Shut up about the Gaza strip

Israel announces plans for more housing in West Bank settlements," or "Sharon rips up 'road-map' with plan for 1,001 new settler homes."\nSame story, different headlines.\nWhen it comes to reporting about Israel and Palestine there is no way you can find an objective story.\nLook at what seems to be a benign story about elections in Palestine. The Palestine Daily Web site printed, "Arafat promises general elections," while, The Israel Daily Web site reported, "Palestine announces possible elections."\nSome would say, "Well, all journalism is biased, so that's no big deal." I would contend that no other issue in journalism is so polarized and subjective. There is no middle ground in the Gaza Strip conflict.\nAccording to the organization Honest Reporting, Reuters has favored Palestine. Their studies claim that headlines on violent acts by Palestinians use "active voice" 33 percent of the time, compared to stories about violent acts of Israelis, which use it 100 percent of the time.\nMeanwhile, FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting) claims that The New York Times is consistently pro-Israel, saying the paper "suggested that the deaths of 23 Israelis ... are more important than the deaths of 100 Palestinians."\nThe reason why you can't find an unbiased report on the matter is that everyone who cares at all about the conflict has some sort of vested interest in it. You can't find someone who is both detached from the conflict and well-versed in this issue.\nThis lack of objective information doesn't stop the debate from raging. Usually, I'd say debate is a great way to learn the ideas of your opposition, but with Israel and Palestine, I'd say the policy is to shut up. From articulate scholars to earnest college students, nobody has ever had a constructive debate about the issue -- and I understand why. When your people are being killed every day, it's sort of hard to separate your passion from the facts. \nEven if you have no passion for one side, the facts you use to debate the issue are biased. You can cite as many articles or studies that you want, but you are trusting the word of someone who most likely has taken a side themselves. The only way to get an accurate view would be to move to the Gaza strip and observe what's happening. Even then, your perceptions would be skewed by who you'd live by and the people you'd meet. \nEven on our own campus, students are at war because of the actions of those thousands of miles away. I've spoken with Muslim students at IU who want nothing to do with any Jewish students and I've met Jewish students who can't stand Muslim students. Neither group will sit with the other at the Wright Food Court. They won't hang out with them at Bluebird. They won't even borrow notes from them for their Finite midterm. This sort of segregation has become ridiculous on our campus. \nI understand it's hard to separate the religion from the politics, but if we can't hope for people of different faiths to get along here in Bloomington, then there is no hope for the Middle East.\nSo, my advice is to forget trying to have an intelligent conversation with those who oppose your views about this issue. Nobody is going to win that argument. Instead, shut up about Israel and Palestine and discuss something that you can be objective about. You can debate who's going to win the next Colts game, who's going to win the presidential election. But nobody is going to win in the Gaza strip debate, so you're just wasting your breath.