BETHLEHEM, Pa. — Former "PBS Newshour" anchor and current senior correspondent Judy Woodruff visited Bethlehem Tuesday to film a segment for “America at a Crossroads,” her two-year project exploring the human roots and human impacts of division in the United States.
Much of the series so far has focused on partisan divides — Democrat vs. Republican, liberal vs. conservative.
"It's very real, it’s very painful for many Americans.”Judy Woodruff
But over the course of her reporting, Woodruff said, the Israel-Hamas war emerged as “one of the more raw divides in our country,” worth exploring more deeply “because it's very real, it’s very painful for many Americans.”
To that end, Woodruff presided over a pair of four-member panels at the PBS 39 studios Tuesday — one aligned with Israel and another aligned with Palestinians — to learn about the roots of the participants’ deeply held beliefs and how conflict over those beliefs affects their lives and relationships.
The group included two Lehigh Valley residents: Lehigh University professor Allison Mickel and community organizer Raya Abdelaal.
Most were from Philadelphia; one member lives in Pittsburgh.
'My life will never be the same'
Initially, Woodruff and her colleagues planned to combine all eight participants into a single panel.
“But the more we talked to people, the more we discovered that that was going to be very hard to do," she said. "It's a measure of just how raw feelings are running right now.
“There were a number of people who said either they or their families didn't feel comfortable with them participating if someone was in the group who had such a different perspective.
“And so we reluctantly decided to split it into two groups.”
“My life will never be the same. There is a life before October 7th and there's a life after.”Ruthi Lynn, a Jewish panel member living in Philadelphia
For all their differences of opinion — and there were plenty — the eight panelists experienced the personal fallout of the Oct. 7th attacks on Israel in similar ways
Members of both groups recounted a sense of having been abandoned by people they expected to stand by them in the days and weeks after the attack.
They described personal relationships shifting along ideological lines: friends and acquaintances with irreconcilably different views fell away, while shared views and mutual support forged new friendships.
All of them said they were deeply affected by the attacks.
“I don't know any Palestinian or even Jewish person who has not had his life upended from this,” said panel member Sam Kuttab, a Philadelphia resident born in the West Bank.
Ruthi Lynn, a Jewish panel member living in Philadelphia, said, “My life will never be the same. There is a life before October 7th and there's a life after.”
'Still has not found a way to peace'
Some of the panelists also shared a belief that dialogue across the divide can begin to close it.
“It's going to take time for this to heal," Woodruff said. "It's going to take a different set of circumstances.
“As they watch the Israeli war against Hamas, the feelings are not easing up. If anything, they're stronger than they were.
"And so I would say if the war doesn't end soon, I think we're looking at some very hard and painful, long-lasting divisions.”
“There have been efforts, but it hasn't happened, and the consequences are just heartbreaking. They're beyond heartbreaking.”Judy Woodruff
Woodruff has been following the Israel-Palestine conflict since she covered the landmark 1978 Camp David Accords as a White House correspondent for NBC.
To watch the region still wracked with conflict more than 45 years later, she said, is painful.
“It's sad," she said. "It's deeply disturbing that that part of the world has spent decades and still has not found a way to peace.
“There have been efforts, but it hasn't happened, and the consequences are just heartbreaking. They're beyond heartbreaking.”
