I was impressed by the overall quality of the guide. Simply by providing a wide range of ways to approach the crisis, it moves beyond the narratives one usually hears. We can argue whether to focus more or less on religion, or land, or extremism, but the guide does a good job of opening up all of these as possible angles. The major shortfall of most news coverage is that it is by necessity event-driven, and it can be difficult to understand when an incident is another part of the litany of tragedy, or has the potential to be game changing. One gets a sense through the guide of both the intractability of the problems, and the ways in which the conflict has changed over time. Continue Reading »

I was certainly impressed with the Council on Foreign Relations’ attempt to summarize the history and dynamics of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.  I felt it fairly represented the point of view of each side, acknowledging disputed facts when they existed.  It gave voice to the nationalist narratives of both sides, making it apparent to any sane person that on a macro-level, the present conflict is a tragic situation which pits the legitimate dreams and claims of one people against that of another.  Only through rational dialogue on a grassroots level in which both sides recognize the positions of the other does this conflict have any chance of improving.

Unfortunately, however, when the average newspaper article or television report describes a situation , it is impossible to represent the entire historical narrative of a conflict as the CFR did here.  The news is certainly an industry, and like any industry, its products are meant to be consumed.  News consumers seek the feeling that they understand what they are reading, and throwing in too much history and disputed facts will ultimately confuse them.  As a result, news coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is often shoddy, incomplete, and frustrating to those who feel they truly understand what is at stake.  For example, in the recent war in Gaza, barely any distinction was mentioned in the media between killed Hamas fighters and innocent Palestinian lives.  Mere death tolls followed news of an Israeli strike or ground incursion. To explain that Israel had targeted mostly Hamas military targets, and that their precision far surpassed that of the United States or British militaries in recent wars, would require far too much explanation, and would demand answers to tough questions about the nature of Hamas and who counts as a civilian.  Similarly, it is hard to briefly contextualize any of the violence and occupations within a larger framework of Middle Eastern history, and this is rarely done. Continue Reading »

The Crisis Guide’s fanatical devotion to objectivity ends up detracting from its utility as a medium for truly understanding the conflict. While I agree with the former commenters who have alluded to the unfortunate absence of a ‘human element’ within the guide, I also think that the guide’s uber-evenhanded neutrality subtracts a factor even more fundamental to the conflict: the ideology and opinions of each side. No pure “historical” development in recent years has seen itself unaffected by these forceful and strikingly divergent beliefs. Continue Reading »

Tags: ideology, objectivity, opinion, subjectivity

I would first like to commend CFR on such a great effort. The software and technology behind the project are fascinating. It is clear that a great deal of time and effort have gone into this project.

I do admit that the effort to be neutral in the project is quite evident. However, I cannot deny that in the attempt to be neutral CFR has left out some information. There is no clear reference in the guide to any of the recently uncovered information by Israeli Historians themselves. I have read Ilan Pappe’s Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine some time ago and was surprised that none of the information that he and other Israeli historians uncovered is included in the report. Continue Reading »

Tags: land, Pappe, religion

Few issues are as complicated as the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, as most attempts to get to the heart of it are obscured by biased reporting, general opinion, personal suffering, and ancient enmities. The Council on Foreign Relation’s Crisis Guide attempts to illuminate the issue by providing a clear look at the history of the conflict as well as the current situation. I applaud the editors for their bravery in attempting to present an unbiased profile of the dispute that sparks so much heated debate. It’s a useful, interactive guide that makes excellent use of multimedia to illustrate the chronological progression of the dispute. I also appreciated the inclusion of resources for more information in the fifth chapter. Continue Reading »

Tags: lobby, statistics, USA

Mr. Moran,

First, I would like to applaud this website for its evenhandedness. I really think it approaches neutrality as far as is humanly possible. (How can anyone ever really reach true neutrality? That is a debate by itself.) Previous postings have brought up the journalist’s challenge of how to include personal stories and  emotional portraits in reporting. The “human side” of emotionally loaded subjects, while connecting people to the story, can damage neutrality and neutral interpretations of facts simply by bringing up bias-inducing feelings (fear, rage, sorrow). At the same time, people obviously view the “human side” as an important part of reporting. How do you choose how much individual story versus how much fact reporting to include? Can sympathy be dangerous?

Tags: neutrality

The CFR Crisis Guide offers a primer on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with a strong emphasis on a) the historical context, and b) regional and great power involvement. It’s a good introduction for someone with little knowledge on the issue, and I particularly appreciate the inclusion of primary sources. But it’s clear that the guide’s creators were not interested in challenging users. The Crisis Guide lacks a depiction of the human side of the conflict — the agony of mothers who lost children to terrorism or military incursions, the twisted thinking of religious extremists on both sides. In that sense, I found it dull.

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Tags: bias, Gaza, human side, polarization

Before launching into my thoughts about the Israeli-Palestinian Crisis Guide, I would like to thank the CFR for this opportunity. I have much respect for the Council’s publications and for its commitment to thoughtful coverage. With that said, I was disappointed by the Crisis Guide for a few reasons. My first and most recurring impression of the guide was that it does not convey the bitterness and mistrust permeating the Palestine conflict. Continue Reading »

Tags: demography, George Bush, reality

It is impossible to take an unbiased approach to the Arab-Israeli conflict as long as it continues to be painted as a conflict religious in nature. In my view, the conflict is primarily about land and should be treated as such. For example, early Zionists thinkers wanted a modern nation-state for Jews, not a Jewish state where orthodoxy would hold sway. Similarly, the Arab states that resisted and fought Israel in the beginning were all secular states. In the 1950s and 1960s, the big idea in the Middle East was pan-Arabism, not pan-Islamism. The PLO was also a secular organization, and both Muslim and Christian Palestinians suffered in refugee camps. Only with the rise of Hezbollah during the Lebanese civil war and Hamas during the early 1990s did the Palestinian side start to adopt an Islamic character.

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Tags: Anti-semitism, Crusaders, Muslims, Zionism

It is my deepest hope that our Crisis Guides, both this particular one on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, which went live in 2008, and our previous works on Darfur, the Korean Conflict, and on Climate Change, help well-meaning people develop a genuine understanding of the context of these complicated problems. No conflict I have covered in 25 years as a journalist for the BBC, MSNBC.com, AP, and a variety of newspapers, can hold a candle to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict when it comes to mutual misunderstanding and missed opportunities for peace.

Buried in the many twists and turns of the conflict, and in the often parochial sense of aggrievement each side feels, are historical complexities that defy easy description. Our goal here was to lay out as best as we could the facts of the conflict, paying very limited attention to “possible solutions.” While I deeply believe solutions are possible, we tried not to be prescriptive. Instead, as one blogger, AGolic, already has mentioned, it is our assertion that only through a thorough understanding of the historical roots of the conflict can a viable way forward be found.

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Tags: Crisis Guide, Globalist, Introduction, Michael Moran