East Jerusalem

Reported by Ziva Galili

I have been a Jewish Leader for the last 26 years. This is indisputably true because I have the plaques to prove it. I remember when I first met Thomas Friedman in Israel back then he told me that he never met a Jew in Israel who wasn't a "leader." He said he had yet to meet a Jewish Follower.

By Avner Gidron, Senior Policy Adviser at Amnesty International

Originally published on The Hill

When several years ago I first met Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and had the pleasure to have two private conversations with him, he immediately struck me as the ultimate "purple" leader. As the Washington Post wrote recently, "Erdogan's Justice and Development Party has religious roots, but it also draws conservative entrepreneurs and liberals with its free-market policies."

One of the most repeated questions that was asked by many following the attack on the Gaza bound humanitarian flotilla was why did Israel do that? Why did a very powerful army and navy who can easily have controlled the situation in the high seas need to carry out a commando raid that ended up with the death of nine internationals one of whom was an American citizen?

Media coverage of two events -- both related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict -- demonstrated why Israel's image has suffered so grievously in recent years.