U.S. Media and Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

Three highly divisive forces at play globally in the contemporary period are nationalism, ethnicity, and religion. Such problems are exacerbated where religion, ethnicity, and nationalism interact. The longer such problems simmer, the more intractable they appear to become (Kurth, 2001). One such case involves the decades-long dispute between the Israelis and Palestinians in the Middle East, where the Israelis and the Palestinians have been attempting to occupy the same real estate for centuries (Binder, 1999).

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been the focus of intensive negotiations for more than three decades. The objectives of all of the negotiations have been to find a solution acceptable to both the Israelis and the Palestinians. In spite of many promising efforts, such a solution has thus far eluded all of the negotiators (Gazit & Abington, 2001).

The Palestinian Intifada over the past two years, together with Israeli counter actions, causes the conflict to be in one of its hotter phases. Palestinians contend that the Intifada is a response to Israeli aggression and repression, while the Israelis contend that military actions by the Israeli Defense Force are in response to Palestinian terrorist acts.

The United States is affected directly by the conflict because that conflict holds implications f

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esentation of information are within the scope of media prerogatives. Thus, the media institution is in a strong position from which to influence the development of public opinion (Wall, 2000). The use of exemplars by the media also holds the potential to affect the development of public opinion. The definition of an exemplar is that it consists of episodic information that describes "causes, importance, and consequences of the problem under consideration from the unique perspective of an individual" (Brosius & Bathelt, 1994, p. 48). Personal exemplars involve first-hand information from (a) participants in or witnesses to an event or (b) those personally affected by a situation. Impersonal exemplars are the opinions of experts in a given field used by the media to add credibility to a presentation (Perry & Gonzenbach, 2000). Thus, media presentations loaded with first-hand, personal accounts of the devastation resulting from the actions of Palestinian suicide bombers in Israel convey a strong message to the public. When such media reports contain few (if any) personal accounts of the devastation resulting from the actions of the Israeli Defense Force against Palestinian civilian communities, the message influencing pub
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Approximate Word count = 1854
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)