za3tar

The recent influx of American journalists to the middle east covering Barack Obama’s tour has shown me their gross unfamiliarity of the basics of this world arena and its geography. Yesterday i posted about their confusion between Iraq & Jordan, two very distinct countries; one which they are occupying with more than 100k troops and is drenched in sectarian violence, and the other is a quite sovereign nation. You’d imagine they would know more about Iraq since they have so many people there .

Anyway, today Obama is visiting Israel & the West Bank. Ramallah is in the West Bank, and this area is usually referred to in news reports using any of the following terms: Palestine, West Bank, Palestinian Territories, or Occupied Territories. At least the term “West Bank” is very politically neutral. Not like this:

For God’s sake, you just said that you are sitting infront of the Palestinian President’s building

MSNBC, one of America’s three major news networks, apparently can’t tell the difference between Amman and Baghdad. Here is the news anchor with Amman’s signature monument, the King Abdullah Mosque, right behind her in the background, yet they are convinced she is in Baghdad .. come on