The Middle East in the News
•Your Name & Date Emma Goldstein, October, 5th
•Title of Article/Editorial/Column (indicate which type)
Yesha Council Launches Non-Aggressive Campaign/News article
•Source of Article — Include a Link
Ynet/Yedioth Ahronoth
•Article Summary
Time
Place
The West Bank
Yesha (acronym for Judea, Samaria and Gaza—the biblical names of areas in the West Bank and Gaza)
(They both are the same place—but are called this by different sides)
Key People
Ehud Olmert
Yakir Segev
Danny Dayan
Vocabulary
Settlements
Yesha Council
Yesha
Main Ideas
Upon resignation, Ehud Olmert, former Israeli Prime Minister, boldly stated that he thought the Israeli Settlers should leave the West Bank and other territories in order to negotiate and achieve peace with Palestinians. The Yesha council, the quasi-government of the settlements started a campaign against countering his statement. The council started a massive public relations scheme including advertisements in Israel and a rebranding of the settlements. The campaign is emphasizing the historical importance to the Jewish people of the specific region.
•Your Response to Article
I do not agree with the settlements in the West Bank and Gaza. I saw Olmert’s somewhat controvercial statements with resignation about evacuation from the territories to be a bold and good use of power. I thought it was interesting because I had read about his statements in Al Jazeera earlier this week. Al Jazeera casted it in a much better light than this paper, a very Israeli publication. The rebranding of the settlements is, in my opinion, a bit sleazy. The Yesha Council is trying to make these controversial and unjust settlements into a new Jerusalem. Emphasizing one of the most sensitive points in Israel, security, in conjunction with the idea that the settlements are an important piece of the Zionist dream seems to be an unfair distortion.
{ 2 } Comments
Emma, thanks for posting this story. Especially useful, I think, and fodder for further discussion, is your comment on the different slants different media outlets put on the story. One of the goals for us in our news reports in the NMH class is discerning the bias inherent in each outlet and how that bias may be operating in what we see in the story itself.
I agree with Ted: developing our capacity to see “the story behind the story” — how different sources portray and interpret the same events may be our most important goal in assigning WMRs. If we can read material from overseas, even non-English language sources, we’ll really be training ourselves to be discerning consumers of information.
Yedioth Aharonot [online] has a larger circulation than any other Israeli newspaper. While reading it may not put one in direct contact with the elite punditry, it allows a link to the pulse of the average Israeli “man (or woman) in the street.” It’s a little bit like looking over the shoulders of those reading the New York Daily News or New York Post, instead of the New York Times or Wall Street Journal.
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