Bibi’s Speech to Congress and Media Reaction
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu received a very warm reception in Congress during his forceful, forthright speech, which laid out just what Israel is prepared to do — make painful concessions — and not prepared to do — put itself at risk of annihilation — to achieve a lasting peace with the Palestinians. Daled Amos provides a transcript and video of the speech here.
What was the reaction in the press?
The Los Angeles Times couldn’t wait to editorialize by proclaiming Netanyahu’s vision to be “hardline.” The article slyly implied flattery and chicanery on the part of Netanyahu with such phrases as “Netanyahu adopted the persona of an old friend”; Netanyahu “played to” …and “presented himself as”…
The New York Times article explained away Congress’ warm response — not by assuming that members might share Bibi’s vision, but — by reverting to a knee-jerk implication of a powerful Jewish lobby controlling them:
With elections coming up next year, lawmakers appeared eager to demonstrate their support for Israel as part of an effort to secure backing from one of American politics’ most powerful constituencies, American Jews.
The comments on the online article included, as is usual for the New York Times, many spiteful, and hate-filled diatribes against Israel, its leader, and the alleged powerful Jewish lobby, but there were also thoughtful and positive comments. Times editors, however, typically chose to highlight only an anti-Netanyahu comment.
But perhaps the most ludicrous media reaction was that of the AP’s Josef Federman, who faulted Bibi for presenting an Israeli vision and perspective, but not the Palestinian, anti-Israel arguments . Federman supplies the anti-Israel arguments himself and has the chutzpah to call his article ” FACT CHECK: Netanyahu speech ignores rival claims“. This is a new low for the AP, who have never levelled such criticism at Palestinian leaders. Nor has the AP “corrected” Palestinian claims with a “fact-check” that relays Israel’s claims. Unbelievable.
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