Building a Balanced Media for #Gaza

ACTION ALERT AT END OF ESSAY!

I ran into an old friend on the train the other day.  He asked how I was and I responded, "completely distraught, aren't you?"  He wasn't.  We proceeded to have a riveting conversation about all of the crimes against humanity around the world and why Gaza in particular was so alarming to people.

It's "mowing the grass," he said.  They do this every other year or so, everyone gets hot and bothered, then things quiet down, everyone forgets, and then the grass needs to be cut again in another two years.  

I tried my best to convince him that it was different this time.  People who typically shrug their shoulders, are speaking out.  People who typically say, "I could never boycott Starbucks," are giving up their coffees.  Reporters are being taken out of Gaza by networks then being put back in because of public pressure. It's different!

The Continued Failure in Gaza

The recent Israeli raid on the flotilla bringing aid to Gaza, that resulted in the deaths of nine civilians, more injuries, and near-global condemnation for Israel's actions, has brought a lot of attention to Gaza in the past few days. Unfortunately, much of the discourse has centered around the specific incident itself (who fired first, whether Israeli troops were right to protect themselves, etc.), and not about the politics and conditions in Gaza overall. There's a larger debate about the occupation itself that I won't get into here (there are obviously countless sources you can look to for that debate), which is quite crucial to this whole thing. However, the situation in Gaza itself is one that has been largely neglected by the Western press, particularly the politics of Gaza.