by Hugh Fitzgerald
The grotesque imbalance of the NYT’s coverage of Israel - and of those who seek to destroy it.
More on the grotesque imbalance of the New York Times’ coverage of the State of Israel and those who would destroy it, and particularly that of the Times’ Ezra Klein, can be found here: “Another Jewish ‘Timesman’ Doesn’t Let Facts Affect His Opinion,” by Mitchell Bard, Algemeiner, February 2, 2024:
Third, as Klein says, it is true that the PA cooperates on security with Israel, but he leaves out that Israel also has prevented Hamas from taking over the West Bank and thereby strengthens the PA.
The PA’s security cooperation with Israel serves its own interests. It is Israel, not the PA, that has prevented Hamas from taking over the rule of the Palestinians in Judea and Samaria by constant raids on Hamas fighters operating in the West Bank. Some of the intelligence information that the IDF relies on in planning these raids comes from sources in the PA. These attacks on Hamas operatives in the West Bank have had the effect of strengthening the PA. Israel does this because it has correctly judged Hamas to be a much more menacing and violent enemy than the PA.
Fourth, if Israel was so determined to weaken the PA [as Klein claims], why did it repeatedly take steps to improve the economic situation, including allowing more than 100,000 Palestinians (and now we know potential spies) into Israel to work?…
Israel wanted to strengthen, not weaken. As the main part of its effort to rescue the PA from economic collapse, Jerusalem has provided work permits for 100,000 Palestinians from the West Bank — and 19,000 from Gaza — so that in Israel those workers could earn salaries that were from three to five times as large as what they could earn at home. Israel has never had a desire to cause economic misery to the Palestinians.
Klein says, “rather than raise Al Fatah up as a negotiating partner, he humiliated it.” The opposition to Abbas in the PA is partly related to Israel but primarily a function of his corrupt rule. What could Israel have done to “raise” him up? Abbas has refused to negotiate with Netanyahu since 2008. That’s right, the man being held up as Israel’s peace partner has spent the last 15 years avoiding talks while incentivizing terror, demonizing Israel and promoting the “Al-Aqsa mosque is in danger” libel….
How could Israel do more than it is already doing for Abbas? The IDF and Shin Bet launch punishing raids on Hamas groups in Judea and Samaria. The state of Israel provides 100,000 jobs to help the Palestinian economy in the West Bank stay afloat. If Abbas refuses to hold elections, and continues to steal aid money, there is nothing Israel can do about it.
The problem, as we see from the revelations about UNRWA schools—and what we already knew about the PA education system, its media and summer camps—is that young Palestinians have been indoctrinated with hatred for Jews and Israel, the gloriousness of jihad and martyrdom, and the belief that “resistance” will make Israel disappear, as it has from their maps. Why would any Israeli leader agree to a Palestinian state controlled by people educated in this system?…
Palestinians from childhood on are indoctrinated to hate Jews and to work for the disappearance of Israel, which will be replaced by a twenty-third Arab state. They are further instructed that “martyrdom” — death — while conducting jihad against the infidels is the supreme attainment, that guarantees a place in the Muslim version of heaven. Only a handful are likely to prove impervious to such indoctrination. These are the people who would rule a future Palestinian state, both in Gaza and the West Bank, if those who prate about a “two-state solution”were to get their way.
Like young Americans, Klein doesn’t know or care about how Palestinians are treated by their fellow Palestinians, the Lebanese or the Syrians. He only blames Israel for their plight. This selectivity and double standard exemplify the antisemitism problem today….
The Palestinians who live in Arab countries are almost everywhere denied he right to become citizens — Jordan is the exception — and many are also denied the right to practice the well-paid professions. In Lebanon, for example, Palestinians cannot become lawyers, doctors, or engineers. This is done in order to keep the Palestinian “refugees” from integrating into their host countries. Instead, they remain stateless, and thus are a standing reproach to Israel, for not providing them with the “right of return.”
Klein fails to understand that Netanyahu’s opposition to a Palestinian state is not his alone, but is now shared by three-quarters of Israelis. He fails to see that Abbas, who has refused to hold elections since 2006, and has helped himself to hundreds of millions of dollars in aid money, is wildly unpopular among the Palestinians — and Netanyahu had nothing to do with it. He pontificates about the “messianic settlers” who attack Palestinians in Judea and Samaria, but does not point out that those violent settlers represent 0.001% of the total settler population. He fails to appreciate that the IDF raids on Hamas operatives in the West Bank help the PA stay in power. Similarly, he never mentions the 100,000 Palestinians in the West Bank, who before October 7 were given permits to work in Israel and the settlements; nor does he allude to the 19,000 Palestinians from Gaza who were given similar permits to work in Israel, in order to provide an important economic boost to the Palestinian economy. Of course, after October 7, those work permits were no longer valid; the IDF uncovered evidence that some of the Palestinians who worked in Israel had supplied intelligence to Hamas on security arrangements in the Israeli kibbutzim.
Klein thinks that the young in America — members of the Gen-Z
generation — are best attuned to understand the situation in Israel, by
which he means they are the least sympathetic to the Jewish state. But
the older Americans, opinion polls show, become more sympathetic to
Israel as they get older, for they have had time to observe the behavior
of both sides, seen the meretriciousness and murderousness of the
Palestinians, and have even learned enough about the history of the
conflict to correct their previously shallow understanding.
Hugh Fitzgerald
Source: https://www.frontpagemag.com/new-york-times-ezra-klein-fails-to-understand-how-little-he-understands/
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