February 29th, 2008

On Friday, February 29th Israel suspected a gathering of Muslim fanatics. They bombed a section of homes in the Gaza Strip. All of the major news networks reported the event.

According to Al Jazeera, the Arab World's CNN, 32 people were killed including 6 children, one under one year-old. Seventy were injured. The footage was terrifying - babies bleeding, mothers wailing, ambulances not able to meet the demand driving past dying victims, grown men consumed with anger and grief yelling. The headlines: horror and inhumanity.

Prince Harry's return from Afghanistan's front lines was top news on CNN and BBC World. The prince's participation slash location had been leaked by a problematic journalist. The Gaza bombing appeared second or third in the line-up. The headline indicated that an Israeli bomb had killed "15 militants" and "some civilians." The images were brief and sterile - covered bodies, solemn and sedate.

Both networks told the truth. Both accounts were accurate. Both were playing to an audience, inciting anger, prompting cheers from those entwined in one of history's most polarized and uncompromising disputes, encouraging continued indifference.

Five days later 116 Palestinians had been killed and more than 300 injured. Three Israelis had been killed. CNN ran their first headline caliber story. A spokesperson for Jewish Americans was interviewed appealing to the world to sympathize not only with the Palestinians, but also the Jews. Al Jazeera kept repeating a video montage loop featuring dead babies and destruction.

The issue had never felt closer as I watched the television less than a hundred miles from the banks of the Jordan River and the Israeli border. The solution had never felt so far away.