The Middle East — A Sixth Grader — And A Walk To School

From Senior Producer Tom Nagorski…

My daughter was asked by one of her teachers yesterday to read and study the front page of the newspaper. Which she did, of course, being a dutiful sixth-grader. Her paper was The New York Times, and as she ate her cereal this morning she scanned page one, intently. I watched her now and then, over my Wall Street Journal. After breakfast she said she found the story about Purple Hearts interesting (none will be awarded to sufferers of post-traumatic stress) and the one about China and U.S. debt a bit tough to get through (so did I). As we set out for the walk to school we were talking about how easy it was to summarize certain news stories (say, weather in the Pacific Northwest) and how difficult other stories could be (the war in Gaza, for example).

Then my daughter, who is eleven, had a question: "Daddy, what exactly is going on in the Middle East?"

I was thankful for the fact that we have a decent walk (3/4 of a mile) and that it would be a bit longer this morning, because I have a slightly sprained ankle. In other words, I’d have some time to answer her question.

What exactly is going on in the Middle East? I began with Gaza and Hamas, the rocket firings and then the Israeli attacks, but quickly realized she needed at least a little context. Before I knew it I was talking about King David and Jerusalem, with absurd fast-forwards to Mohammed and then the Second World War. I figured I had to get to the birth of the Jewish state by the time we reached Atlantic Avenue.

Along the way, I tried to keep a journalistic balance. She already knew how controversial all this is, and that Arabs and Jews have been warring for a very long time. Not surprisingly, my daughter thought it  terrible that people in Israel had to endure rocket attacks, and terrible that the response had killed so many innocent Palestinians in Gaza. Then — just like that — we were at her school. I felt I hadn’t done a very good job, though I certainly had monopolized the conversation. But I got my kiss goodbye, and a smile.

Perhaps we’ll try a lighter subject tomorrow.