Reality obstruction field breached!

I thought I was hallucinating tonight as I saw a segment on 60 Minutes that explained the reality of Israeli settlements in the West Bank.  And by "reality" I actually do mean reality—presented in a fair amount of detail, making it perfectly clear who is the victim and who is the victimizer, and with almost zero reference to standard Israeli talking points.  It started out with this quote from an Israeli settler...:

I think that settlements prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state in the land of Israel.  This is the goal and this is the reality.

...and continued in essentially that same vein for 13 minutes.  It wasn't perfect, but given what we're used to seeing from the mainstream media in this country it was nothing short of stunning.  As I watched it I could only wonder what the average American (or the average American who watches 60 Minutes, anyway) would make of it, since compared to the steady stream of Israeli propaganda they usually receive it must have seemed like it was beamed here from Mars.

I'm sure this breach in the reality obstruction field will be located and plugged soon, but for now go ahead and treat yourselves to 13 minutes of quality mainstream journalism on the Middle East.  It doesn't happen often.  And given the avalanche of ADL-inspired hate mail CBS will no doubt be receiving soon, I think it's worth writing to them to thank them for putting this piece on the air.

(The transcript of the segment is available here, but I recommend watching rather than reading in this case since the visuals are a critical part of the story.)

THE SUN RISES, SURPRISING MILLIONS: It turns out the ADL didn't like the segment.  Go figure.

Comments

[KDelphi]

Thanks John! I was amazed...I will write to them...

[SteveB]

It is especially shocking coming from Bob Simon, who lived and reported from Israel for many years and is well aware of the complex nature of the conflict.

Yes, if I was the ADL (or the Israeli government) I would worry about that, too.

[John Caruso]

Yep, I think we can safely assume that the fact that Bob Simon lived and reported there for many years contributed to his willingness to file a report like this.