“An Israeli panel has approved plans for the first new Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank [sic] in two decades,” reported the Washington Post on June 7, attributing the statement to Israeli media reports.
So how is it possible that the Post has published article after article over the last 20 years about the growth of new settlements each representing another nail in the coffin of the peace process? Further, we hear the Post lament that settlement growth renders the formation of a contiguous Palestinian state impossible.
Truth is, the Post continuously misrepresents, omits, overplays, and even embellishes many aspects of the Israeli/Arab conflict. New rooms and new homes have been added to existing settlements over the past 20 years, but they have all been within the settlement boundaries and have not increased their size. But you wouldn’t know that by reading the Washington Post, which announces every new addition as that proverbial nail in the coffin or the final straw that ends the peace process.
Over the last few weeks, we have seen two special issues (11 pages in total!) noting not the 50 years since the miraculous Six-Day War victory of Israel over three Arab nations, but that Israel is an “occupier” as a result of that victory. This would never have happened had the king of Jordan abided by his promise not to attack Israel during the brief war, which ended with Israel winning the so-called West Bank and reuniting Jerusalem. The Post’s special issues, rife with glaring inaccuracies, emphasize the Palestinian narrative while ignoring the fact that Israel’s victory prevented its genocide.
The first six-page special issue, titled “Occupied: Year 50” (5/28/17) starts with a timeline of the conflict, beginning with “1948: Israel declares independence, Mass exodus of Palestinians.”
What that sounds like is that when the Israeli George Washington — David Ben-Gurion — proclaimed Israel’s independence in 1948, the Palestinians flooded out of the area as a result of the announcement! How can such distortion meet any journalistic ethical standards? In 1948, when Israel declared its independence after the UN affirmed its right to the land, five Arab armies viciously attacked Israel. This war was not just about winning land from Israel but about decimation. In the words of Azzam Pasha, the Arab League’s first secretary-general: “This will be a war of extermination and a momentous massacre which will be spoken of like the Mongol massacres and the Crusades.” Only the Arabs lost. Israel suffered horribly, losing one percent of its population — 6,000 people. It would be like America suffering three million fatalities. But it was one of the greatest victories in military history. The Six-Day War in 1967 was also a great victory against tremendous odds. Yes, Arabs were displaced by this war, but not because of any announcement or declaration!
The second five-page special issue, “The 50-Years War” (6/4/17), dealing with Jewish settlements, strangely described the Six-Day War as a “battle to capture territory.” Rather than extol the miracle of tiny Israel’s victory, the Post focuses on the losing side — those that attempted genocide of the Jewish people in their one homeland. Year after year, in story after story, the Post empathizes with suicide bombers who blow up discos, pizza shops, school buses filled with children, athletes at the Olympics, and with terrorists who knife Israeli citizens at random.
The story of Israel is a great one. Shame on the Washington Post for not telling it like it is.
