海角大神

Constant coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict聽is keeping the escalating聽battles on the front burner of the聽global media diet.

However, despite the widespread exposure,聽many say the media just聽aren鈥檛 getting it right 鈥� and for some, this is聽causing real suffering for them and their families.

Many Israelis say reports that emphasize the mounting Palestinian death toll create an emotional聽bias against Israel聽as well as themselves personally. At the same time,聽other supporters of a better understanding of Middle East politics say the Palestinian cause has been slighted and misrepresented by what they call a long-term Western media bias toward Israel.

While they cannot agree on whose聽position is actually favored by media coverage,聽many on all sides聽suggest that better understanding of the issues that separate the two peoples is needed.

鈥淚 don鈥檛 want people to support Israel just because that鈥檚 what America has聽always done,鈥� says Sahar Zaytoun, an Israeli-American contractor in Los Angeles. 鈥淚 want them to support Israel because they actually understand what is really going on in that country and agree with what we need to do,鈥� he adds.

The understanding gap has become personal, says Mr. Zaytoun. His wife is a student in a local college and she says she feels embattled.

鈥淧eople come into her class and ask her questions like, 鈥榃hy are you killing those women and children?鈥� 鈥�

They say these things, Zaytoun says, because of what they see on TV every night.

If they understood that for years Hamas periodically has bombarded Israeli communities with rockets for days on end, perhaps they would take a different view of Israel鈥檚 need to defend itself, he adds.

Others, however, suggest the聽angle emerging from media coverage is far more pro-Israel.

鈥淭he narrative being pushed on the American聽public is very biased, extremely one-way, and significantly tilted in favor of Israel,鈥� says Silicon Valley entrepreneur聽Sanjay Goel, an Indian-American who is聽the founder of the global news network Oximity, which uses social journalism to break news and deliver local reports from around the world.

Mr. Goel maintains there are practical reasons for this alleged bias. Israel is easy to access and mainstream media rely on access to resources to do their job. Beyond that, most people in Israel speak English, making聽it very easy to get their side of the story out clearly and effectively.

Goel says one of the important functions of his site is a translation application. 鈥淭his allows anyone to file in their native language,鈥� he says, and the software聽will translate it into English 鈥� or whatever language the reader requires.

Standing outside a local coffee shop, 48-year-old comic actor Dannon Green聽thinks most Americans have already made up their minds. He says he can tell by watching TV news accounts that the situation has escalated but says the politics are too complicated to make an informed decision.

鈥淚 think you have to be an expert to really have an opinion on that, and I鈥檓 no expert,鈥� says Green. 鈥淎nd I don鈥檛 think the expert analysts are getting their picture of what鈥檚 going on by watching the news the rest of us watch.鈥�

Indeed, mainstream media tend to take the easy way out, Abraham H. Foxman, an ardent supporter of Israel who is the national director of the Anti-Defamation League, says via e-mail.聽There is little effort to get beyond the narrative of 鈥渂oth sides are to blame鈥澛燼nd 鈥渃ycle of violence,鈥澛爃e says, or the comparison of victim data, which he says is not illuminating.

But persistent media coverage, however inaccurate, does have the virtue of pushing at least some to seek out deeper information.

Once these people reach a聽critical mass of information from mainstream sources,聽they feel the need for more and search聽outside the big outlets, says Kamy Akhavan, president and managing editor of ProCon.org, an LA-based聽news site devoted to the principle of presenting the arguments on both sides of important issues of the day. The site taps some 400 experts to聽pen articles on both sides of such聽topics as medical marijuana and gay marriage.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has simmered at mid-point in the list of the top 50 issues trending on聽the site鈥檚 global news agenda for most of the decade that the site has been in place, says Mr. Akhavan, who was born in Iran but grew up in Louisiana. But in the past few weeks, he says, as the situation has heated up, it is now one of the top five being searched by consumers eager to read more widely.

Experience has shown that new readers often come to the site simply to confirm what they already believe, Akhavan allows, but adds that a survey his site conducted of its users in 2013 had some surprising results.

鈥淲e wanted to know if people actually changed their opinions based on what they read,鈥� he says, noting that he聽would have been happy if even five percent said yes. Instead, he says, a whopping 36 percent indicated that what they read on the site actually caused them to change their minds.

Monitor staff writer Daniel B. Wood contributed to this report.