The problem with so much writing on the Middle East is that tempers run so high and there is so much at stake in practical terms, that it's hard to find out what is true in any particular case. The larger "truth" that each side wants to persuade people of takes precidence in so much that we read over the actual, smaller truths about any particular event, person or situation.
In much the same way that Jane Fonda was a critic of US policy.
On the contrary. It's not Mars.
For less then $600 airfare from New York, you can visit.