The Washington Post’s Scott Wilson has published his account of Mitt Romney’s trip abroad, focusing on the GOP candidate’s time in Israel. It is an editorial disguised as a story–common for presidential campaigns–and includes snarky asides unworthy of lefty blog posts, let alone newspaper reporting. But the crux of the problem for Wilson is identified in the headline: he calls Romney’s comments about Palestinian culture “puzzling.” Because he does not quote anyone in the story calling those comments “puzzling,” it’s clear from the context that Wilson is the puzzled one.
So let’s help him out a bit. Of Romney’s comments on Palestinian culture as one factor in the lagging Palestinian economy, Wilson writes:
The assessment is one not widely shared within Israel, and suggested a lack of sustained study or nuanced understanding of the Israeli-Palestinian relationship.
Wilson does not provide any attribution to back that statement up, probably because it is demonstrably false. It is, in fact, quite easy to find those in Israel and their democratically-elected government officials expressing this idea. But perhaps we should ask the Palestinians what they think. In 1994, at the beginning of the Oslo process but decades after the Six-Day War created the current geopolitical setting, Eyad El-Sarraj, the founder and director of the Gaza Community Mental Health Programme, wrote the following:
Palestinians have to address taboos and bring into the open ideological, cultural and political weaknesses which have infiltrated their national movement and seriously damaged their individual and collective awareness. They have to address their dependency on the outside world, their self-indulgent image of the victim, their own cycle of violence and oppression, their conflict between religious and secular identity, and the erosion of their national identity. Above all they have to confront the loss of the dream of liberating all of Palestine and the accompanying grief. They will have to exercise democratic debate and respect the right to oppose. Only then will a new style of political and community leadership evolve.
Last year, Arab residents of eastern Jerusalem were asked, in a final peace deal in which all Israeli control and stewardship over the West Bank would cease and the new Palestinian state called East Jerusalem its sovereign capital, would they rather be citizens of Israel or Palestine? Respondents were also asked if they would move elsewhere in Israel specifically to avoid having to live under Palestinian rule. A plurality responded in favor of Israeli citizenship, even if they had to move. Why?
When asked to provide the top reasons they chose one citizenship over the other, those who chose Israeli citizenship stressed freedom of movement in Israel, higher income, better job opportunities and Israeli health insurance.
So there would be much more economic opportunity in Israel, even once the Palestinians were freed from the “occupation.” We could go on, but you get the point. As I said: Wilson’s claim is demonstrably false, as Professor Google would have told him immediately. Does Wilson quote anyone at all in the story, you ask? Yes he does:
“This really is an election about the economy,” said Hussein Ibish, a senior fellow at the American Task Force on Palestine, a nonprofit organization that promotes a two-state solution to the conflict.
Now, Ibish is a prolific Mideast commentator and has every right to register his opinion with reporters. But perhaps Ibish could have been balanced with an additional quote from someone with a slightly different perspective on ethnic conflict. After all, this is what Ibish thinks of Israel:
The system of ethnic discrimination imposed by military force and Israel’s “civil administration” in the occupied territories is by far the most extreme form of discriminatory abuse anywhere in the world today.
And you thought Darfur was bad! In any case, Wilson doesn’t need to quote a lot of “experts,” because he just offers his opinions. Here is a paragraph that belongs in the Newseum:
Romney’s advisers have argued that Obama — who ended the Iraq war, ordered the operation that killed Osama bin Laden and emphasized alliances at a time of austerity at home — is vulnerable in the area of foreign policy. Recent polling disagrees.
Wilson does not put quotes around that paragraph nor attribute it to White House Press Secretary Jay Carney. Perhaps that will be added to an updated version of the story. Until then, we can only hope the Post finds the Middle East slightly less puzzling in the future.
i was recently in Israel on a UJA mission. Our guides said repeatedly that what's published in Western media outlets like the NY, WaPo, et al. about life in Israel and the disputed territories more often than not reflects a startling degree of ignorance on the part of ostensibly knowledgeable reporters. The Scott Wilson piece that you cite illustrates this point. "The assessment is one not widely shared within Israel, and suggested a lack of sustained study or nuanced understanding…" The lack of attribution is so nauseatingly routine in what currently passes for elite journalism. Moreover, you are quite correct in intimating that it is the reporter himself who is in need of "study" and "understanding."
Even as regards the more clear eyed Palestinian commentators, however, one sees co0ncepts such as this, quoted above: n n"cultural and political weaknesses which have infiltrated their national movement" n nInfiltrated? n nTheir 'national movement' is nothing but a violent genocidal one, whose sole reason for existence is the negation of Israel. It was conceived as a weapon, camouflaged as a 'nationality'. To find it bankrupt, not only financially but also spirituality and culturally, is not only not surprising, but entirely expected. n nAnyhow, the entire 'fuss' about Romney's comments (which will actually help him among potential voters who would actually consider voting for him) misses the larger point. It is not just Palestinian 'culture' which is an underachiever, but Arab and indeed Islamic culture as a whole. n nBankrupt Greece translates more books and has more scientists that the entire Arab world.
Scott Wilson, who was the Post's correspondent in Jerusalem from 2004-2007, is a well-practiced hatchet-man specialized in discrediting Israel and anyone supporting it. He is a man with an Arabist anti-Zionist agenda and knows very well what he is doing. And the Post by progressively promoting him to ever more powerful positions gives him a license to spread his lies and deception all over the world.
You wrote: " It is an editorial disguised as a story–common for presidential campaigns–and includes snarky asides unworthy of lefty blog posts, let alone newspaper reporting." n nActually as mhloutbeltway pointed out it is common for Wilson's Middle East reporting whether or not he's covering a campaign. Actually, unfortunately it's all too common for most Middle East reporters. Wilson though is worse than most.
His claim to be puzzled is no doubt a lie. If he were telling the truth ,it would be a good thing because it would indicate thinking. Many are absolutely certain on matters where they are completely wrong. He is actually trying to cast doubt on Romneys positions and statements.
WaPo is no different than any other western media like CNN or the NYT. They use PLO and Hamas supplied stringers to do all their work for them. Not one in a thousand WaPo Mideast 'reports' speaks or reads Hebrew or Arabic at all.
In my neighborhood WaPo is considered a palestinian national newspaper. I think they should not keep it secret. Several British scientific (medical) journals (not Nature yet!) are officially co-published with some Arab states. So, WaPo and NYT should just admit this, especially on their tax returns.
The Arab response suggested (but did not say) that the lower per capital GDP $10,000 PA/$21,000 Israel, was likely due to the "occupation". In fact it was not an occupation, it was a liberation according to the Levy Report as the Jews were granted political rights on April 25, 1920 intended to vest when the Jews had attained a population majority.. And the 1967 liberation of CisJordan had the opposite effect. It benefitted the Arabs greatly. n1. Much longer life expectancy. n2. Drastically lowered infant mortality. n3, Increased income more than surrounding Arabs states. n4. Increased per capita GDP. n5. Greatly increased literacy rate. n6. Increased homes with running water. n7. Increased homes with electricity and gas n8. No Arab colleges before 1967, seven now. n nThe numbers were documented by Efraim Karsh in his article in Commentary, "What Occupation".
Scott can't help himself from adding how really dumb it was for Romney to ignore that, for the Palestinians, that economically vigorous Palestine is to be cultivated by settling "millions of Palestinian refugees and their descendants" in …. Israel. Sure sounds like a moderate and fiscally prudent economic program–what the hey, just settle your population … next door. But, for sure, what if the non-refugees put aside the politicide aspirations of the shtick, and decide, moving next door might beat living under the kleptomaniac buffoons spoon feeding Wilson his talking-points?
Yeh, settling the refugees in Israel hoping that the state’s national insurance “Bituach Leumi” will up their standard of living I suppose.
Pity Asaf Romirowsky’s paper on General Galloway, who was the head of UNWRA in the early 1950s, researched a Senate commission to study the “refugee” status and discovered the General’s comments about the refugees was not more widely read:
” In April of 1952, Sir Alexander Galloway, then head of the UNRWA for Jordan, said to our study group, and this is really a direct quote from what he said:
It is perfectly clear than the Arab nations do not want to solve the Arab refugee problem. They want to keep it as an open sore, as an affront against the United Nations, and as a weapon against Israel.
Then, by way of emphasis he said:
Arab leaders don’t give a damn whether the refugees live or die. ”
” Committee on Foreign Relations, Palestine Refugee Program, Hearings before the Subcommittee on the Near East and Africa of the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate, Eighty-Third Congress, First Session on the Palestine Refugee Program, May 20, 21, and 25, 1953 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1953), p. 103. ”
But of course the State Department wouldn’t want that spread around.
Give Mr. Wilson a break he is obviously not very bright and he works for a liberal propaganda organization. He love the kool-aid so much.r nI doubt if he has even been exposed to truth or facts in a very long time, so cut him some slack going thru life ignorant and stupid is hard enough.