| This thought came to me just now, after viewing the recent video of the Jewish American kids in Jerusalem giving free vent to their bigotry and, in some cases, ignorance. (re ignorance: The poly-sci major who didn't know who Benjamin "Yahoo" was, was over the top.)
It turns out that earlier in the day, I had watched Richard Dawkins' "The Root of All Evil", which had interviews with Christians, Muslims and Jews.
Unlike Dawkins, I'm no atheist, but it doesn't take a rocket scientist to agree that religion is, indeed, a big part of humanity's violent history. So, how to make for a more hopeful future, while not negating the right of societies to teach their children whatever religion they please?
This humble diary is simply to suggest that the United States use it's muscle to force the countries of the Middle East with which it has close relations, to air 1 hour per week of their Middle Eastern 'enemy's' TV programs, simultaneously across all their major TV stations, during prime time. The programs need to be politically and socially significant - I'm not talking about forcing Saudi Arabian TV to air 1 hour of Israeli Jeopardy. I read some time ago that some Middle East countries have banned Schindler's List - but Schindler's list would probably be exactly the sort of programming that the Israelis should choose for the Israeli/Jewish 1 hour program that will air in Arab countries. Of course, they should also have programs portraying the wrecked lives of victims of Palestinian suicide bombers.
The Arab governments, on the other hand, shouldn't burdern the Israeli public with Arab Jeopardy. There are plenty of Palestinian and Lebanese victims of the IDF that they can interview for compelling documentaries.
Obviously, the end goal is to develop empathy and awareness of the 'other' as human beings. So, it's essential that victims be given free rein to tell their stories. However, there's a balancing act in that some victims will not be in a forgiving mood, and want to visit destruction on the 'other'. Beyond a certain point, incendiary "kill those pigs" sorts of comments will not be tolerated. At the end of the day, though, Israelis need to choose the programming to be shown in the Arab world, and vice versa.
Finally, to anybody who says that this idea is quixotic, I will simply point out that if countries cannot summon the wherewithal to share their airwaves in such a minor way, how on earth will they summon the wherewithal to share a stable future of peaceful co-existence? |
