But claiming there's some kind of systematic bias against Israel in US papers of any stripe is pretty weird. What I see is lots of people willing to jump on any less than glowing mention of Israel as "bias", even if it's just half of some on one side/ on the other side thing
Win, I never volunteered to come up with a comprehensive list of pro-Palestinian coverage, so I'm not going to feel bad about having failed to do it. I will agree with you this far -- there is no big pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel bias in the American papers, with the exception of the LA Times, which is quite overtly pro-Palestinian. (Aside from their news coverage, they gave op-ed space to a Palestinian the other day who told LA Times readers that the Jews had constituted only 5% of the population of Palestine in 1948. Guess they don't feel the need to fact-check op-ed writers)
What is more widespread is the liberal, criticize-both-sides-evenly, Oslo-has-to-work mindset that by now I have come to think of as Chamberlain rationality. It is the mindset that believes absolutely that all that prevents peace is more Israeli concessions, and will not notice any words or deeds that say different. By now, I consider proponents of this attitude more wilfully blind than was Neville Chamberlain; after all, when Hitler attacked Poland, Chamberlain admitted that he had misjudged the man. Yossi Beilin has never admitted anything. |
