Times Gleefully Hopes for Greater Pressure on Israel in One-Sided Article

"World Watches for U.S. Shift on Mideast," A16, by Helene Cooper

In a terribly tendentious article, the Times Helene Cooper anticipates a policy shift by President Obama on American-Israeli relations in favor of the Palestinians.

In support of this view, Cooper only interviews partisans for greater pressure on Israel, including Aaron David Miller, Daniel Levy, and Charles W. Freeman Jr. (It’s truly incredible that she didn’t interview anybody that disagrees with this tact.)

Charles W. Freeman Jr.? Yes, the former U.S. Ambassador to Saudi Arabia who withdrew his nomination as Director of National Intelligence earlier this year in at least part due to his derogatory remarks against those that support a robust relationship between America and Israel. Following his withdrawal, the Washington Post published a scathing editorial, lambasting him as a “conspiracy theorist” that engages in “crackpot tirades” as Freeman blamed the nefarious (Israel) “Lobby” for his failure to receive the directorial position.

In his interview for the Times article, Freeman continues to prove why he was a “poor choice” for the nomination, using the vitriolic label “skunks” to describe those that support strong American-Israeli relations. It’s amazing that the Times would choose to publish such slanderous remarks.

Notwithstanding Freeman’s inclusion in the article, it would seem that the Times wholeheartedly supports Aaron David Miller’s assertion that Obama “understand the needs and requirements of Palestinians.”

And what exactly does that mean? That the Palestinians have limited grievances that extend to settlements, checkpoints, and military occupation? If there’s anything that we should have learned from the past two decades of failed Israeli-Palestinian diplomacy, it is that Palestinian demands are not limited to specific grievances, but extend to the maximalist desire to see Israel dismantled or destroyed.

The Times continually fails to understand the deep-rooted Palestinian rejectionism of a Jewish State in the region and instead freely airs the views of those that believe American-extracted Israeli concessions will bring about peace. And if the Palestinians won’t take these concessions, the rest of the Muslim world won’t be following either.

Let the wishful thinking continue.