In January 2016, on the day Israel buried a pregnant woman stabbed to death by a Palestinian terrorist, the U.S. Ambassador to Israel publicly criticized what he viewed as a double standard in Israelis law enforcement that allows for “unchecked” vigilantism in the West Bank. Israel’s prime minister responded that the remarks were “unacceptable and incorrect.” (The ambassador later expressed regret for the timing of his comments.)

It took the New York Times only hours to report that the Israeli prime minister had critiqued the U.S. ambassador to Israel, and four days to slam that critique as “unusually personal and unfair” in an editorial.

Two years later, in March 2018, the Palestinian leader slurred the American ambassador as a “son of a dog.”

The time it took for the newspaper to report on that “unusually personal” slur can also be counted in days: 448 in all.

Yes, well over a year after Mahmoud Abbas hurled curses at Ambassador David Friedman’s mother, the New York Times has finally ended Abbas’s undiplomatic immunity and printed his words for all to see — even if only because Friedman recounted them in an interview with the newspaper.

It wouldn’t be “unusually personal and unfair” to point out that this wasn’t a scoop by the New York Times.

For our original coverage of the Times double standard relating to the ambassadors’ statements, see here.

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 Dan Senor (Republican Party foreign policy adviser). Video of the broadcast does not seem to be available online &#8212 at least not readily available &#8212 but one can read an accurate transcript of it.

The peace plan, only in an early planning stage now (but already rejected by Ashrawi and her fellow Palestinian leaders), puts forth a $50 billion, 10-year investment plan for the Palestinian Authority (PA), Jordan, Egypt and Lebanon, with more than half for the PA.

Note that Ashrawi is the only known professing Christian in the otherwise Muslim Palestinian Legislative Council of the PA under Mahmoud Abbas. As a fluent speaker of English, she has often acted as a spokesperson for the PA. Ashrawi, although lauded in the West as a voice for peace and moderation, has, among other numerous blameworthy utterances (more below), endorsed the murder of Israeli soldiers and Jewish settlers.

None of Ashrawi’s several misleading claims were challenged.

Key excerpts

Zakaria cued Ashrawi: “The outlines [of the plan] appear to be [that] the Palestinians are given a certain amount of resources for economic development … but not the core demands of statehood …”

Predictably, Ashrawi rejected the plan which would bail out the PA ruled West Bank Palestinians who are in dire economic straits. The PA has other fish to fry &#8212 a nationalism-cloaked generally Islamism-based agenda (more below).

Ashrawi resorted to typical verbiage for her,

This [American] administration has unilaterally taken concrete steps on the ground that are totally prejudicial and illegal and that are preventing any kind of viable or any kind of legal or any kind of acceptable peace plan.

The issue of Jerusalem, the issue of refugees, the annexation of the Golan, the total defunding of the Palestinians [of millions of American taxpayer dollars] … legalizing settlements, all these are steps and positions that are illegal … [and] in a very, very patronizing and racist way [such] that the Palestinians are on probation.

Senor commented,

[T]his is in the context of the gradual soft normalization that’s going on between the Israeli government and Arab governments throughout the Sunni world… It’s debatable whether or not the Palestinian leadership is the future or the past. We’re [United States] going to get this process going. They’ll [Palestinian rulers] either show up or they won’t… [But] aren’t young Palestinians going to look at that and say why aren’t we part of this?

Zakaria asked Ashrawi: “Is it possible that the Sunni Arabs are now aligning themselves so closely or increasingly closely with Israel that they will not spend a lot of time, energy or political capital defending some core demands of the Palestinians and instead be more interested in better relations with Israel?”

Ashrawi responded,

Well, this is one way in which this American administration has been trying to reward Israel, to normalize Israel within the Arab world, to deliver to Israel the Arab world and at the same time to maintain its occupation. If anybody has any knowledge of the context of the history of the core issues they will understand that no Arab leader, no matter how autocratic, is going to accept first of all Israel’s annexation of Jerusalem or the negation of Palestinian refugee rights, or maintaining the Palestinians under occupation.

Debunking Ashrawi’s propaganda

Ashrawi issues a litany of falsehoods and distortions claiming illegality and racism by the United States related to the issues of financial grants, annexation of the Golan, status of Jerusalem, “occupation,” West Bank Jewish settlements and refugee rights.

• Ashrawi falsely and preposterously claims that the U.S. termination of millions of dollars in grants to the Palestinians is illegal.
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