- "West Bank: Death Penalty for Land Sale"; Agence France-Presse; World Briefing; A6
- "Palestinian Rivals to Try Once More for an Accord"; By Taghreed El-Khodary and Isabel Kershner; A9
- "One Hundred"; Editorial; A22
Today's articles exist as if yesterday's newspaper does not. On Tuesday, readers learned of Mahmoud Abbas' refusal to recognize Israel as a Jewish state. This refusal is problematic and represents the most significant obstacle to an agreement between Israelis and Palestinians.
But in the editorial titled "One Hundred," NYT writes, "Mr. Obama's commitment to Israeli-Palestinian peace is already being tested by Israel's new prime minister, who says he doesn't believe in a two-state solution." One would have hoped that NYT would at least balance such a statement with the aforementioned news from yesterday.
Whereas Israeli-Palestinian matters are only a small piece of the editorial, they occupy a central place in "Palestinian Rivals to Try..." And once again, yesterday's news is, as the cliche goes, "yesterday's news."
In order for Hamas to enter a unity government with Fatah it must recognize "Israel's right to exist," report Taghreed El-Khodary and Isabel Kershner. As Tuesday's article made apparent, however, that is not enough. Palestinians must recognize Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state.
As if to further cloud the matter, El-Khodary and Kershner permit Abu Marzouk, a senior Hamas leader, to assert - without subsequent rectification - that Fatah "recognized Israel long ago," which is patently false in light of yesterday's reporting.
On a positive note, El-Khodary and Kershner refer to the Palestinian Authority as "the Western-backed Palestinian Authority," an appropriate description.
Lastly and separately, a World Brief demonstrates that Palestinian authorities in Judea & Samaria, or the west bank, have nearly as skewed a sense of justice as those in Gaza, as a man is up for execution after selling his property to Jews.
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Abes, please explain the significance of Mahmoud Abbas' refusal to recognize Israel as a Jewish State. I don't think Netanyahu has said that Abbas' rejection to do so will lead to the end of peace negotiations, but it is emblematic of something greater - the Palestinian unwillingness to recognize the legitimacy of the Jewish State.
ReplyDeleteThis is something the New York Times is unwilling to do. To them, it just seems like a silly demand by Netanyahu who is looking for a means to stall negotiations. The Times fails to take in the full meaning of this sort of rejectionism. If Israel is not the "Jewish State," then no need to concede the "Right of Return."
All in all, it appears that the Palestinian Authority is willing to make the most basic compromise for peace.
The Times doesn't wish to hold the Palestinians accountable for any of this. Instead, the Times gets away with such statements as Netanyahu "doesn't believe in a two-state solution" without even attempting to parse through what the Israeli PM has actually said.
So on the one hand, Israel is taken to task for something that really isn't even true while the Palestinians are given a pass. This is the norm of Times coverage.