By Mitch Cohen
Growing up in America, I’ve always struggled with the way Israel was spoken about on my campus, online, the news, and amongst my friends. I’ve traveled to Israel multiple times in my life, and have found that Israel is so much more to me than the very negative tropes that are constantly being repeated. I know about the strong people and the amazing culture that encompass every aspect of this country. However, most of the world doesn’t see Israel as I do, and I, therefore, feel a need to defend Israel against the negative attention the country constantly receives. I chose to come to Israel with a goal of educating myself further about the conflict in order to take that information back to America and begin to have better discussions about Israel on my campus.
Matti Friedman, an Israeli journalist, and author came to speak to our cohort about the portrayal of Israel in world politics, and why it is often depicted in a certain light. From his experience working for the AP, he was able to give us some insight into the politics of journalism. explained the politics of how journalism works, about how there is an influx of journalists in this small area of the world. Journalists need to constantly find engaging stories for their editors, or they aren’t doing their jobs well, which can explain why they are so hyper-focused on this small part of the world. Friedman explained that the country of Israel sometimes has more journalist covering this country than double or triple number amount of journalists covering all of Africa. When you have an influx of journalist, you then have an influx of news coverage. He then explained that the headlines of the news could lead you to believe that Jerusalem is not a safe city, but in actuality, it is exponentially safer than large American cities when looking at crime rates in both places. Israel is therefore painted as a place that is constantly surrounded by conflict when really, the conflict is not seen here on a daily basis.
He then explained a common misconception about the conflict that most people (including myself) usually believe. Friedman elaborated on his thoughts about the conflict, explaining that people often think about it on a pretty basic level, as an interior conflict between Israelis and the Palestinian people. Instead, he challenged us to think about it as an international issue that involves all the surrounding countries in the middle east. To understand where the conflict stands today, one must know about all the wars and complicated relationships that Israel has with its neighboring countries. A person’s understanding of the current situation would be severely crippled if one were to forget or intentionally ignore the larger scope of history. In short, zooming out is critical.
Matti Friedman helped me have a better understanding of the country I have to come to love so much. Every country has its obstacles, and Israel is no exception to that. While it’s important to recognize these problems, the conversation cannot stop there. It’s our job as Jewish Americans to be loving critics of Israel, while being loving supporters of it, too.
