No one ever lost money betting against peace between Israelis and Palestinians.... It would be far better if The New York Times waited until the plan was released and then commented on its specific provisions rather than stacking the deck against it by quoting only its most strident critics.
There are those who will criticize any plan, no matter how positive it may be, if it emanates from the Trump administration. When President Trump moved the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem and recognized Israel's sovereignty over the Golan Heights, many Democrats who would have favored such moves if they had been done by Barack Obama, opposed them only because these same moves were done by President Trump. These Democrats do not want to see Trump succeed at anything, even if his success would be good for America, for Israel and for peace.
If the editors of The New York Times refuse to separate opinion and analysis from hard reporting, every reader has an obligation to make that separation for herself or himself. Bear this in mind when you read The New York Times.
The New York Times seems determined to kill the proposed Trump Middle East peace plan before it is even made public. In the guise of news, the Times provided "analysis" in the news section, which was, in reality, an editorial. Readers must be wary.... (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)
The New York Times seems determined to kill the proposed Trump Middle East peace plan before it is even made public. In a recent article, it quoted only nay-sayers and critics, who without having even seen the plan have declared its demise. In the guise of news, the Times provided "analysis" in the news section, which was, in reality, an editorial. This has become more and more common on the news pages of The New York Times. The separation of news from opinion is in the highest tradition of journalism, but The New York Times seems determined to knock down that wall of separation, especially when it comes to subjects on which its editors and publishers have strong opinions. Among these subjects are both Israel, which can do no right, and Donald Trump, who is always wrong. When these two subjects come together, as they do with regard to the Trump peace plan, readers must be wary of accepting news reports as objective.
One of the Arabs who have dared to speak the truth about Hamas and Islamic Jihad is Nadim Koteich, a prominent Lebanese journalist, who recently accused Islamic Jihad of starting the last round of fighting with Israel.
In an interview with the Lebanese LDC TV channel, Koteich said that Hamas and Islamic Jihad, representing the Muslim Brotherhood and Iran respectively, should have turned the Gaza Strip after Israel's withdrawal in 2005 into an opportunity for a national Palestinian compromise.
Instead, he said, the two groups have "thwarted all opportunities for peace" and have ended up in a prison called Gaza."
Such voices from some Palestinians and Arabs are a sign they may have finally woken up to realize that Palestinian leaders, particularly Hamas and Islamic Jihad, are leading their people towards the abyss. If the voices of the critics grow, then there will be hope that one day the extremist camp among the Palestinians will be weakened.
The Palestinian Hamas movement that rules the Gaza Strip has never tolerated any form of criticism. Hamas claims that Palestinian Authority and Fatah leaders who dare to speak out against it are "traitors" and "collaborators" working with the "Zionist enemy." Pictured: Masked Hamas gunmen in the Gaza Strip. (Image source: Abid Katib/Getty Images)
The Palestinian Hamas movement that rules the Gaza Strip has never tolerated any form of criticism. It does not accept any criticism from Palestinians living under its rule in the Gaza Strip. It does not accept any criticism from its rivals in the Palestinian Authority (PA) and its ruling Fatah faction. It certainly does not accept any criticism from Israel or the United States.
Now, Hamas is saying that it does not tolerate any criticism from Arabs. Hamas claims that Palestinian Authority and Fatah leaders who dare to speak out against it are "traitors" and "collaborators" working with the "Zionist enemy."
Arab media personalities who recently criticized Hamas and its allies in the Gaza Strip have now been placed on its list of "traitors" and "collaborators."
A leading Republican lawmaker, Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), also the ranking Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, has pointed out that recent intelligence obtained about Iran's threat was extremely detailed.
These are simply preemptive measures that any rational state would take in the face of those clear threats. They were being taken to save the lives of American citizens and prevent the world's official leading state sponsor of terrorism from destabilizing the region.
What do critics of the Trump administration expect the American government to do...? Do these critics want the Trump administration to ignore Iran and its terror groups until another terrorist act like 9/11 occurs? Or is it possible that these critics, deep-down, do not care about U.S. national security and the lives of ordinary citizens?
According to leaked reports, Qassem Soleimani, the head of the Quds Force, the elite branch of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), recently traveled to Iraq and instructed the leaders of Iraqi Shiite militia groups, which operate under the name Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), to "prepare for proxy war". Pictured: Iraqi PMF militia commanders with Iranian advisors during Hawija offensive in Iraq, on September 27, 2017. (Image source: VOA video screenshot/Wikimedia Commons)
While plans were being concocted to harm or murder Americans, it is mind-boggling that people -- even entire governments -- were criticizing the Trump administration for preparing preemptive measures against multiple credible threats from the Iranian government and its forces.
While people were squabbling over the choices the Trump administration was making, the Iranian leaders, known to have mastered conducting asymmetric warfare, were giving directives to kidnap and kill American soldiers.
A leading Republican lawmaker, Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), also the ranking Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, has pointed out that recent intelligence obtained about Iran's threat was extremely detailed.
"To the extent I can discuss it, it was human intelligence," he said, and added that, "One of the Hezbollah cells is known for its kidnapping and killing operations, and their directive was to go in and kill and kidnap American soldiers."
Russian President Valdimir Putin is actively cultivating a network of contacts in EU member states with the aim of building a pro-Russian bloc in the next EU parliament, one that will be active in calling for the sanctions to be lifted.
Concerns about Russian influence have also been raised in France, Italy, Greece, the Netherlands and Germany, while questions remain as to whether Moscow tried to interfere in Britain's 2016 referendum on leaving the EU.
Elsewhere Moscow has worked hard to forge closer relations with Hungary and Bulgaria, two former Soviet satellites that appear to prefer maintaining good links with Russia over their support for the EU.
As part of his effort to broaden his ties with pro-Russian states, Mr Putin is now focusing on the Czech Republic, where the Kremlin is actively engaged with the country's pro-Russian president, Miloš Zeman, as well as Andrej Babiš, the controversial prime minister.... Certainly, from Moscow's perspective, adding the Czech Republic to the burgeoning list of EU states and political parties with pro-Russian sympathies can only strengthen its efforts to undermine the EU's efforts to maintain a united front against Russia.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is now focusing on the Czech Republic, where the Kremlin is actively engaged with the country's pro-Russian president, Miloš Zeman, as well as Andrej Babiš, the controversial prime minister. Pictured: Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with President of the Czech Republic Milos Zeman, in Moscow on November 21, 2017.
No one is working harder to achieve a successful outcome from this week's European Union elections than Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Even though there is little prospect of Russia ever wanting to join the family of EU nations, that has not stopped Mr Putin from intensifying his efforts to expand his influence over those countries that are members of the European trade bloc.
Consequently, at a time when Moscow is desperate to have the sanctions lifted that have been imposed in response to various Russian acts of provocation, such as last year's Salisbury poisoning, Mr Putin is investing much time and energy to ensure that a strong pro-Russian lobby is elected to the new EU parliament following Thursday's Europe-wide ballot.
"What Erdogan refers to as 'relocation' was actually the genocidal deportation of civilian populations --mainly women, children and the elderly -- to the very interior of Asia Minor. These populations were not simply relocated to another place, contrary to what the Turkish state claims. They were sent to concentration and extermination camps or remote places in the interior to be slaughtered or to die from exposure, exhaustion, hunger or epidemics -- either on the way to, or at the place of, their destinations." — Vasileios Meichanetsidis, an Athens-based genocide scholar and editor of the 2012 book, The Genocide of the Ottoman Greeks, in an interview with Gatestone Institute.
Pictured: Armenian civilians, escorted by Ottoman soldiers, marched through Harput to a prison in nearby Mezireh (present-day Elazig), April 1915. (Image source: American Red Cross/Wikimedia Commons)
At a symposium in Ankara on April 24 -- the 104th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide -- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan repeated his distortion and denial of the 1915 mass murder of Christians at the hands of Ottoman Turks. "The relocation of the Armenian gangs and their supporters who massacred the Muslim people, including women and children, in eastern Anatolia, was the most reasonable action that could be taken in such a period," Erdogan said. This quote was then posted on the official "Turkish Presidency" Twitter page.
"Erdogan's statement was factually flawed, deceptive and insulting," Vicken Babkenian, an independent researcher for the Australian Institute for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, told Gatestone in a recent interview.
Babkenian, a descendant of genocide survivors on both sides of his family, explained:
The leaders of the Palestinian Authority (PA) walked away from the negotiating table a long time ago and show no interest in returning. They have continually refused to do what the Trump administration has asked: stop funding terrorism. They have shown again and again that they do not want a state living peacefully alongside Israel; they want to displace Israel. They have rejected the most generous proposals made by Israeli prime ministers, such as one made by Ehud Olmert in 2008, which included a near-total withdrawal from West Bank and the end of Israeli control of Jerusalem's Old City.
The Middle East scholar, Daniel Pipes, observing that Israel's leaders shy away from victory, writes: "The only way for the conflict to be resolved is for one side to give up."
"[F]iring 600 rockets at civilian targets in a neighboring country is an act of war... and as such it grants the nation-state [Israel] the authority under the international law of armed conflict not just to disable the specific military assets used to carry it out but to destroy those who carried it out... It's time for the world community to stop imposing these double standards on Israel, and start doing what international law requires: holding Hamas responsible for the devastation that results from Israel's legal, necessary, and proper responses to its provocations. Only then will Hamas know that if it sows the wind, it could truly reap the whirlwind..." — David French, National Review, May 6, 2019.
Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Gaza, bordering Israel's south, have up to 20,000 rockets and missiles pointed at Israel. More than 150,000 rockets and missiles are deployed in Iran's proxy country to Israel's north, Lebanon. Pictured: A house in the town of Yehud, Israel, destroyed by a rocket fired by Hamas from Gaza, July 22, 2014. (Image source: IDF/Wikimedia Commons)
On May 5 and 6, 700 rockets were fired from Gaza into Israeli territory in less than 48 hours. It was the most intensive rocket offensive on Israel to date. Four people were killed: three Israelis and one Palestinian Arab worker. One of the Israelis was hit in his car by an anti-tank missile. The Israeli military retaliated and resumed targeted killings. One was to a Hamas member, Hamed al-Khoudary, considered responsible for the transfer of Iranian funds to the armed factions in Gaza. On May 6, a spokesman from Islamic Jihad and Hamas announced a ceasefire and said they had got "what they wanted".
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a short statement: "We struck a powerful blow against Hamas and Islamic Jihad. The campaign is not finished, and it will require patience and careful judgment. We're prepared for its continuation".
President Trump should be lauded for working toward a withdrawal from Afghanistan, where 14,000 U.S. troops still remain. But he should not expect to leave behind a peaceful situation in the failed state, which is made up of a complex web of tribal divisions and hostilities.
Yet another factor militating against national unity is that Pashtun clans appear not to view Afghanistan's non-Pashtun ethnic minorities as equal partners in a future Afghanistan.
These Persian, Mongol and Turkic peoples, based upon their past armed resistance to Pashtun attempts to control the whole of Afghanistan, will most likely fight to maintain their autonomy. This historical reality alone should be sufficient cause for U.S. policy-makers to abandon the seemingly impossible task of building a unified, democratic, pro-Western Afghanistan.
Sadly, no amount of blood, money or time spent in Afghanistan has been, or possibly will be, able to fashion it into a peaceful, united and democratic country.
Sadly, no amount of blood, money or time spent in Afghanistan has been, or possibly will be, able to fashion it into a peaceful, united and democratic country. Pictured: U.S. Army soldiers carry a critically wounded American soldier on a stretcher to an awaiting helicopter, on June 24, 2010 near Kandahar, Afghanistan. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
In his State of the Union address on February 5, U.S. President Donald Trump said that his administration was "holding constructive talks with a number of Afghan groups, including the Taliban... [in order] to be able to reduce our troop presence and focus on counter-terrorism."
Trump continued, "We do not know whether we will achieve an agreement — but we do know that after two decades of war, the hour has come to at least try for peace."
On April 26, following a meeting in Moscow on the status of the Afghan "peace process," representatives of the U.S., China, and Russia released the following joint statement:
"We have tasers, but they are stored in a closet because of political cowardice." — Spokesperson, Municipal Police of Bilbao.
In Madrid, an elderly couple returning home from vacation discovered that their apartment had been "occupied" by African migrants. When a camera crew from the Madrid television channel Telecinco went to investigate, the migrants destroyed the camera.... Spain's notoriously lethargic justice system now rules on who is the apartment's rightful owner.
The Madrid city council, run by Mayor Manuela Carmena, in a case study of political correctness run amok, ordered police to keep out of the neighborhood of Lavapiés. The result is that illegal immigrants, far from facing the threat of deportation, are now secure in the knowledge that their violent actions have empowered them effectively to take control of an entire neighborhood of a major European capital.
The Madrid city council, run by Mayor Manuela Carmena, in a case study of political correctness run amok, ordered police to keep out of the neighborhood of Lavapiés, one of the most "multicultural" districts of the Spanish capital, to "avoid situations of tension." Pictured: Police officers in Lavapiés on November 12, 2015. (Image source: Luis Sánchez de Pedro Aires/Wikimedia Commons)
Six African migrants gang-raped a 12-year-old girl in a small town near Madrid, but Spanish authorities kept information about the crime hidden from the public for more than a year, apparently to avoid fueling anti-immigration sentiments.
On March 15, 2018, the 12-year-old girl was playing in a park in Azuqueca de Henares with several other girls when, at around one o'clock in the afternoon, six migrants — five Moroccans and one Nigerian — approached the playground. They carried two of the girls off to a nearby abandoned building, but then let one of them go after discovering that she was a Muslim. The migrants, aged between 15 and 20, grabbed the 12-year-old by her arms and legs and took turns raping her, first anally and then vaginally, for nearly an hour.
by Jiri Valenta and Leni Friedman Valenta • May 20, 2019 at 4:00 am
"My main contribution was revealing the flaws in the détente policy and urging a policy designed to reform the Soviet Union through a strategy of economic denial." In other words, the USSR could be changed from within by raising the costs of its aggression. — Richard Pipes.
Daniel Pipes argues that, ironically, the Palestinians would actually fare far better if they were defeated: they could end their fantasies of genocide and, like post-WWII Germany, finally start to build a constructive and flourishing civil society.
"The hardest thing for Westerners to understand is... the nature of the enemy's ultimate goal... to apply the Islamic law (the Shari'a) globally. In U.S. terms, it intends to replace the Constitution with the Qur'an.... now it's become widely accepted that, in Bernard Lewis' words, 'Europe will be Islamic by the end of the century.'" — Daniel Pipes, "The Islamic States of America?", FrontPageMagazine.com, September 23, 2004.
"Although the moderate Muslims appear -- and in fact are -- weak, they have a crucial role to play, for they alone can reconcile Islam with modernity..." — Daniel Pipes, Introduction, Militant Islam Reaches America.
Richards Pipes (left), and his son, Daniel Pipes. (Image sources: Wikimedia Commons)
Two iconoclasts, the intrepid duo, are the late Baird Professor Emeritus of Harvard University, Richards Pipes, and his son, Daniel Pipes.
Whereas Richard Pipes, a "world authority" or the doyen of historians of Russia, set as his life's priority analyzing and debunking to Western civilization the naïve romantic utopia of Bolshevism and its Soviet Pied Pipers of tyranny, Daniel Pipes, a global expert on the Middle East, similarly analyses another civilization. His mission has been, through voluminous writing and various projects in defense of Western civilization, to awaken Americans to the modern-day threats of Islamist terrorism, religious coercion and mass-immigration.
"The assailants asked the Christians to convert to Islam, but the pastor and the others refused. They ordered them to gather under a tree and took their Bibles and mobile phones. Then they called them, one after the other, behind the church building where they shot them dead." — Local Christian, reported by World Watch Monitor, May 2, 2019.
"Much of the Islamic anger in Burkina Faso has to do with the teaching of so-called Western thoughts and ideals. Besides churches, schools are also a favorite target of the militants, who are pushing to make the country an Islamic state and impose Sharia Law... Of 2,869 schools in Burkina Faso, 1,111 have been closed in the last three years as a direct result of Islamic extremist violence." — James Murphy, The New American, May 16, 2019.
As with other African Islamic terror groups, the motivating ideology fueling the terrorists of Burkina Faso is distinctly Islamic and jihadi in nature. For example, after eight Muslims were arrested for their role in terrorist attacks that killed 14, their prosecutor said, "they all carried on their foreheads or had white bands on which were written in Arabic the following expression — translated as — 'there is no god but Allah and Muhammad is His Messenger.'" — Africa News, July 3, 2018.
When five assailants opened fire on the French embassy in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso in March 2018, they were heard to cry the jihad's ancient war cry, "Allahu Akbar" ("Allah is the greatest."). Pictured: A street in Ouagadougou. (Image source: iStock)
Last Sunday, May 12, in the small West African nation of Burkina Faso, as many as 30 armed Islamic terrorists stormed a Catholic church, slaughtered at least six Christian worshippers — including the officiating priest — then burned the church to the ground.
Ousmane Zongo, the mayor of Dablo, where the attack occurred, recalled the incident:
"Towards 9:00am, during mass, armed individuals burst into the Catholic Church... They started firing as the congregation tried to flee.... They burned down the church, then shops and a small restaurant before going to the health centre where they searched the premises and set fire to the head nurse's vehicle.... The city is filled with panic. People are holed up at home. Shops and stores are closed. It's practically a ghost town."
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif has acknowledged that.... if anyone notices the Islamic Republic it is because its leaders are or pretend to be anti-American. In other words, anti-Americanism upgrades a ramshackle and incompetent regime that is visibly incapable of running a kebab-shop let alone a modern developing society. Zarif says that without anti-Americanism we would, at best, "be something like Pakistan". And, he adds, who cares about Pakistan?
"Our solution is clear. In response to the cost of economic sanctions imposed on us we have to impose costs on the other side so that this war is no longer one-sided.... We have a free hand in striking economic blows at the enemy. America's allies in the region, that is to say Saudi Arabia and the Emirates, are heavily dependent on two things: oil and the glass towers they have built around the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea... We must absolutely, hit the vital vein of those two countries, that is to say their oil exports. And we can do this in the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea. Such an operation will, without a doubt, force Saudi and Emirati leaders to seek peace with Iran." — Kayhan, the day before the sabotage of four ships in the UAE port of Fujairah.
It is not enough to be anti-American or even anti-Trump to be automatically classed on the side of the angels. It is possible to be anti-American and anti-Trump and yet be a thoroughly obnoxious oppressor of the people and warmonger.
Pictured: The port of Fujairah, United Arab Emirates. (Image source: Rizwan Ullah Wazir/Wikimedia Commons)
One of the problems with a dispassionate discussion of matters related to Iran today is that the issue has become too ideological to allow rational, not to say clinical, examination. Taking part in a televised panel the other evening to discuss the "sabotage" of four ships in the UAE port of Fujairah, I noted that there was as yet no evidence to show who had been behind the operation. At the same time, I noted that a leading daily in Tehran had urged the launching of precisely such operations just a day before the Fujairah attack.
Needless to say, I was attacked on all sides. Some claimed that by suggesting there was no evidence regarding the authorship of the attack, I was trying to whitewash the mullahs. Others claimed that by reminding people that such an operation had been urged in the daily Kayhan, representing the views of "Supreme Guide" Ali Khamenei, meant that I wished to incriminate Tehran to please "American warmongers."
The official Facebook page of Turkey's pro-government daily, Sabah, for example, is filled with praise for the destruction of the cathedral.
Sadly, Islamic supremacism not only targets the churches of Western Christians. It targets Yazidi, Zoroastrian, Buddhist and Hindu temples too. These religious minorities in the Muslim world are completely vulnerable, defenseless and severely persecuted.... In many Muslim countries, Muslim-on-Muslim violence is also quite commonplace. The Islamic hatred of different religious groups is not about geography -- the East or the West. It is about religious faith.
What is heartbreaking is that arson and other forms of desecration of churches have been going on in France and other countries on a regular basis, with barely a mention by the media or Western governments.
Pictured: Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris burns as firefighters battle the flames, on April 15, 2019. (Photo by Veronique de Viguerie/Getty Images)
French authorities were quick to rule out arson as the cause of the devastating blaze at the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris on April 15. Whatever the final investigation reveals, many extremist Muslims in Turkey were equally swift in their celebration of the fire that has demolished large parts of the historic structure.
The official Facebook page of the pro-government daily, Sabah, for example, is filled with praise for the destruction of the cathedral.
To advance his goal, Ashraf Jabari recently announced the establishment of a new party that calls for focusing on economic prosperity for Palestinians. The Reform and Development Party seeks to solve the economic problems of the Palestinians, particularly high unemployment, he said. "We have an army of university graduates who are unemployed. We've reached a situation where a young [Palestinian] man holding a Master's degree in law has to work as a street vendor because he can't find work."
Instead of giving Jabari a chance to carry out his initiative, Palestinians have waged a massive smear campaign against him, with many denouncing him as a "traitor" and "collaborator" with Israel and Jews. Some Palestinians have even gone as far as calling for his arrest or execution.
The upcoming peace plan, according to various reports, talks about giving the Palestinians billions of dollars and raising money for them from wealthy Arab countries. Yet, as Jabari's case makes clear, the Palestinians are less invested in gaining economic stability than they are in hating Israel.
For Palestinians, the financial aid is a cynical attempt to lure them away from their struggle against Israel -- and no Palestinian leader has the stomach to face the threats that Jabari is currently confronting. So, far from any "deal of the century," the Palestinian leaders long ago struck a dirty deal of their own: they put their stock in Israel-hatred rather than in their own people.
Ashraf Jabari, a 45-year-old Palestinian businessman from the West Bank city of Hebron, recently launched a new economic initiative with some of his Jewish friends, to advance joint entrepreneurship between Israelis and Palestinians there. (Image source: iStock)
In most normal societies, a businessman who seeks to improve the living conditions of his people by boosting the economy and creating job opportunities for the unemployed -- including a host of jobless university graduates -- is treated with respect. The Palestinians, however, do not seem to belong to those societies.
Ashraf Jabari is a 45-year-old businessman from the West Bank city of Hebron. A member of a large Palestinian clan in the city, Jabari believes in economic cooperation and peaceful coexistence with his Jewish neighbors, including settlers living in the West Bank.
Earlier this year, Jabari and some of his Jewish friends launched a new economic initiative to advance joint entrepreneurship between Israelis and Palestinians there.
It was Iran, not the US, that breached international law by carrying out the US Embassy takeover in Tehran.... It was also Iran, not the US, that immediately began using its proxies, such as Hezbollah, to commit terrorism and incite antagonism towards America.
Should the mullahs be appeased for killing thousands of Americans? For continually taking Americans as hostages? For being the leading executioner of children in the world? For ranking the first in the world per capita when it comes to executing people? For being the world's top state sponsor of terrorism? For making every possible effort to damage US national security and scuttle US foreign policy objectives?
The Iranian government's hatred towards the US often seems the most important reason for its existence. As long as the ruling mullahs remain in power, the Islamic Republic will continue its acts of terror and deep antagonism against Americans, their Sunni neighbors, the lands they try to control -- such as Iraq, Syria, Yemen, parts of Gaza and Venezuela, Lebanon -- and the West.
Iran breached international law by carrying out the 1979 US Embassy takeover in Tehran. Iran detained and humiliated 52 Americans and did not release these hostages for 444 days, the longest hostage-taking in modern history. Pictured: Two of the American hostages held by Iran after the takeover of the US Embassy,. (Image source: Wikimedia Commons)
The argument that the US must take an apologetic stance towards the theocratic establishment of Iran is being repeatedly made without the evidence of any effectiveness to back it up.
Former President Barack Obama created this policy, and insisted that it would be successful. Even as Iran flaunted its disregard for the American government, as well as human life, President Obama would continually apologize to the Iranian leaders. He made it sound as if America was to blame for initiating the hatred that the Iranian government projects toward the United States.
As far as many Palestinians are concerned, there is no difference between Mahmoud Abbas's Palestinian Authority and Hamas when it comes to their people being able to tell the truth as they see it.
The two rival parties may disagree on many matters, but they share considerable common ground in their efforts to silence their critics and prevent the emergence of new voices seeking a better life for the Palestinians.
While this muzzling of Palestinian mouths is perfectly visible to the naked eye, the jaundiced eye of the international community and media sees flaws only in Israel.
The Palestinian Authority and Hamas may disagree on many matters, but they share considerable common ground in their efforts to silence their critics and prevent the emergence of new voices seeking a better life for the Palestinians. (Image source: iStock)
The first promise the new Palestinian Authority (PA) government made after it was sworn in last month was that it would honor public freedoms, particularly freedom of the media and freedom of expression.
Ibrahim Milhem, the new spokesman for the PA government, headed by Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh, said in a radio interview that no Palestinian journalist would be arrested for expressing his or her views. Milhem promised that his government would allow the press to play its role as a watchdog over the performance of the ministers and their ministries.
Palestinian journalists living and working in PA-controlled territories in the West Bank welcomed Milhem's statement and expressed hope that it would mark the beginning of a new era between the media and the government.
For the Palestinian journalists, the promise indicated a refreshing change of direction, particularly after years of PA crackdowns on freedom of the media in the West Bank.
