Friends,
I am attending the Israel Venture Association annual conference andwas introduced to Andrea Koppel from CNN as we were waiting for Prime Minister Sharon and Secretary of State Powell to finish their discussion Sunday evening at our hotel. While we were chatting, an American-born Israeli joined us to tell Andrea about his perception of media distortion in that the press that stresses moral equivalence between Israeli civilian deaths caused by Palestinian terror and Palestinian civilian deaths caused by Israeli military actions.
He argued that Israel has tried to engage in a peace process since Camp David and has been double crossed over and over by the Palestinian Authority. Further, he argued the deaths caused by Palestinians are intentional, whereas the deaths caused by Israel are mostly the tragic, unintentional results caused by Israel trying to defend itself.
Andrea replied, "So when Israeli soldiers slaughter civilians in Jenin, that is not equivalent?"
Israeli, "What are your sources, were you in Jenin, how do you know there was a slaughter?"
Andrea, "I just spoke with my colleagues who were there and they told me of the slaughter."
Israeli, "Did they see the shooting, the bodies?"
Andrea, "Palestinians told us about the slaughter."
Israeli, "And you believe them without evidence; they lie and distort facts."
Andrea, "Oh, so they are all just lying?"
Israeli became emotional in describing that his children are afraid, his friends have been murdered, and if this goes on, "We could lose our lives or we could lose our country."
Andrea, "Yes, you will lose your country."
At this point, I interrupted the two of them and asked, "Did I hear you correctly that you believe the current crisis will lead to the destruction of the State of Israel?"
Andrea, "Yes I believe we are now seeing the beginning of the end of Israel." [OBVIOUSLY, Andrea has never read the Holy Scriptures and has absolutely NO fear of the ONLY TRUE God]
Needless to say, I was stunned to hear a senior CNN correspondent express this extreme "worldview". It was very disturbing for obvious reasons, and I was particularly upset by her extraordinary geo-political conclusion that the State of Israel is bound for destruction. I asked her how she came this conclusion - what was her background scholarship in Middle East history or military geo-strategy?
Andrea, "Well you know, I took a course on the Middle East when I was at Middlebury College and our professor assigned us five books on the history of the conflict. So I first read a book written by an Israeli and I thought all the land belongs to the Israelis. Then I read another book by a Palestinian and thought all the land belongs to the Palestinians. There are many points of view, and it is so complex." [Again, Andrea obviously never read the Bible.]
Her background scholarship and intellectual depth on the subject duly noted, I turned to consider what to do next.
I don't know what do to about this, but I thought you may have the right suggestion. Feel free to forward this to others.