One of the fundamental problems with media coverage of the Mideast conflict is the failure to convey both the rich fabric of Israeli life, and the remarkable pluralism that Israeli democracy manages to support.
Here’s a book on this topic that we heartily recommend — just out in paperback (only $10), Donna Rosenthal’s The Israelis: Ordinary People in an Extraordinary Land provides an indepth look at the people that make up the state of Israel. In an interview (available here in .pdf format), Rosenthal stresses that she wrote the book in response to the disturbing ignorance of journalists covering the conflict:
Q: You’ve been interviewed on dozens of radio and tv shows. Have you found journalists knowledgeable?
A: I’m stunned by some of the enormously ignorant questions. One Jewish radio reporter in New York asked me why Israelis don’t move to a safer country. In San Francisco, a journalist ended with this question: “What’s the final solution for the Jews?” Another asked, “Why don’t Israelis throw all the Arabs out of Israel?” He didn’t know one in five Israeli citizens is Arab, that Israeli Arabs are bus drivers, teachers and members of the Knesset – which has a mosque and synagogue inside. Most young Israeli Muslims, Christians and Druze know better Hebrew and more about the Hebrew Bible and Jewish traditions than do most Jewish Americans.
A lot of journalists are surprised to hear that Arabic also is Israel’s national language and that Arabic-speaking soldiers serve in the Army. A nationally syndicated female radio hostess who had just returned from Israel argued with me on air, saying that the Druze are Moslems. She didn’t know that Druze is a religion. After Druze men are drafted they swear in on their secret holy book. And Muslim Israeli soldiers swear in on the Koran and Jews on the Hebrew Bible. Reporters are shocked when I tell them the Christian bible is the fastest growing holy book in the Israeli army – over half of the former Soviets are Christian and Arab Christian boys and girls volunteer for the army. Per capita, Christian Arabs are the most affluent and best educated of all Israelis. Israel is the only country in the Middle East with a growing Christian population.
HonestReporting encourages BackSpin readers to pick up a copy of Rosenthal’s book right here.
