Does Not Compute
Just two days after the Associated Press reported that aid to the Palestinians “more than doubled in 2006,” the venerable news agency published another article about Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh stating that “Hamas’ refusal to meet international conditions for acceptance means a continuation of the foreign aid boycott that has driven Gaza deeper into poverty.”
On Feb. 21, the Associated Press reported that despite the boycott of the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority, foreign aid to the Palestinians doubled from $348.5 million in 2005, to $721.7 million in 2006. The article explains the money was “funneled to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.”
The Feb. 23 article, however, provides no such explanation. It merely repeats the convenient, but inaccurate conventional wisdom about lack of foreign aid to the Palestinians. This conventional wisdom has been discredited by the AP’s own reporting, but somebody needs to send Karin Laub, the author of the piece on Haniyeh, a memo.
Reporters looking for a better explanation for the deepening poverty in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank should look elsewhere.
More from SNAPSHOTS
Mahmoud Abbas’ Diatribe Threatening Israel Included Bogus Canaanite Claim
September 10, 2019
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ recent anti-Israel diatribe that aired on PA TV was monitored and translated by Palestinian Media Watch (PMW). Excerpt: "I say to [Israel]: Every stone you have built on our land [...]
CNN Calls House’s Unifying Anti-BDS Vote ‘Divisive’
July 24, 2019
Yesterday, in an overwhelming vote of bipartisan support, the House of Representatives voted 398 to 17 to adopt a resolution opposing the anti-Israel BDS (boycott, divest, sanctions) campaign. Yet, CNN's headline casts the unifying vote [...]
NY Times Cites Poll, Hides Palestinian Support for Violence
July 9, 2019
The New York Times has struggled to accurately describe polls this year. In January, editor Jonathan Weisman misrepresented Pew polling data to describe a nonexistent surge in Israeli support for the United States under President [...]
CNN’s Zakaria Indulges Palestinian Propagandist Hanan Ashrawi
June 9, 2019
Fareed Zakaria’s weekly Cable News Network (CNN) program (grandiosely named “Global Public Square”) June 9 broadcast included a discussion of the current U.S. Middle East peace plan with guests Hanan Ashrawi (Palestinian Authority official) and [...]
In Robert Bernstein Obit, AFP Inappropriately References His Judaism
May 29, 2019
Robert Bernstein (Courtesy the New Press) In its obituary yesterday for American publisher Robert Bernstein, Agence France Presse inserted an inappropriate reference to the Human Rights Watch founder who later turned on the organization due [...]