Cascading activation: Bush’s ‘war on terrorism’ and the Israeli—Palestinian conflict

The study employs the cascading activation model and indexing hypothesis to examine a process by which functional frames compete to reshape ideological frames. I apply the model to the post-9/11 framing struggle over whether Israel was a military ally or strategic liability for Bush’s ‘war on terrorism’. I argue that when states are involved in international coalition building, news media may undertake an ‘international indexing’, and American allies can become an important part of the cascade activation process. A president’s ability to frame always supersedes other frames sponsors’ power to spread frames in the US news media, however. When the President changes his frame, the media follow suit. Formerly problematic Israeli behavior is reframed as facilitating the ‘war on terror’.