, Israeli PM Ariel Sharon proposed the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza in 2003, which was endorsed by the Israeli government in June 2004, and the Knesset in February 2005. The one-sided withdrawal design was executed in August 2005 and finished in September 2005. Nonetheless, the UN and different human rights organizations consider Israel still to be the accepted possessing power because of its control of Gaza's outskirts, air space and regional waters (Jaeger et al., 2012)

The next year Hamas won a larger part of seats in the Palestinian authoritative decisions. The result ruffled Israel, the United States and the Quartet, and they requested Hamas acknowledge every past assention, perceive Israel's entitlement to exist, and revoke brutality; when Hamas refused, they stopped aids to the Palestinian Authority. In mid-2006 an Israeli warrior was caught by Hamas in a cross-fringe strike. The United States, in light of Fatah moves in October 2006 to shape a solidarity government with Hamas, endeavored to fix the races by equipping Fatah to oust Hamas in Gaza. In June 2007 Hamas appropriated the overthrow endeavour and took control of the Gaza strip. This worsened the situation and the operation protective edge was launched targeting the Hamas controlled Gaza strip. (Pappe et al., 2013)

Hughes (2004) states that character and interests of human beings are interwoven and indivisible ideas, currently strengthening each other. In such manner, character claims illuminate interests, which features the political idea of distinguishing proof and development of Self and Other. For instance, Ayatollah Khomeini's call for supporting the freedom of Palestine as an "Islamic obligation" shared by all Muslims is an acknowledgment of both political interests and personality governmental issues at the same time. By rising above past the limits of the country state and focusing on the Islamic standards of solidarity and fraternity inside the Muslim people group, Khomeini figured out how to move the container Arab talk beforehand lead by Arab states to a container Islamic one. In doing as such, from one perspective he recovered the Muslim personality and declared himself as "a definitive pioneer of mistreated countries." On the other hand, with calling for supporting the persecuted countries, he figured out how to assemble bolster and secure impact inside Muslim people group and to additionally grow the Iran’s political impact in the district and in the worldwide setting (Reda 2016). Personality movements can likewise happen in view of changes in socio-political interests. For instance, the Iran’s authentic talk portrays Israel and Zionism as a pioneer venture composed by the U.S. to satisfy colonialist interests in the locale and to abuse Muslims; consequently the thrashing of Israel and the U.S. is an ethical Islamic obligation concerning all Muslims. In any case, Iran shows a very key and even minded approach toward Israel and the United States, with strategic bargains regularly veering off from ideological hard-line encounters. The McFarlane embarrassment (as the Iran-Contra Affair is brought in Iran) is an early case in which it is uncovered that there were undisclosed transactions amongst Iran and the U.S. for a long time beginning 1986; another illustration is the U.S. arms manage Iran through Israel amid the Iran-Iraq war: a period when the counter west and hostile to U.S. suppositions were significantly more grounded in Iran then than they are today. In like manner, Iran's atomic arrangement is the most recent case showing a noteworthy move in the its hostile to U.S. political talk which rotated around strategic boycotting of Israel and the United States. These cases indicate how the Iran organizes its survival and political interests in pivotal minutes, regardless of whether that implied ignoring the counter west, against Israel character of the legislature (Feldman, 2012).

In 2014 the conflict reached a new height when there was a military operation that was conducted by Israel on Gaza strip took place, and there are widespread reports in the media after the violent incident (Kampf & Liebes, 2013). This mainly happened after three Israelis were kidnapped and murdered by Hamas. A huge number of people were killed from both the sides and the news was reported widely all over the media.

Linguistic features are very important in terms of delivering news in the way desired by the media house (Gee, 2014). It is often seen that the same news is reported in various media in contradicting languages which completely changes the way news is perceived. Linguistic is the study of the nature of language and how the varied use of language helps in creating dimensions of meaning within the same framework. Morphology is important in the case of the newspapers (Eckart, Riester & Schweitzer, 2012). Morphology is the systematic process in which the words are put so that they form a relationship with each other and a meaning can be derived in totality. The usage of the words in the news reports play important role in shaping the whole meaning of the news (Van Dijk, 2013). Therefore it can be said that systematic review of the morphological characteristic of the language used in the newspapers can reveal the intentions in which such language is used.

Critical Discourse analysis views language as a social practice which mainly studies how language have an impact on society and vice versa. Social practices and the Linguistic practices are directly related to each other and in this particular case it is seen that the social situation of both Iran and USA directly impact their view on the conflict of Palestine and Israel and how such conflicts are represented through linguistics. It will be seen that there are certain words that are used by the Iranian media to portray Israel in the conflict which are negative and in the American newspaper Palestine and Hamas is largely portrayed as “terrorist”. Therefore the social belief of America is reflected in such terms such as “terrorists” and “radicals” which again shape the further social belief in the USA society. Therefore Critical Discourse Analysis gives a clear idea about the social belief and perceptions.

In most of the western media Hamas is accepted largely as a terrorist organization; however, the Palestinian and Iranian newspapers often regard this as an authentic political organization. Dunsky (2008) states that the foreign policy of the United States that has been to constantly support the Israeli side is the reason that there is an imbalance of coverage about the struggle in the United States media reports. There is a lack from the side of the public that would bring the necessary changes in the way the incidents are reported in the western media. This can be one reason why still such one-sided reporting is continuing in the American media.

Likewise in Covering Islam, many authors addresses the issue of distortion in covering the Israel and Palestinian Conflict in U.S. media. They contends the United States' remote arrangement in the Middle East, and its solid connections to Israel, are the explanations behind American media outlets' propensity to cover the conflict with what they call a "subliminal awareness" of U.S. political enthusiasm, something characterizes as presses' cooperation in "American power" which thus makes its autonomy subordinate to certain outflows of steadfastness and patriotism. The portrayal of Palestinians delineate them as "unfriendly individuals of uncivilised catagory" with "neither history nor humankind". Composing years after the fact, in “American Zionism? The Real Problem” (2001), Edward Said contends that the media distortion of the Middle East area has been essentially fortified in the repercussions of the 9/11 and consequent to the U.S. mediation of Afghanistan (Said, 2003). In conjunction with U.S. remote approach in the locale, media adds to the development of open information and the upkeep of political the present state of affairs. Media complicity with government arrangements is connected to household strategy too, however, this structure is especially obvious in portrayal of the American outside arrangements: "remote news announcing enables the effective to assemble popular supposition behind the essential objectives of approaches on which most Americans have little data. In this part, news media is in charge of the arrangement of learning about the locale to people in general customers In 2003, Vizer directed a similar investigation of the New York Times and the Israeli daily paper Haaretz that exhibits that the New York Times has an all the more ace Israeli inclination in its scope of the contention than Haaretz. Like the researchers already said, Vizer joins the New York Times' professional Israeli inclination to the United States' part in the connection between Israel and Palestine as the most capable main impetus behind the contention. In a comparable report, Hila Raz (2008) looks at CNN's scope to demonstrate how ties between the administration and the media impact encircling of the IPC. As indicated by Raz's (2008) discoveries CNN has a fundamental Israeli concentration and inactive American inclination in its treatment of the Israel Palestine issue, with CNN's detailing being strikingly like U.S. outside strategy.

The primary method of the study is to collect news stories that has the theme of the conflict at Gaza mainly during the 2014. Therefore the research deals with secondary data. The articles of the news story are mainly collected from newspapers from Iran and USA. The articles are retrieved from the online archives of the newspapers which are taken for the research work. The method of research included in the process is keywords search in the internet and going through the news reports. The keywords are as follows “Gaza”, “Gaza conflict”, “Palestine”, “Israel”, and “Palestine Israel Conflicts”. The primary newspapers that are chosen for the study from Iran are “The Tehran Times” and “The Iran Daily”, and the ones from America are “New York Times” and “Wall Street Journal. The time period for investigation is the news articles which appeared in the said newspapers in the last 7 years. The scope of the materials stretch from all the news directly related to the conflict to the associated news that provides additional information.

The above four newspapers are the main source of data for this research paper. The primary research is based on these four newspapers which are from Iran and USA respectively. However to support the research and for better understanding of the real situation on ground and how these incidents are portrayed in the USA and Iranian newspaper some newspaper reports and articles are also taken and researched from Israel and Palestine itself. The newspaper chosen from Israel is “The Times of Israel”, and “Palestine Chronicle” from Palestine. Apart from that two vernacular newspapers from Iran are also analyzed as per their linguistic features and techniques in presenting the stories concerning Israel and Palestine conflict are Sharq and Kayhan.

After the keyword research was done the list of articles which was derived containing stories of the theme were many, related to the incident in each of the newspapers, however eliminating the side line stories, editorials and other secondary articles, 10 news articles were chosen from each of the sources for the detailed study.  The articles that are chosen are strictly reporting about the Gaza strip conflict and are essentially news article by their nature. The articles will be analyzed according to their language, linguistic features and overall message they put forward.

In each news story, the initial couple of passages sets the phase for the story by portraying the headliners and setting up the main characters of the article. In this respect, the primary passage of each article is the most imperative section for a news story. It sets up the fundamental topics and gives the reader data about the essential certainties and individuals engaged with an occasion. With a specific end goal to recognize performers and the measure of room, consideration, and nearness given to every, first each article is broke down to recognize the principle characters. Second, concerning the nearness of every character, the recurrence and the examples of critique and citing, coordinate and aberrant statements were tallied and broke down. Coordinate statements are the correct expressions of a speaker and are encased in quote. Roundabout statements are rewords of a speaker's words. Both direct, aberrant statements have diverse capacities yet are regularly used to lead the reader to relate to the speaker. Different elements of citing are: to depict an occasion, individual, or put, to give the foundation data, for example, the reasons for an occasion and to foresee the outcomes of an activity or occasion. As a rule cites suggest aptitude or learning on the piece of the speaker.

Keeping in mind the end goal to investigate the tone related with performers, each article was looked for the nearness of words, expressions, and marks showing negative or positive feelings. Keywords that rose up out of these subjects are: “Hamas Aggression, Blaming Hamas, Engaging Hamas, Israeli Aggression, Israeli Weakness, Israel Normalizing And Justifying Activities, And Palestinians Aggression.” At last, in a more inside and out examination, news articles were looked to distinguish other encircling designs concerning: the recurrence of saying Palestinian passing and in addition Israelis,' portrayal and embodiment of Palestinian casualties and also Israeli casualties, lastly introduction of recorded and provincial setting.

Critical Discourse Analysis does not constrain its investigation to particular structures of content or talk, yet deliberately relates these to structures of the sociopolitical setting. CDA has been utilized to look at political discourse acts, to feature the talk behind these, and any types of discourse that might be utilized to control the impression given to the group of onlookers. Therefore ‘nearness of words, expressions, and marks showing negative or positive feelings’ are analyzed by looking at the words, understanding its immediate meaning and what it implies in this particular context.

he major themes that are discussed and analyzed to get the results are as follows, “Representation of Palestinian armed and unarmed groups”, “Hamas presented as a terrorist organization”, “Israel’s representation as an aggressor”. These themes are derived by searching the newspaper articles and looking at the pattern of the news stories. The “Historicity of the conflict has been already discussed which will be further analyzed all through the paper. The themes are mainly arrived at by proper analysis of the newspaper articles and their linguistic characteristics. For example the news articles which have words and terms such as “Hamas”, “terrorist”, “terrorism” “radical” “Palestinian terror” are put under the theme “Hamas presented as a terrorist organisation”.        

The overall theme that emerged from analysing the articles from the American newspapers, is “Hamas aggression” and the themes that came out after analysing the news articles from Iran is “Hamas empowerment”. 

The various organisations that are engaging in the conflict to get Palestinian independent land are both engaging in political struggle and armed struggle (Cohn-Sherbok, & El-Alami, 2015). The main organisation is the “Islamic Resistance Movement” which is commonly known as Hamas. This organisation has won the general elections in Gaza Strip on 2006. The two primary activities which Hamas has focused upon are “giving service to the Palestinian people” and “Armed resistance to ensure freedom of Palestine” (Roy 2011).  The representation of media in US has put forward Hamas as more of a terrorist organisation rather than a political outfit. This has been done to the other organisations aiming at the same goal as Hamas. Hamas according to the reporting of the Iranian media is presented as a political party, a social movement and a government having legislative power at the Gaza strip, on the other hand the US media reduces the organisation as a “terrorist organisation” (Qarmout & Béland, 2012). Therefore, there is a stark difference between the way Hamas is represented in both the media. According to a New York Times letter from 2017 “Hamas is a terrorist organization that has perpetrated hundreds of terrorist attacks and suicide bombings, murdered more than a thousand Israeli civilians and fired thousands of rockets at Israeli cities.” (Nytimes.com, 2017). However there are articles published in the newspaper that reports from the neutral perspective as well. In an article from the same newspaper in 2018 the following lines can be quoted “Urging on Palestinians who have staged a new campaign of protests along the fence separating Gaza from Israel, Mr. Haniya likened their struggle to those for India’s independence, against racial segregation and discrimination in the United States, and against apartheid in South Africa” (Halbfinfer, 2018). Mr. Haniya who is one of the senior political leader of Hamas takes cue from nonviolent protests movements for freedom.

The keywords of Hamas and aggression was used in the articles where Hamas and violence has been used in the same context. In the United States the use of the two words Hamas and aggression or violence is seen to be most prevalent. However in the Iranian newspapers there were various point of views that were presented including charitable activities of Hamas (Wulf et al., 2013). In a Tehran times article from 2018 the following report can be considered “In a meeting with the representative of Hamas in Tehran on Tuesday, Hossein Amir Abdollahian said Hamas and Islamic Jihad Movement are two pillars of resistance against the Zionist regime, Tasnim reported. For his part, Khaled Qadoumi expressed gratitude to Iran for supporting Palestine and for its stances against the U.S. administration’s move to recognize Quds (Jerusalem) as the capital of Israel.” (Tehrantimes.com, 2018). Another headline from the same newspaper states “Leader: Negotiations with deceitful Israel will be an unforgivable mistake”. Another report from 2018 states “Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Tuesday that Iran will continue to support the Palestinian people’s resistance against the Israeli regime.” (Tehrantimes.com, 2018). A critical discourse analysis of the above lines clearly shows how Iran is continuously fuelling the propaganda of Israeli oppression on Palestine, and keeping itself officially in support of Palestinian cause. The analysis is done by searching the language and tone of the report. The phrases like “Palestinian people’s resistance against the Israeli regime” is intended to give the impression that it is the resistance of the Palestinian people against the oppression of Israeli oppression.

he Times of Israel reports in 2018 “The US ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, lashed out at Hamas Thursday, accusing the Palestinian terror group of “using children as cannon fodder,” following the deaths of dozens of people in clashes with Israeli forces during protests along with border in the Gaza Strip” (Timesofisrael.com, 2018). This newspaper report at one hand establishes the point of view that Palestine is using children to shield itself and carry on its terrorist activities, on the other hand it also establishes the United States support to the Israel side. The words like “Palestinian terror group”, “Using children”, “cannon fodder”, all indicates the objective of expressing the overall idea of the Hamas being a terrorist organisation and how they perpetrate their activities through unethical means.

The Palestine Chronicles on the other hand has reported in 2017 “A senior Hamas delegation on Tuesday began an official visit to Malaysia to take part in the annual conference of the ruling party UMNU, Quds Press reported. Headed by senior leader Maher Salah along with Ezzat Al-Reshq, Osama Hamdan, Musallam Umran and Abduallah Akrabawi, the delegation will take part in the meeting which marks the Malay party’s 71st anniversary” (Palestinechronicle.com, 2017). This reiterates the position that Hamas is one legal political entity that engages in political interchanges with international leaders. The phrase “Hamas Delegation” gives the organisation a legal and recognised political identification, a terrorist organisation cannot have a delegation, therefore such term is used. “Official Visit to Malaysia” emphasizes that Hamas is a recognised international political entity. Therefore the linguistic analysis of the reports in Palestine Chronicle proves that the linguistic features are used to convey certain meanings to the reports by each side.

n Wall Street Journal report that was published in July 28^th states “Fifty-three Israeli soldiers and three civilians have been killed in the current fighting. Rockets fired by Hamas militants with the explicit aim of inflicting pain and causing disruption to Israeli communities have caused injuries, including shock, to nearly 600 civilians.” This is again the similar stance of reporting in United States where the state policy is to reflect the terrorist nature of the Hamas. The same newspaper reports “Politically isolated after breaks with Syria, Iran and especially Egypt, and its effort at reconciling with Fatah, Hamas has all but given up on governing Gaza to focus on the battlefield. Israelis have expressed outrage that thousands of tons of concrete built a vast network of tunnels rather than schools or hospitals, but that argument has little traction in Gaza, where many see violence as the only language that works”. This clearly shows a narrative that is depicting Hamas as a violent and terrorist organisation.

There are two contrasting views regarding the conduct of Israel as a nation. The United States and Israeli media portrays Hamas as the aggressor and Israel as the victim of such aggression (Fawcett, 2016). On the other hand the Iranian and the Palestinian media portrays just the opposite picture.

In a report in April 27, 2018 the Palestine Chronicle under the headline “Amnesty Calls for Arms Embargo as Israel Continues to Kill Gaza Protesters” reports the following “Israel is carrying out a murderous assault against protesting Palestinians, with its armed forces killing and maiming demonstrators who pose no imminent threat to them, Amnesty International revealed today, based on its latest research, as the “Great March of Return” protests continued in the Gaza Strip. The Israeli military has killed 40 Palestinians and injured more than 5,000 others – some with what appear to be deliberately inflicted life-changing injuries – during the weekly Friday protests that began on 30 March.” (Palestinechronicle.com, 2018). This shows that the Israeli military is the aggressor and Israel as the state which is terrorising Palestinians. In the same way in a report on 27^th April 2018 in Tehran Times under the headline “Israeli occupation of Palestinian land central to all conflicts in Mideast: Iran”, it is reported “No political theater by the U.S. and Israeli regime can cover up the aggressive and expansion policies of this regime and its behavior towards its neighbors as the main source of threat to the peace and security in this region,” Khoshroo said in statement read at the Security Council Open Debate on “Situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian Question” (Tehrantimes.com, 2018). The tones used in reporting is the same, and the overall message that one gets after reading both of these news reports would give an impression of the aggressive nature of Israel towards Palestine and how it has captured Palestinian lands. One of the terms which is the most repeated in the middle eastern media is “Zionist”. The coverage in the media refers to all the state agents as Zionists including the military, political leadership and people. The term is perceived as positive in Israel but in a negative meaning in the Iranian and Palestinian media. In the newspaper called Kayhan words such as snake, fascists, criminals, savages, child killers are used to denote the Israeli people. The death of Israeli people is termed as “damned or cursed” on the other hand the death of Palestinians is termed as “martyred”.

On the other hand examining the reports published in the media of United States, one gets a completely different picture. “The repeated attacks through tunnels from Gaza raised the specter of underground operations on other borders. Hamas rockets reached all over Israel, and there is no protection from the mortar shells that killed two men and a 4-year- old boy in the war’s final chapter. (On Friday, an off-duty soldier injured in a rocket attack a week before died, bringing the toll on the Israeli side to 71 — 64 of them soldiers killed in action.)” (Rudoren, 2018). This is a New York Times article showing how Palestinian aggression has disturbed the balance of life in Israel. Therefore it is evident that the narrative presented by the US and Israeli media is completely different.

Newspapers from three countries, United States, Israel, Iran and Palestine were taken into consideration and the primary news articles that were analysed in terms of linguistics are the news related to the topic of Israel and Gaza conflict which has been going on since historical times. The analysis done in this case is the semantic analysis of the “from the levels of phrases, clauses, sentences and paragraphs to the level of the writing as a whole”.

To put the news articles of both the cases into critical discourse analysis, the socio-political impact of the news articles are analysed. The speeches or the written narratives that tend to influence the impression of the audience about certain issues can be understood in this approach. In both the cases, the media supporting the Palestinian cause or against it, uses the narrative to influence the audience according to their own objectives. The terms and keywords already discussed above which are used by both the media are typically reflective of this fact that how the discourse is utilised as a tool to justify one side and present oneself as victim and pose allegations on the other side. The three interpretations that can be used to conduct critical discourse analysis are micro level analysis, meso level analysis, and macro level analysis. The usage of the words and syntaxes fall into the micro level analysis and metaphors, and influential ways of narration are identified in this process. The usage of various terms like “snake, satan, damned, cursed” can be categorised in this analysis. In the meso analysis the primary consideration is the source of the text. In the above section it is found that the news presented by the media institutions of the US and Israel presents one kind of narrative, in the same way the Iranian and the Palestinian media presents a completely opposite version of the story. The macro analysis is the approach where the broad social context that result into such biases in narratives are studied.  Here the social context that plays role is the religious difference of the Palestine Muslims and the Jews of Israel.   

In terms of socio linguistics it is considered what language and what words are used in relation with the social context and environmental settings where it is spoken. Grammar, vocabulary and phonetics are studied to understand the under lining principle of the narrative and the objectives it has in order to express a particular meaning. The research in sociolinguistic terms is typically featured by process of interviewing a particular sample population and understanding the group’s realisation of sociolinguistic variables. Linguistics vary depending on the age, gender, society, religious values and culture of individuals. The way of speaking also varies in this way. In the conflict presented in this context the two groups are radically different in their approach, thinking and beliefs. Their idea of homeland intersect and they demand the same land as their living place. The conflict has been sourced from this conflict and hence the vocabulary used by the present day media in order to establish their own claim as valid and justified are using linguistic features to influence the readers. As discussed, the vocabulary of the Israeli newspaper contains terms such as “snake, Satan, damned, cursed”. The linguistic feature of the news reports depicts that the meaning intended to be conveyed is negative and the vocabulary used is for the purpose of derogating Israel and its endeavours.

In the US newspapers the voices which were quoted are mostly Israeli citizens who talk about the Palestinian aggression and how Israel is the victim of violence in this case. On the other hand the Iranian newspapers quote Palestinian citizens and who have been affected by Israeli aggression. The Iranian and Palestinian samples were closely similar to the perspective of the Hamas. The Iranian and Palestinian newspapers hold Israelis at fault because of the instability of the region (Gerner, 2018). . On the other hand the case is vice versa when looked from the other side.

Proper assessment of the situation discloses that the media of both the sides shows adherence to their own respective people’s causes and mould the news according to that perspective. The vernacular dailies Kayhan and Sharq however had a difference in approaching the conflict, when Keyhan was more radical and negative, whereas Sharq was peace oriented though the objective of both the parties were same (KhosraviNik, 2015). The understanding of Gaza conflict is vastly different in the two parties and the reasons are based in the historical, social and cultural perceptions that is embedded in their idea of their motherland (Khiabany, 2007).

The understanding of the difference in reporting and the associated linguistics can be also assessed by the overall impact it creates in the mind of the reader. A reader who is unaware about the situation of the region may get completely different perception reading the news reports depending on which side’s newspaper they are reading.  The sole reason behind this is the use of linguistics. This linguistic is also used in the social media posts and the internet (Nacos, 2016)

Even in other parts of the world where there have been civil wars, or conflicts between two countries, it is seen that the media of the two sides reports the same incidents in a very different language.

Conclusion

The above study of the various news articles of leading news papers in USA and Iran provides clear indication about the answers to the research questions. Firstly, to answer the first research question it can be said that the linguistic features used by the newspapers can be understood by Critical Discourse Analysis of the news articles which is done above and the terms and words can be put into perspective to derive the objectives for which these are used. Secondly, Politics plays a primary role in shaping the linguistic features and usage of language in both the countries, the USA and Iran. USA is a close ally of Palestine which naturally results in news articles and political actions which supports the cause of Israel in the conflict. Iran being an enemy of Israel and a close friend of Palestine and always supports the Palestinian cause in all its news articles and official statements. These are the findings to the research questions. The following is a concluding analysis of the whole study and the various perspectives that van be derived from it.

This investigation thought about and dissected the scope of 2014 Gaza War, found inside two particular news groups in Iran and the United States. In doing as such this examination associated components of hegemonic social and political talks to media content, and outlined how content gets organized inside a social, political, social, and institutional setting. To put it more briefly, this examination delineated refinements between what a reader of Kayhan and Sharq in Iran would have seen of the 2014 Gaza War versus what a New York Times and Wall Street Diary reader in the United States would have seen of precisely the same. This isn't to neglect singular organization in the acknowledgment, dismissal, or potential reformulation of guaranteed talk. However, it shows how capable foundations assume a part in forming the sorts of stories offered to national readerships in any case. In addition, the effect of institutional media content is basic in the development of open learning and social discernment, yet saying this doesn't imply that that print media is the main factor in forming society's discernment. During a time of a regularly extending web, with autonomous media outlets, watch dog gatherings, web-based social networking, and computerized media, it is currently conceivable to challenge the predominant account of standard news offices. In many parts of the world, news buyers can investigate a regularly expanding assortment of news and media outlets in request to comprehend what is happening around the word. Existing past the organized limitations put on media in both majority rule and tyrant states, elective, and customarily advanced, news outlets work to neutralize the hegemonic introduction of data. Nonetheless, the degree to which these sources impact the institutional organization of the predominant press in the generation of news, or the organization of people in its understanding, is the point of contention in media studies and still remains an urgent road of examination. Investigation of the substance of option media introductions of the 2014 Gaza War and different clashes could give extra experiences into the scattering of data about challenged occasions, and the ways that news purchasers come to comprehend them. Because of time compels and the idea of this investigation, which was centred around standard news media's encircling of the 2014 Gaza War, assessment and article pieces, online editorials, and distributed letters were not dissected. In any case, these areas could be a fascinating point for future examinations basically in light of the fact that they work as spaces in which buyers can "argue" to news makers and in this manner can help demonstrate the effect of news media confining practices. Analysis confines frequently give knowledge to how the article is gotten by the readers. Subsequently it is an intriguing spot to see how popular feeling is moulded around a specific issue as far as defenders and rivals. Another conceivable road for growing this investigation is to broaden the focal point of examination from news media to incorporate more extensive varieties of social items, for example, “books, leaflets, lyrics, motion pictures, plays, notices, expositions, and addresses”. As such it is imperative to perceive how craftsmen and intelligent people in a given society add to the development and portrayal of significance and how it may refute or manage existing structures of mastery concerning the Israeli-Palestinian clash. Likewise, since the investigation of culture can't happen outside the verifiable setting in which it created, it would demonstrate astute to put Palestine, and the Palestinian occupation, into the verifiable and social setting of both Iranian and American cognizance to identify any conceivable move in the account since the control of Palestine. On account of Iran, it will be especially fascinating to dissect and look at this account when the 1979 transformation, and for the U.S. it would enthusiasm to watch this story inside the recorded setting of the Civil Rights Development and the counter war exhibitions of the 1960's. At last, as an issue of scholastic uprightness, it ought to be specified that this investigation analyzed a variety of ideologically and politically arranged news from just two productions in both Iran what's more, the United States and in this way it can't be summed up to the whole news industry. With that said the New York Times and Wall Street Journal are two of the most generally appropriated standard daily papers in the United States while Tehran Times, The Palestinian Chronicle, Kayhan and Sharq speak to two unique major political groups in Iran. Consequently, this examination gives experiences into how the power elites in both the United States and Iran shape and structure standard news for general utilization by general society. Consequently, this examination widens our extent of comprehension on the continuous connection amongst Israel and Palestine as saw by the United States and Iran. With respect to the United States this theory adds to other scholarly learning by demonstrating a reliable media depiction of Israel and Palestine that supports the United States remote arrangement activities in the Middle East. For Iran this examination gives understanding into a Middle East on-screen character that is periodically disregarded in other scholastic investigations of the Israeli and Palestinian clash. There are scope of further studies to understand how linguistics provoke or reduce violence in the conflict at Gaza.

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