Pens and Swords: How the American Mainstream Media Report the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

457 Pages·2008·2.085 MB·English

by  Marda Dunsky

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Columbia University Press
contact: Lisa Hamm
“Written by a journalist and scholar who has reported from the region, this book is a D 212 459­0600 x 7105
Marda Dunsky
perceptive, careful, and factual assessment of why the American mainstream media do
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such an exceedingly poor job of conveying the realities of the conflict between Pales­ Job: Dunsky, Pens and Swords
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tinians and Israelis, instead perpetuating stereotypes and echoing the conceits of policy­ s trim: 6 x 9
makers in Washington.” k
4­color process only; gloss lam
—Rashid Khalidi, Edward W. Said Professor of Arab Studies, Columbia University y
full cover
As world attention is renewed and refocused on the Israeli­Palestinian conflict at the six­
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tieth anniversary of its seminal year of 1948, Marda Dunsky takes a close look at how
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more than two dozen major American print and broadcast outlets have reported the con­
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flict in recent years. Beginning with the failed Camp David summit of July 2000 through
the waning of the second Palestinian uprising in the summer of 2004, Dunsky finds that
the media omit two key contextual elements: the significant impact that U.S. policy has
had and continues to have on the trajectory of the conflict, and the way international law
and consensus have addressed the key issues of Israeli settlement and annexation policies
and Palestinian refugees. Dunsky explores how reports of the conflict routinely take on
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the contours of American policy and rarely challenge the premises of this “Washington o
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consensus.” She also examines the media’s responses to allegations of biased coverage and er
gauges the effect that mainstream news reporting has on public opinion and U.S. foreign im
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policy. g
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“Dunsky has done us a great service by showing that there is a decidedly pro­Israel a
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bias in the American media’s coverage of the Israeli­Palestinian conflict, which makes a
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it almost impossible to have intelligent debates about that dispute and its effects on u
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U.S. Middle East policy. Anyone concerned about why the United States is in so much sk
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trouble in the Arab and Islamic world should read Pens and Swords.”

—John J. Mearsheimer, R. Wendell Harrison Distinguished Service Professor c
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of Political Science, University of Chicago v
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“This is an important book; a vital contribution to the scholarship on this issue. The de
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empirical evidence that Dunsky has so diligently provided for her arguments consti­ ig
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tutes her book’s greatest strength.” : L
—Karim H. Karim, director, School of Journalism and Communication, isa
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Carleton University, Ottawa
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“Pens and Swords doesn’t just decry systematic distortion but explains why it happens
again and again. Dunsky makes use of theory to illuminate rather than obscure, bring­
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ing academic rigor to a topic so politicized that many avoid it out of fear. Thanks to r
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Dunsky for this brave and timely book.” t
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—Robert Jensen, University of Texas at Austin d i
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Marda Dunsky is a former Arab affairs reporter for the Jerusalem Post and editor on h How the American Mainstream Media
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the national/foreign desk of the Chicago Tribune. She has developed and taught a unique u
media literacy course on American mainstream reporting of the Arab and Muslim worlds .s.a Report the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
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at Northwestern University and DePaul University.
ISBN 978-0-231-13349-4
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Columbia University Press / New York
www.cup.columbia.edu columbia
pens and swords

pens and swords
How the American Mainstream Media
Report the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
Marda dunsky
ColuMbia university press new york
Columbia University Press
Publishers Since 1893
New York Chichester, West Sussex
Copyright © 2008 Marda Dunsky
All rights reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Dunsky, Marda.
Pens and swords : how the American mainstream media report the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict / Marda Dunsky.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-231-13348-7 (cloth : alk. paper)
ISBN 978-0-231-13349-4 (pbk. : alk. paper)
ISBN 978-0-231-50826-1 (electronic)
1. Arab-Israeli conflict—Mass media and the conflict.
2. Arab-Israeli conflict—Foreign public opinion, American.
3. Israel—Politics and government—21st century—Public opinion.
4, Middle East—Politics and government— 21st century—Public opinion
5. Palestinian Arabs—Politics and government— 21st century—Public opinion.
6 Public opinion—United States.
I. Title.
DS119.7.D86 2007
956.9405'4—dc22 2007026274
Columbia University Press books are printed on
permanent and durable acid-free paper.
Printed in the United States of America
Designed by Audrey Smith
c 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
p 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2
For my father, Fred Dunsky,
who understood the power and beauty of words

Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction
1
1. The Policy Mirror
35
2. Reporting the Palestinian Refugee Story
66
3. Reporting on Israeli Settlements
129
4. Apex of the Spiral: Reporting the Violent Spring of 2002
201
5. The War at Home
260
6. In the Field
313
7. Toward a New Way of Reporting the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
366
Notes 397
Index 439

aCknowledgMents
Without an editor Who shares her vision, a Writer may never
realize it. It was my very good fortune to have found such an editor in John
Michel of Columbia University Press, who responded immediately and with
great enthusiasm when I submitted the initial query for Pens and Swords in
the spring of 2003.
John recognized that a study of mainstream American reporting of the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict could be of interest to a broad audience. His great
support—especially the patience and generous amounts of time he extended
to me in many phone conversations both before and after this project was
under contract—was of immense value to an author undertaking her first
scholarly book. I deeply regret that I never had the opportunity to meet
John, who passed away in early 2005, and that he did not see this project
come to fruition.
I am also indebted to Loren Ghiglione, dean of the Medill School of
Journalism at Northwestern University when I wrote and revised the first
two drafts of Pens and Swords from 2003 to 2005. Loren maintained an un-
flagging interest in the project and extended to me, as a member of his
faculty, the time and other resources needed to complete the project. He
read the manuscript from beginning to end and was a continual source
of encouragement.
As any reporter knows, cultivating good sources is key to telling the
story. Wishing to include the perspectives of correspondents who had re-
ported on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for major U.S. media outlets, I
turned to Stephen Franklin of the Chicago Tribune, himself an experienced
reporter of that story. A longtime friend and former Tribune colleague,
Steve was instrumental in identifying and putting me in touch with many