What media bias?

Count the number of times that the words “hardliner” and “Avigdor Lieberman” will be used from now until he is no longer a part of the Olmert government.

I’ve never seen him described as anything but.

Israel Cabinet to integrate hardliners
JERUSALEM — The Israeli Cabinet voted overwhelmingly Monday to bring into the government a hawkish party that opposes ceding territory to the Palestinians and wants to redraw Israel’s borders to exclude many Israeli Arabs.

The vote, which still needs parliamentary approval, gives Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s coalition a commanding majority in parliament. But the inclusion of the hardline Yisrael Beiteinu party likely puts an end to Olmert’s election campaign promise to pull out of much of the West Bank.

By the way, that redrawing of borders? The offer is to trade some Israeli Arab towns to the palestinians in exchange for towns that Israel would like to keep. Love the way the AP puts it, eh?

And yet, the media will not call Hamas a terrorist organization directly. They will use the weasel words “called a terrorist organization by the U.S., the UN, and the EU” instead.

You see, everyone but Israelis get the benefit of the doubt, even though Hamas has claimed dozens of terrorist attacks that killed or wounded thousands of Israeli civilians. But that’s not enough to be known as a terrorist group by the AP.