AP's One Sided Analysis Of Israel-Palestinian Talks

AP Calls Netanyahu a Hardliner But Actually The Abbas Position is The Hardline One

1.2.2014

With John Kerry supposedly brining new ideas as he travels to the Middle East Thursday for talks with Israel and the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority, The Associated Press published an analysis of the upcoming talks. Called "Analysis: Israel, Palestinians Face Hard Choices" the article is an excellent example of the AP's subtle tricks in presenting a pro-Palestinian bias.

For example the AP states:

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would likely have to recognize Israel's pre-1967 war frontier as the starting point for border talks with the Palestinians, an ideological reversal that would put him on a collision course with his hardline base.

AP is not being honest when it says the issue would pit Netanyahu against his hardline base. Every Israeli Prime Minister since Rabin has believed that a final agreement would create an Israel that approximated the 1949 armistice lines. This is part of the mainstream media's attempt to label Netanyahu and his party as somehow hardliners. Especially when one considers that the Israeli government recognizes the need for a Palestinian State, but the Palestinians do not recognize the existence of a Jewish State. It has always been the position of Israeli governments that the final boarders are subject to negotiations, not a first step. This was true when Labor and Kadima led the government; it is true now.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas fears he'll be pressured to recognize Israel as the homeland of the Jewish people, a step he believes would abrogate the rights of Palestinian refugees and their descendants.

Notice how the AP describes the Israelis as hardliners, but "poor" Abbas as worrying that he will have to recognize Israel as the Jewish State. Actually, the Abbas position is a hardline position.

While the number of Palestinian refugees in 1949 was somewhere around 800,000, today the number is over 4 million. The Palestinian refugees is the only example in history where the number of refugees has grown without a population shift. The UN counts the original refugees, their children, grandchildren, first cousin twice removed on their mother’s side, friends etc. as refugees. The Jewish refugees from Arab countries, 900,000, were absorbed by Israel and other countries.

The reason for this artificial growth is that one of the stated Palestinian goals is to flood Israel (within the green lines) with Palestinian Muslims. Being a democracy, if Israel allows herself to be flooded with millions of those 1948 refugees' and descendants of those 1948 refugees, she will cease to be the Jewish State. Instead Israel will be just another Muslim country in the Middle East.

That is why Abbas has taken the hardline position of refusing to recognize Israel as the Jewish State, which was a UN Decree. United Nations Resolution 181, the original partition resolution passed by the UN in November 1947, called for dividing Palestine into Independent Arab and Jewish States. Abbas' hardline refusal is part of the stated strategy to destroy Israel.

The article continues in that manner, talking about the anti-peace, hardline Israelis and the Palestinian's being forced to make concessions - even though in this round of negotiations, only Israel has made concession (releasing terrorists in jail for their murderous acts).

Near the end, the Associated Press adds a direct lie:

Palestinians argue that recognizing Israel as a Jewish state would mean dropping the demand for a right of return and also forfeiting the rights of Israel's 1.7 million Arab citizens. The Palestinians have already recognized the state of Israel and believe this is sufficient.

Israel already considers itself the Jewish State, and it's 1.7 million Arab citizens have full rights of citizenship, this will not change whether or not Abbas clings to his hardline position of not recognizing the Jewish State of Israel.