See if you can spot what’s missing from this AP article about Al-Kidwa’s speech to the UN.
UNITED NATIONS (AP) – Palestinian Foreign Minister Nasser Al-Kidwa expressed pessimism Thursday about Israel’s intentions in the West Bank following its withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, demanding international action to stop expansion of settlements and the construction of a separation wall.
In a tough speech to the U.N. General Assembly, he said action to end these “illegal” and “inhuman” activities was essential “to safeguard the future of the Middle East and maintain the prospects for peace.”
While Al-Kidwa recognized that the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza was an important development, he accused Israel of leaving the strip “completely devastated” and called its occupation of Gaza “one of the worst injustices in recent history.”
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has reaped diplomatic rewards for ending the country’s 38-year Gaza occupation. In the past two weeks, Qatar, Pakistan and Indonesia have held high-level public meetings with Israel – a rare event for Muslim countries – and Sharon met Friday with Jordan’s King Abdullah II for their first talks in months.
The Palestinians are prepared to return to negotiations and to start quickly implementing the road map peace plan drafted by the so-called Quartet – the United States, the United Nations, the European Union and Russia, Al-Kidwa said.
Go ahead, read it all. I’ll wait.
Give up?
Not a word about ending terrorism, which is part and parcel of the Road Map obligations. Funny how that bit always seems to get overlooked by the mainstream media.
This is a perfect example of the media repeating the palestinian line in full, without any context whatsoever. No, wait. There was some.
In his speech Thursday to the U.N. summit, Sharon said the Palestinians are entitled to their own state and his country has no desire to rule them.
He urged reconciliation and compromise with Palestinians to end their conflict. But he said that after Israel’s Gaza withdrawal, it was up to the Palestinians to “prove their desire for peace” by halting terror and disarming militants.
Al-Kidwa said the Palestinians “will continue to exert efforts to impose law and order” and to build democracy, including holding elections at all levels. “Israel must stop its attempts to interfere in and sabotage these elections,” he said.
In the last three paragraphs, which most people never read. And which all news media know.
Doesn’t bother me, Meryl. Why should it bother you? Would it make a difference if the Palis agreed to end terrorism against Israel? They’ve agreed to do that dozens of times since the Oslo Accords, they’ve never done anything concrete to fulfill their agreements, and they suffer no consequences. The aid keeps rolling in, the anti-Israel resolutions keep rolling out, and the pressure on Israel to respond to empty promises–promises everyone knows are meanignless–keeps being rolled out.
But even in the last paragraph the Pali spokesliar never said anything about terrorism.
What bothers me, and I suspect what bothers Meryl, is that the Palis never DO anything to stop terrorism. Almost all Western news media outlets never point out this lack of action in their “reporting” of the conflict. The stress is always that Israel must do something more, either quoting some Pali spokesliar or some Western official.
I hope Sharon hangs tough about the ball being in the Palis’ court now. Time for them to actually stop the terrorism. If they cannot, they prove that they do not actually rule over the territory they claim to rule over. If they will not, well these are acts of war against Israel, and Israel is justified in responding to these acts. I might add that nearly everything the Palis do violates the international law on warfare. People who whine about nonexistent violations by Israel (like the “Jenin Massacre” that did not happen) ought to take note of that, but hypocritically they do not.
The one amusing thing about the Arab-Israeli conflict is how the Arabs boast for years about being at war with Israel, carry out acts of war, then when Israel hits back whine about how Israel smacked them and took them by surprise. Poor babies, those nasty Jews are just too tough for them.