Israeli conflict only half the story

If you turn on the television right now, you might very well see footage of the Middle East, specifically the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. As a matter of fact, the most common word associated with the land of Israel is probably conflict.

I had all of this in mind when I landed at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv at the beginning of this month.

The idea of visiting an unsafe land was not a pleasant one, and I was a little apprehensive. It turns out the media clearly articulate a narrowly focused perspective on Israeli culture and society.

Throughout the country, the government takes serious measures to ensure the security of the communities within the state.

Shopping malls require security screening upon entry, checkpoints dot the highways and armed members of the military are an ever-present part of daily life.

Israel is, from the perspective of a tourist or a native, a safe and exciting place to live.

As the epicenter of religious life for three major world religions, Israel has so much to offer as an educational and sociological backdrop.

The opportunity to learn and better understand other human beings and their behavior is a major draw that is unfortunately neglected by the media coverage of horrible, terrifying incidences in specific areas within the country.

This isn’t to say that the attacks don’t happen and that threats don’t exist.

Of course, the security measures I talked about before are there for a reason, one most likely being a terrorist attack.

The horrors of such cities as Sderot are very real to both the citizens of these areas as well as organizations across the world who work to help them, such as the Sderot Media Center.

It is not a fair representation of the country as a whole to allow the small segments of dangerous land to affect the global perception of the nation.

Despite the public’s tendency to target the city as a high-concentration area for terrorism, the city still maintains its prestige.

The Western Wall, for example, has not been attacked since the Roman invasion 2,000 years ago.

The media presentation associated with the land of Israel paints a harsh and fabricated version of the truth.

The fear created by headlines of terror and hatred does not truly represent the majority of the citizens living in the country.

An overall peaceful, well-intentioned population exists with a similar lifestyle to our own. We as Americans have an obligation to try to better understand the country as a whole, rather than the small picture that’s painted for us on the news.

— azoot@indiana.edu