by Michael Berenhaus
Whom did the Israelis take the Golan Heights from again?
In "Netanyahu makes election vow to annex settlements in occupied West Bank" (4/7/19), the Post clearly and correctly states that the Golan Heights is "a plateau captured from Syria in 1967." The Post then obfuscates the issue of who owned the West Bank before Israel captured that territory. It describes the West Bank as "lands Israel captured in 1967." But whom were the lands captured from?
The Post has no policy of concealing the former owners of captured territory, as shown by the passage on the Golan Heights. So why the disparity?
The only possible reason is because the Post wants to hide the fact that Israel won the West Bank from Jordan. By omitting any mention of Jordan, the reporter misleads readers into thinking Israel took the West Bank from the Palestinians. That's the narrative the Post is selling. By no coincidence, it is also the Palestinian narrative.
Had Israel captured the West Bank from the Palestinians it would have made sense to call Israel an "occupying power." But that is not what happened. In reality, the West Bank is disputed territory — not occupied territory. The Jordanians illegally conquered the West Bank in a 1948 war to annihilate Israel. Israel subsequently wrested control of the territory from Jordan in a legally valid act of self-defense against another Jordanian attack in 1967. The West Bank was never Palestinian land. It could have been many times, but couldas and wouldas are meaningless.
The stubborn facts of history undermine the agenda of the Palestinians and their allies like the Post. Readers must wonder why a supposedly professional newspaper would propagate such a false narrative. Do the editors have an interest in discrediting Israel? An article on that question would make for an enlightening exposé.
The Post has no policy of concealing the former owners of captured territory, as shown by the passage on the Golan Heights. So why the disparity?
The only possible reason is because the Post wants to hide the fact that Israel won the West Bank from Jordan. By omitting any mention of Jordan, the reporter misleads readers into thinking Israel took the West Bank from the Palestinians. That's the narrative the Post is selling. By no coincidence, it is also the Palestinian narrative.
Had Israel captured the West Bank from the Palestinians it would have made sense to call Israel an "occupying power." But that is not what happened. In reality, the West Bank is disputed territory — not occupied territory. The Jordanians illegally conquered the West Bank in a 1948 war to annihilate Israel. Israel subsequently wrested control of the territory from Jordan in a legally valid act of self-defense against another Jordanian attack in 1967. The West Bank was never Palestinian land. It could have been many times, but couldas and wouldas are meaningless.
The stubborn facts of history undermine the agenda of the Palestinians and their allies like the Post. Readers must wonder why a supposedly professional newspaper would propagate such a false narrative. Do the editors have an interest in discrediting Israel? An article on that question would make for an enlightening exposé.
Michael Berenhaus
Source: https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2019/04/wapo_covers_up_information_to_make_israel_look_bad.html
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