TIME MAGAZINE’S MALICIOUS MYTH ABOUT ISRAEL AND PEACE

A new and insidious myth in now emerging in some of the coverage of the re-launch of direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians: that Israelis are indifferent to peace. 

Probably the most widely-circulated version of the tale was “Why Israel Doesn’t Care About Peace,” the cover story by Karl Vick in Time magazine on September 13. The evidence cited is almost entirely based on conversations with random Israelis. The only reference to objective data comes in response to a rhetorical question: “Don’t Israelis know that finding peace with the Palestinians is the only way to guarantee their happiness and prosperity? Well, not exactly. Asked in a March poll to name the ‘most urgent problem’ facing Israel, just 8% of Israeli Jews cited the conflict with Palestinians, putting it fifth behind education, crime, national security and poverty.”

I have been unable to locate this poll, but on the face of it Vick’s conclusion does not follow from the data. Logically, when challenged to identify one issue as “most urgent,” we do not discount the importance of others. Thus we have no grounds to assume that those who listed education as number one are indifferent to other challenges noted by Vick – national security, poverty, crime and peace. To make that leap is no minor misinterpretation, but an embarrassing misreading and a failure of editorial supervision. And the imprimatur of Time may give this myth a life of its own, spreading it virally and making it an urban legend. 

Leaving aside the libelous nature of the article (what awful people don’t care about peace?), its internalization by decision-makers would be catastrophic. The false belief that Israelis are indifferent to peace will prevent them perceiving the conflict as it really is, and cause a misreading of developments. 

To be sure, numerous polls show that Israelis are pessimistic about the negotiations (as are Palestinians). This has nothing to do with indifference toward peace, but everything to do with skepticism about the intentions and capabilities of Israel’s negotiating partners, and about the process itself, based on a long history of failed peace efforts. 

The Palestinian-Israeli conflict has shown a remarkable capacity for generating myths that grow into broad slanders and then into widely-held prejudices. Vick’s article is a cautionary example of how easily careless journalism can generate potentially hateful mythologies. As we begin the Jewish New Year of 5771, let us hope that this myth dies of its own absurdity, so that the parties and their supporters can do the hard work of making peace in the real world. 

First published at http://bit.ly/1lL4oQm