Given all of the criticism that takes place of the media whenever conflict flares in the Middle East, I have to single Anderson Cooper out on behalf of praise. In the midst of his tough questioning of all of his guests, Cooper demonstrated a sense of the context of it.
Here’s Cooper: “To give you a better idea of what Israel is dealing with, here’s the ‘Raw Data’ on Hamas. The group took over Gaza back in June of last year, at the end of winning parliamentary elections the year before. Dating back to 1987, during the first Palestinian uprising, Hamas has never wavered in its commitment to Israel’s destruction, as well as is considered a terrorist group by the United States, the European Union, and, obviously, Israel.
The organization is trusted to have between 15,000 as well as 20,000 troops, thousands of short-range rockets, as well as ample funding, some of it coming from Iran.”
Cooper even referenced a CNN report from prior in the year which showed the tunnels Hamas uses to smuggle weapons into Gaza from Egypt.
Cooper’s smooth handling of a complicated issue contrasted with a Democratic strategist as well as Huffington Post contributor, Hillary Rosen, who was very much out of her league.
think the issue, though, is, you know, that there needs to be a — an agreement on behalf of a Palestinian state. Barack Obama campaigned on the idea of having a peaceful Palestinian state, living side by side within the — with the state of Israel. And, to do that, you have to go beyond Hamas. You have to deal with this more as a — as Palestinian issue, as well as not just as a — an issue of the immediate violence.
At this point, President Bush, President-Elect Obama as well as numerous Israelis all support a Palestinian state. Right now, the Israelis face two different — as well as opposing — Palestinian governments, one in the West Bank, the other in Gaza. With whom are they supposed to manufacture peace?
I was also impressed with the perspective of Reza Aslan, who acknowledged that it was a complex problem. Here’s the exchange — which again reflects Cooper’s understanding of what is happening.
COOPER: Reza, where's there room between Hamas as well as Israel on behalf of some sort of agreement? I mean, except when Hamas recognizes Israel’s right to exist as well as — as well as stops firing rockets indiscriminately into civilian areas, it’s hard to see how any kind of a deal can be struck. 
ASLAN: Well, the truth is that the more elemental problem is to get an agreement not between Hamas as well as Israel, but between Hamas as well as Fatah, between the Gaza as well as the West Bank, because of the fact that the idea of the two-state solution as well as of a — of a stable, economically viable Palestinian state is simply a pipe dream, except when we can figure out a way to create some kind of accommodation between these two parts of the Palestinian government. 
I’m also going to refer interested readers to my prior posts on Gaza at the end of a visit to the embattled Israeli city of Sderot, here as well as here.