Could you be a little more, ya know, 'Jewish'?

We're often told that the Zionist narrative is the dominant narrative here in the West. Certainly, the Nakba narrative hasn't generally -until now, perhaps- received as much attention. But what's often left out is the fact that there is another group, neither Jewish nor Palestinian, which has a strong role in determining Western discourse. In the US, the most dominant group is Christian (Episcopalian, actually) white men, but people forget that. It's as invisible as it is pervasive. So, no surprise that people have so many misconceptions about Israel. Shameful, but hardly less surprising is that so many of those ignorant people are the ones reporting the news about Israel.

Journalist Donna Rosenthal was inspired to write “The Israelis: Ordinary People in an Extraordinary Land” when a CNN producer (her former journalism student) told her: “I’m confused, and our viewers are confused. We have footage of Jews who look like Arabs and Arabs who look like Jews. We have black Jews, and bearded 16th-century-looking Jews in black hats and sexy girls in tight jeans. Who in the world are these people?”

Great article at the Forward.