Wanted: Recent History Tutorial for NY Times
Mahmoud Abbas: Refused Talks (Photo: Mohammed Salem/Reuters)
The New York Times is at it again. Today’s editorial blames Israel (first and foremost) for the lack of peace talks over the last couple of years, despite the fact that it is Mahmoud Abbas who has consistently refused to partake, while Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly called for face-to-face talks. The editorial states:
Since President Obama took office, the only direct negotiations between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and Mr. Abbas lasted a mere two weeks in September 2010.
Both sides share the blame with Mr. Obama and Arab leaders (we put the greater onus on Mr. Netanyahu, who has used any excuse to thwart peace efforts).
Yossi Sarid wrote much the same in Ha’aretz last year, and as Yishai Goldflam of Presspectiva (CAMERA’s Israeli site), wrote in a published letter at the time:
Benjamin Netanyahu’s publicly declared to the entire world, in opposition to his party’s platform and to the will of the majority of his voters, his support for a two state solution. Immediately afterwards, unprecedentedly, he froze construction in the West Bank and called upon Mahmoud Abbas to join him at the negotiating table. Only one month before the end of the moratorium, Abbas so kindly acquiesced as to meet Netanyahu as a result of American pressure, and a month later cancelled the talks because the moratorium had expired.
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 [...]