Chazan & Project Idea

I really like this article by Naomi Chazan because  I believe she writes it without biting her toungue even though she knows she will receive backlash and hateful comments.  My favorite quote of this article is

"I am all too aware that a word or phrase can touch off a new set of controversies on issues where many seem willfully determined to misunderstand each other."


I feel this summarizes my thoughts over the course of the Armstrong book: it seems as though both sides are perpetually determined to misrepresent the other.


As for my final project, my idea is to interview people of various ages, identities, and walks of life, and ask each of them what they know about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. My objective is to understand how the average American (by using a small sample of approximately 20) understands and interprets the information on the conflict.
I am also interested in understanding what students at Indiana University specifically know in regards to the conflict. Prior to my involvement in the Living Jerusalem Project, I would have been hard pressed to come up with any response to such questions.  I wonder if I am not the only one who scans the international news of this part of the world.
I will conduct interviews based on between five and ten questions that will identical for all subjects. While I intend to understand what people know about the conflict, I will also be interested to understand what questions people come up with themselves and if I am able to stir any interest in the participants.