So I was up at the Government Press Office (GPO) in Jerusalem, filling in the necessary paperwork for my press card. While I was there, a young European journalist walked in and said she wanted to write an article about the international media's coverage of the disengagement. You've heard of the play within the play? Well, this is the story within the story.


It's not a bad idea, actually: I'm starting to think that the disengagement is going to be the most over-exposed and badly reported story in the history of modern media. Do you have any idea, dear readers, how many photographers and journalists are going to be here? No? Okay, I'll tell you: The conservative estimate is that there will be 3,000 photographers, and perhaps twice as many television and newspaper reporters. In case you didn't know, there are only 8,000 Israelis living in Gush Katif. Hmmm, that's more than one reporter per Gush Katif resident. Do you think those numbers will allow for in-depth reporting?

Don't count on it.

Because here's the best part: Most of the journalists are planning to arrive after August 1, and quite a few are going to arrive on August 15. The evacuation is scheduled to begin on August 16. Which means that they will have neither time nor opportunity to learn anything about the situation here.

They won't have time to make connections with Israeli journalists, either, and that will definitely be a problem. Because soldiers and border police are always nicer to Israeli journalists. They let them into areas that are supposed to be, um, sort of closed; they give them insider's information about good stories; and they allow them better access in general. When there's a pushing, shoving, heaving crowd, you want to be able to yell out in Hebrew to the officer in charge of the mess, "Rafi! Hey, what's up man? Long time no see... Listen, can you help me get in?" And yes, Rafi will help his fellow countryman - even if they have very different political opinions.

But if you're an unknown foreign journalist who doesn't speak Hebrew, Rafi will probably ignore you. Unless, of course, the Israeli journalist says to Rafi, "No, it's cool. He's with me, man."