The NYT Refuses to Call Israeli Occupation What It Is

Horhey · May 31, 2016

Just as climate change is still an open question, the occupation, which is universally recognized as such, even by the USG, is still just "alleged".

The New York Timess (and Clinton Campaigns) Abject Cowardice on Israel, The Intercept, May 26 2016

The Paper of Record refuses to call Israeli occupation what it is.

In January, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon delivered a speech to the Security Council about, as he put it, violence in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory, noting that Palestinian frustration is growing under the weight of a half century of occupation and that it is human nature to react to occupation. His use of the word occupation was not remotely controversial because multiple U.N. Security Resolutions, such as 446 (adopted unanimously in 1979 with 3 abstentions), have long declared Israel the illegal occupying power in the West Bank and Gaza. Unsurprisingly, newspapers around the world such as the Wall Street Journal, the Guardian, the BBC, the LA Times routinely and flatly describe Israeli control of the West Bank and Gaza in their news articles as what it is: an occupation.

In fact, essentially the entire world recognizes the reality of Israeli occupation with the exception of a tiny sliver of extremists in Israel and the U.S. Thats why Chris Christie had to grovel in apology to GOP billionaire and Israel-devoted fanatic Sheldon Adelson when the New Jersey Governor neutrally described having seen the occupied territories during a trip he took to Israel. But other than among those zealots, the word is simply a fact, used without controversy under the mandates of international law, the institutions that apply it, and governments on every continent on the planet.

But not the New York Times. They are afraid to use the word. In a NYT article today by Jason Horowitz and Maggie Haberman on the imminent conflict over Israel and Palestine between Sanders-appointed and Clinton-appointed members of the Democratic Party Platform Committee, this grotesque use of scare quotes appears:

A bitter divide over the Middle East could threaten Democratic Party unity as representatives of Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont vowed to upend what they see as the partys lopsided support of Israel.

Two of the senators appointees to the partys platform drafting committee, Cornel West and James Zogby, on Wednesday denounced Israels occupation of the West Bank and Gaza and said they believed that rank-and-file Democrats no longer hewed to the partys staunch support of the Israeli government. They said they would try to get their views incorporated into the platform, the partys statement of core beliefs, at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia in July.
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The refusal to use the word occupation without scare quotes is one of the most cowardly editorial decisions the New York Times has made since refusing to use the word torture because the Bush administration denied its validity (a decision they reversed only when President Obama in 2014 gave them permission to do so by using the word himself). This is journalistic malfeasance at its worst: refusing to describe the world truthfully out of fear of the negative reaction by influential factions (making todays article even stranger is that a NYT article from February on settlers use of Airbnb referred to illegal settler outpost deep in the occupied West Bank).

The cowardice of the NYT regarding Israel is matched only by the Clinton campaigns. Clinton has repeatedly vowed to move the U.S. closer not only to Israel but also to its Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. Pandering to Israel vowing blind support for its government is a vile centerpiece of her campaign.

The changes to the Democratic Party platform proposed by Bernie Sanders appointees such as Cornel West, Keith Ellison and James Zogby which Israel-supporting Clinton appointees such as Neera Tanden and Wendy Sherman are certain to oppose are incredibly mild, including echoing the international consensus in condemning the Israeli occupation. As the Israeli writer Noam Sheizaf put it this morning, the NYTs use of scare quotes is just as pathetic as the Democratic fear that their platform would actually say Palestinians deserve civil rights.

This craven posture is particularly appalling as Israel just this week has taken an even harder turn toward extremism, prompting its former Prime Minister, Ehud Barak, to warn that Israel has been infected by the seeds of fascism. While the former Israeli Prime Minister issues warnings that grave, establishment Democrats are petrified of even the most tepid stances.

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The NYT Refuses to Call Israeli Occupation What It Is

Horhey Well-Known Member

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The NYT Refuses to Call Israeli Occupation What It Is

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