Get a load of this one from the AP. They’re not even trying to hide the anti-Israel editorializing anymore.
Arsonists torched a mosque in a West Bank village Monday, scrawling “revenge” on a wall in Hebrew and charring copies of the Muslim holy book in an attack that threatened to stoke tensions over deadlocked Mideast peacemaking.
Palestinians say they suspect hard-line Jewish settlers of setting the fire in the village of Beit Fajjar, near the city of Hebron. The attack is likely to hamper U.S. efforts to sustain month-old between Israelis and Palestinians, now deadlocked over settlement construction.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other senior Israeli officials condemned the arson attack in an apparent attempt to limit the political fallout.
A mosque was set on fire in an arson attack. Leading Israeli politicians condemned the attack. But the AP attributes a different meaning to the condemnations. They’re not condemnations. They’re an “attempt to limit the political fallout.”
Here’s one of those “attempts“:
The Defense Minister said that, “Whoever did this is a terrorist in every sense of the word, and intended to hurt the chances for peace and dialogue with the Palestinians. This was a shameful act that besmirched the State of Israel and its values.”
So the AP writer has reached into Ehud Barak’s mind and decided that the reason he stated the above was out of political necessity—not sincerity.
As always, the AP is breaking its own statement of values and principles.
But always and in all media, we insist on the highest standards of integrity and ethical behavior when we gather and deliver the news.
That means we abhor inaccuracies, carelessness, bias or distortions. It means we will not knowingly introduce false information into material intended for publication or broadcast; nor will we alter photo or image content. Quotations must be accurate, and precise.
It means we always strive to identify all the sources of our information, shielding them with anonymity only when they insist upon it and when they provide vital information – not opinion or speculation; when there is no other way to obtain that information; and when we know the source is knowledgeable and reliable.
Do I expect more from the AP? Nope. If they suddenly shaped up into an unbiased and respectable news organization, I’d lose half my post fodder.
By the way, they have never editorialized about Mahmoud Abbas “condemning” terrorist attacks, not even when the “condemnation” is in the order of “This hurts the Palestinian cause.”
Update: Quote by Barak added.
If this is the work of Israelis, settlers or otherwise, I hardly condone it.
On the other hand, I seem to recall Palestinian mobs destroying ancient Jewish holy sites as well as Torah scrolls–not printed books, the costly actual scrolls handwritten by scribes. And perhaps my memory is failing but I don’t seem to recall AP or anyone else mentioning this as an obstacle to peace, revelatory of Palestinian intransigence, or calling for Palestinian leadership to condemn and disavow the actions.