All posts by jppi
The Dramatic Gap Between Global Coverage of the War in Gaza and the Massacre of Protesters in Iran
JPPI President Yedidia Stern on i24 news, following the release of a new comparative study that examines the gap between global media coverage of the suppression of protests in Iran, and the international coverage and amplification of Israel’s war in Gaza.
The study findings point to sharp disparities, both in the scope of international media coverage and in the number of protests held in the United States around each of these issues.
Protests organized by various groups in response to the IDF’s entry into Rafah were nearly one hundred times more numerous than protests concerning Iran. Media coverage of the war in Gaza was almost double in volume compared to coverage of the protests in Iran during comparable time periods sampled for the study.
To enable a fair comparison, researchers selected two 22-day time windows. The first covered the protests in Iran, which lasted from December 28, 2025 until their decline on January 18, 2026, following reports that tens of thousands of demonstrators were massacred. The second examined one of the peak moments of the war in Gaza, the IDF’s entry into Rafah, over an identical 22-day period from May 6 to May 27, 2025. During this period, a social media campaign under the slogan “All Eyes on Rafah” spread widely and extensive protests took place on U.S. campuses.
Tamar Ish Shalom in conversion with Matti Friedman
Conversation about the media narratives that have shaped, and often distorted, the global understanding of Israel.
A former Associated Press correspondent in Jerusalem and a longtime contributor to the New York Times, The Atlantic, and the Free Press, Friedman has built a reputation for clarity in moments of confusion and for resisting the easy narratives that so often dominate coverage of Israel. Born in Canada and having made Aliyah at 17, he occupies a rare vantage point, both fully Israeli and slightly apart. It is precisely this dual perspective that lends his work its depth, skepticism, and moral precision.
The conversation moves between biography and history, journalism and memory. What does it mean to choose Israel rather than be born into it? How does one write honestly about a society one loves? And what responsibilities does a journalist carry when covering a country so burdened by myth, projection, and misunderstanding?
They also discuss his forthcoming book, Out of the Sky, and the enduring challenge of telling Jewish and Israeli stories in a world eager for simplification.