"Also, the longer this status quo goes on, the more the juggernaut of Israel’s settlement expansion in the West Bank goes on, fostering more Israeli delegitimization on the world stage. Right after the Gaza war, in which the United States basically defended Israel, Israel announced the seizure of nearly 1,000 more acres of West Bank land for settlements near Bethlehem. 'No worries,' Israeli officials said, explaining that this is land that Israel would keep in any two-state deal."
Apparently unbeknownst to Friedman, Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat has acknowledged that Israeli settlements have been built on only some 1.1% of the West Bank. That's a "juggernaut"?
"[N]early 1,000 more acres of West Bank land" will be used by Israel for housing, which, pursuant to any two-state deal, will remain with Israel? This would probably sound a lot less impressive if Friedman were to admit that 1,000 acres amount to 1.5 square miles.
At least Friedman has the decency to acknowledge in his op-ed:
"Diplomatically, President Obama on March 17 personally, face-to-face, offered compromise ideas on key sticking points in the Kerry framework to the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, and asked him point blank if he would accept them. Obama is still waiting for an answer."
Obama will almost certainly be waiting until the end of his second term in office.
Last week it was AP with a headline "Israel police shoot man in east Jerusalem".
ReplyDeleteEven 'The Blaze" called it "Bias on Steroids".
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/10/23/bias-on-steroids-this-ap-headline-explains-why-so-many-complain-about-media-coverage-of-israel/
No mention that the attacker was a member of Hamas who served time in Israeli prison for terrorism or the fact that he killed a 3-month old US citizen and wounded 8 others.
This morning I was shocked to read another anti-Israel bias headline that would make the AP headline look
pro-Israel by comparison.
"Grief over US-Palestinian boy shot by IDF"
http://www.local10.com/news/grief-over-uspalestinian-boy-shot-by-idf/29344840
The lead story came from CNN but it has been been picked up my dozens of news sources as well as Google News and Flipboard, read by millions.
Even if CNN were to publish corrections to the article's many lies and half-truths, the damage is already done.
For example, regarding the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teens this summer, it's sickening to read that CNN would write that "The militants had done this without their knowledge, Hamas said.", when in fact they reported the complete opposite on August 22.
http://www.cnn.com/2014/08/22/world/meast/israel-teens-death-hamas/
Why is it that certain news organizations are bent on reporting that Palestinians are always "killed" while Israelis simply "die"?
Edgar Davidson summed it up best in his recent post "On killing terrorists: the hypocrisy and Obama's viciously anti-Israel regime"
ReplyDelete"In New York yesterday police shot and killed Zale Thompson a Jihadist convert to Islam who attacked a number of policemen with an axe.
Just imagine if, in response to this event, the Government of Israel issued the following statement:
"Israel expresses its deepest condolences to the family of a US citizen (Zale Thompson) who was killed by the US Police Forces during clashes in New York on October 24. We demand a speedy and transparent investigation into his killing."
Well Israel did not issue such a statement, but on the same day as the Zale Thompson killing, Israeli security forces killed a Palestinian who was throwing Molotov cocktails at them. And the US Government really did issue the following statement:
"The United States expresses its deepest condolences to the family of a US citizen minor (Orwah Hammad) who was killed by the Israeli Defense Forces during clashes in Silwad on October 24. We demand a speedy and transparent investigation into his killing."
Read the whole thing here:
http://edgar1981.blogspot.com.au/2014/10/on-killing-terrorists-hypocrisy-and.html