Western media is obsessed with presenting a positive spin on everything related to political development in Israel while trivializing the good and accentuating negative news on Palestine.
Admirably free in all aspects; but when it comes to discussing Israel, Western media loses its spark.
In 2003 the Government of Ariel Sharon effectively rejected the Road Map for peace by adding 14 conditions. Western media downplayed the provisions- rendering the peace plan dead on arrival- emphasizing only on Sharon’s pretense approval.
Now, the same managed media wants the public to believe that Israel’s anti-peace coalition lost seats in current Israeli election.
At first glance, this may appear speciously accurate. But the media fails to impart that the pro-peace camp did not get any new seats.
While Netanyahu may have lost direct party control over some members in the Knesset, the anti-peace camp however did not lose one single seat. For the exact number of seats, 11 went to the far more radical Jewish Home Party.
Israeli voters clearly decided to keep the anti-peace camp in power.
Still, Western media remained sanguine about a new self-proclaimed centrist party, Yesh Atid (There is a Future) for winning 19 seats in the new Knesset.
Ignoring that in 2009 election, another perceived centrist party Kadima won more seats than the Likud party. Yet the anti-peace coalition of rightwing parties- as in recent election- maintained overall majority in the Knesset.
In this election, Kadima was shattered into smithereens, reducing its seats from 28 to 2.
Unlike Kadima who ran on national and peace platform in 2009, Atid ran on popular domestic issues like demanding “equalizing the burden” by ending military service exemption for ultra-Orthodox Israelis.
Even though the new party received more than 55% fewer seats than the anti-peace camp, its leader declared he will not enter into the government unless Netanyahu was serious about peace negotiation.
In reality however and on issues most critical to Palestinians, Yair Lapid the former TV anchorman’s position does not differ much from the current anti peace government.
Under the heading “Lapid’s peace-process doublespeak,” Israeli newspaper Haaretz wrote that Atid’s “platform does little to distinguish it from the hawkish agendas.”
His first telling symbolic gesture was to inaugurate his election campaign in the illegal Israeli colony of Ariel.
On occupied East Jerusalem, he believes “we have no existence without (united) Jerusalem.”
He is so far out of touch according to Gershon Baski, an Israeli peace activist, he thinks by taking firm stand, he will “be able to convince the Palestinians to give up Jerusalem.”
According to Alon Pinkas, former Israeli consul general in New York, “Lapid’s position on peace negotiations is too vague” ultimately allowing Netanyahu to blame Palestinians for “demanding a freeze on settlement construction” for his failure to restart peace negotiation.
It is worth mentioning that even Lapid’s professed interest in “peace” is stemming from inhibited racism intended only to preserve an ethnocentric nation that is not “half Arab, half Jewish.”
Lapid belongs to the same school of deceptive Israeli leaders claiming support for two state solution and readiness to make “painful sacrifices” while impeding Palestinian statehood by separation walls and illegal “Jewish only” colonies.
Supplanting Hosni Mubarak’s services, Netanyahu is now seeking Jordan’s help for a photo op with the President of Palestine to pre-empt a forthcoming Western peace plan.
The Palestinian Authority must start acting like a recognized nation and not as an observer. Palestinians can’t afford to give Netanyahu more time to disintegrate what remains of Palestine.
With an indifferent world community and absent of tangible Arab support, the state of Palestine can’t afford another dormancy waiting for a new Israeli government or until the West recycle another peace plan for the same Israeli crowd while “Jewish only” colonies are sprouting all over Palestine.
Jamal Kanj writes frequently on Arab World issues and the author of “Children of Catastrophe, Journey from a Palestinian Refugee Camp to America”, Garnet Publishing, UK. Jamal’s articles can be read at www.jamalkanj.com, his email address is jkanj@yahoo.com
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