Why do Israeli reporters ignore the Jewish Diaspora?

[azurnoir]

Two weeks ago, I had coffee with the president of one of the largest Jewish federations in North America. We discussed a wide range of issues of concern, but he seemed to come back every few minutes to one particular gripe. His federation has just launched an expensive campaign opposing a noisy attempt by a handful of lefty celebrities to boycott Israel from a prestigious international cultural platform. They paid for full-page ads in major newspapers and drafted a glittering list of stars to sign a public letter denouncing the boycotters.

The Israeli media had widely reported on the fracas but why, oh why, complained the president, had no Israeli newspaper seen fit to mention the key role played by the local Jewish community? The man has been coming to Israel for decades, regularly meeting the country's leaders and participating in the most exalted forums of Israel-Diaspora dialogue. This time he was in Jerusalem for the Israeli Presidential Conference, and next week he will speak at the United Jewish Communities' General Assembly in Washington. But I was at a loss to explain to him the total indifference of the Israeli public, and by extension its media, to the worthy efforts on its behalf by organized American Jewry. Israelis, if they give the matter a thought at all, I said, simply see this as their due. He just nodded his head in disbelief.

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The lack of interest on the part of Israeli media in reporting on the Diaspora is so palpable that two foundations actually award cash prizes to the rare journalists who do occasionally pay it some attention. This isn't simply a case of the media being interested only in gossip and sensationalism. Check out any of the surveys on the ten top worries of the average Israeli: The future of Jews around the world simply doesn't make the list. But perhaps a more relevant question than why Israelis don't care about their coreligionists is why the worthies of the American Jewish establishment are so hung up about it. What is it with their need to receive Israeli affirmation?

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Why don't we all grow up? We are brothers and sisters. But we live in different neighborhoods, on separate continents. The Jews of both countries can all be proud of their incredible success stories and are all facing enormous challenges. We should try and help each other out, without expecting much gratitude, but ultimately we all have to deal with our own troubles. American Jews are doing themselves a disservice by mistaking Israel's problems for their own.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1126293.html