I previously posted about the latest rash of scandalous photos coming out of Afghanistan showing U.S. military atrocities under Obama’s command, and wondering if the media would pick up on it the way they did when it was Bush’s army… Well, here’s a twist I wasn’t expecting: yes, one of the U.S. media, Rolling Stone, [...]
Jeffrey Goldberg, a correspondent for the Atlantic, cast a spotlight on yet another disgustingly overt example of pure bias in the mainstream media, particularly at the anti-Semitic Reuters newswire. He points to a Reuters news item which contains the following despicable sentences: Police said it was a “terrorist attack” — Israel’s term for a Palestinian [...]
In the [sparse] reporting of the Palestinians’ massacre of the Fogel family, several newspapers stand out with their distorted sense of “balance”, i.e., where they feel overwhelmingly uncomfortable describing the barbarity of the Palestinians without at least taking a swipe or two at the Israelis, no matter how patently irrelevant or disgustingly disrespectful it comes [...]
Netanyahu Stands Firm On Jerusalem
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During a press conference that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had in London with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, he was asked the following question and gave what in my opinion was a strong, intelligent response.
QUESTION: Mr Netanyahu, will you continue while you talk to build homes for Jews in those parts of Jerusalem that Israel captured in 1967?
NETANYAHU: I have made it clear in my conversation with President Obama in Washington and since that Jerusalem is the sovereign capital of Israel. We accept no limitations on our sovereignty. This is very clear. To put a fine point on it, I say Jerusalem is not a settlement. The settlement issue is outstanding and has to be one of the issues resolved in the negotiations, alongside Palestinian recognition of the Jewish state and effective demilitarization arrangements for any future peace agreement. But our position is that Jerusalem is the united capital of the Jewish people. It has only been around for 3,500 years. We recognise that there are obviously Arab residents in Jerusalem, and they enjoy all the equal rights and all the equal benefits of the Jewish residents. We do not draw a difference.
(Incidentally, he shortly thereafter gave the following amendment: “I need to amend my response, Jeremy. We have not been around in Jerusalem for 3,500 years; we have been around there only 3,000 years, so pretty long, I would say.”)
He was also very strong on discussing Israel’s proven commitment to the peace process and the Palestinians lack of any commitment so far, which I think was also a good, necessarily forceful agenda item:
NETANYAHU: …we’re working hard to advance a peace process that will lead to an actual peace result and we hope to move forward in the weeks and months ahead.
We’re not waiting. We have already moved: my government has removed, to be precise, 147 checkpoints and roadblocks. The 14 remaining checkpoints, 12 of them are manned 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to facilitate movement. I have extended the time of passage on the Allenby Bridge on the Jordan River in order to facilitate movement in and out of the Palestinian territories. I chair a ministerial committee that seeks to remove and has removed roadblocks to economic activity in the West Bank. We’ve moved on the ground.
I’ve also moved not merely in deed but in word: I have spoken about the need to achieve this balance of a demilitarized Palestinian state next to a Jewish state and I think that this has resonated far and wide.
It wasn’t easy to do, but this is what we have done in the short period of time, the four months that we’re in office, so we have moved. We expect similar movement from the Palestinian Authority and certainly based on what we’ve seen in the recent Fatah conference there has not been that movement; that’s an understatement. But there has to be that movement. There has to be not merely a partner on the other side, there has to be a courageous partner, because I think we’ve shown a certain amount of fortitude and leadership and that’s what’s required from the Palestinian side. They have to say unequivocally ‘it’s over. We are going to make a real peace. It’ll be a final peace. It will be a peace that will end all claims to further conflict. It’ll be a peace that will resolve the Palestinian refugee issue once and for all and just as Jews can come to Israel, Palestinians can come to the Palestinian state.’ But not in Israel, because there has to be a Jewish state and if we’re asked to recognise a Palestinian state as the nation state of the Palestinian people, it is absolutely essential that the Palestinian leadership says to the Palestinian people ‘you will have to accept Israel as the nation state of the Jewish people.’ Recognition is the pivot of peace. The absence of such clear and forthright expressions by the Palestinian leadership of such recognition has been what has been holding peace up and this is what the people of Israel and I think all fair minded people in the world expect.
So, we have moved forward. We intend to move forward, but we expect the Palestinian partners to be courageous partners for peace that move forward.
The full transcript can be read here.