Only when it comes to Israel do “mainstream” American commentators permit themselves to indulge in this kind of racism. Read more about Africans as "flood," Palestinians as "demographic threat": Ruth Marcus' vulgar racism in Washington Post 

Its possible that there is a name more well-known than Gilad Shalit this week, but not likely. For the last two days, media of all kinds have been tripping over themselves trying to describe, explain, hagiographize, and contextualize Shalit, who is to be released soon after a five year detention by Hamas in a prisoner swap. Read more about The Most Important Prisoner in the Whole Wide World