Media Misinterprets Middle East

If you read or watch American media, you'd think that the conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians is a battle between opposing armies, ordered by Yasir Arafat to scuttle the peace process. And once again the issue has been framed as Arab versus Jew, with the substantial and vocal peace movement in Israel overlooked and Palestinians referred to as rock throwers and fanatics. In every conflict like this, there are charges and instances of media bias on both sides. Israel, to cite just one example, has accused CNN and the BBC of a pro-Palestinian bias, while Palestine takes an opposite view. But in this complicated crisis, certain underlying issues tend to get lost in the emotional fervor. While most American Jews align themselves with Israel (just as most Arab-Americans align themselves against it), I have chosen to quote three American Jews with other views because it seems their perspectives rarely penetrate a media framework that often assumes ethnicity is an adequate guide to understanding the underlying politics of the crisis. It isn't. Media treatments tends to offer polarized perceptions, although the reality is that there is a healthy multi-sided debate on the issues and the media coverage.

The Nation's Eric Alterman debunks the belief held by many Jews that the media is anti-Israel: "Marvin Kalb, executive director of the Washington office of Harvard's Schoenstein Public Policy Center, diagnoses an anti-Israel tilt in the U.S. media, in which 'the Israelis have come, through a miraculous alchemical formula, to become the giants and everyone else is the David.' What planet is this man living on? Just look at the numbers. Nearly 100 Palestinians have been killed and more than 2,500 injured, compared with just five Israeli Jews. [Since his article appeared, far more Palestinians (but also more Jews) have been killed, many brutally.] The Palestinians attack with stones, Molotov cocktails and the extremely rare automatic weapon. Unlike nations that quell riots by their own people with tear gas and rubber bullets, the Israelis respond with live ammunition: antitank rockets, helicopter gunships and armor-piercing missiles. Armed Jewish vigilantes have undertaken murderous rampages against unarmed Arab citizens, shooting them in cold blood. The U.N. Security Council condemns Israel's 'excessive use of force.' " (Actually, Eric, the United Nations condemned the violence, after lots of arm-twisting by the United States, which abstained from the vote, without mentioning Israel by name.)

Rabbi Michael Lerner of Tikkun magazine goes further in apportioning blame for the current crisis on Israel and the media: "The preponderance of responsibility lies with Israel - and with an international media which continues to obscure the basic realities facing the Palestinian people. The story Israel puts forward, and the media confirms, is that Palestinians were on the verge of an acceptable agreement for final status, and that it was only Arafat's bowing to Islamic demands for sovereignty over the Temple Mount (site of Islam's holy mosques) that undermined the deal. Palestinians are portrayed as irrationally holding out for something that Israel says it couldn't give. The reality is quite different. Since taking office, Barak has expanded existing settlements, built new roads into the West Bank, and made it clear at Camp David that he would insist on keeping the vast majority of settlers in place. The state Palestinians would then be offered would have within it a group of Israeli nationalistic fanatics, many of whom moved to the West Bank precisely to ensure that there would never be a Palestinian state."

The Role Of The U.S. And what about how the United States' role is perceived and presented? Syndicated media columnist Norman Solomon takes that issue on in media terms: "The formula for American media coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is simple: Report on the latest developments in the fragile 'peace process.' Depict U.S. officials as honest brokers in the negotiations. Emphasize the need for restraint and compromise instead of instability and bloodshed. In the world according to news media, the U.S. government is situated on high moral ground - in contrast to some of the intractable adversaries."