We in the US get a very different picture of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict than the rest of the world. One of the things that makes obvious how provincial and isolated the coverage we receive is when we travel and see things for the way they are. It's very easy to take sides based on incomplete information, but the truth is often much murkier, much less black and white.

Take, for example, the eye-opening experience of University of Arizona student Marian Lacey:

Many Westerners - including me - enter Israel looking for signs of ethnic and religious tension so they can crystallize their black-and-white opinion of "the conflict." But I've realized that most Israelis are past this; Arab Israelis especially know that there is no easy approach or opinion, but they've made peace with the turmoil of the recent past. Read on...