Withdrawal Amnesia
Earlier, MK wrote about ABC reporter Terry Moran’s amnesia concerning Israeli withdrawals from the West Bank and Gaza during the Oslo years.
It seems the editorial writers at the Los Angeles Times have been similarly impaired by a case of lapsed memory. Today’s Op-Ed states:
This historic withdrawal is Israel’s first from land on which Palestinians hope to build their state.
What about Israel’s historic withdrawals during the Oslo years, when Israel withdrew from major Palestinian population areas, including Ramallah, Kalkilya, Jenin, Nablus, most of Hebron, Gaza City and Jericho, totaling 40 percent of the West Bank and much of Gaza?
This forgetfulness is reminiscent of an earlier LA Times news report. On May 2, 2004, correspondent Laura King stated in a news article:
If the withdrawal [from Gaza proposed by Sharon] takes place, it would be only the second time in Israel’s history that the nation voluntarily gave up lands seized in the 1967 Middle East War — the first being Israel’s withdrawal from settlements in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula.
Will Israel’s “historic withdrawal” from Gaza today similarly be dropped from journalistic memory in coming years? Will we one day be reading LA Times accounts about future West Bank withdrawals as if they too are a first?
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