The Daily Show was the focus of some controversy this week when Jon Stewart hosted Jewish-American author Anna Baltzer and Palestinian democratic leader Mustafa Barghouti. Both advocate non-violent means to bring an end to the Middle Eastern conflict.
Tension were high right of the mark, when an audience member shouted "you lie" at Barghouti. Both guest went on to discuss not only the violence that has marred the peace process in the past decades, but also the peace protest, on both sides, that is mostly ignored in the western media. The truth is that the United States is actually to the right of Israel when it comes to Israel, probably because we are not witness to the violence. It is ridiculous that anyone who advocates the methods of Gandhi and Mandela to solve one of the longest ongoing conflicts in the world should be derided in the way that Baltzer and Barghouti were, both leading up to their appearance and at the show.
It is going to take a lot of hard work to resolve this conflict. This is not news. However, the situation is both more complicated and less dire than is presented in the western media. It is true that both sides deserve blame for increasing tensions, but it is imperative that more people such as Baltzer and Barghouti are visible in the media to bring hope to those that wish to see those tensions end sooner rather than later, and with a little bloodshed as possible.
1 comment:
If anyone can bring peace to the Middle East, its John Stewart. Get him with Hillary Clinton to bring the leaders of Hamas, Fatah and Israel to Camp David, and together, they can do this thing. We just need the right combination of people to point out that the violence is senseless, and peace and prosperity can only be achieved through dialogue.
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