The AP is not happy with Obama’s refusal to go along with the Palestinian settlement free precondition anymore. This is how they start their article on how Obama is trying to push for a peace settlement. The pro-Palestinian spin couldn’t be any more blatant.
The U.S. is seeking to bring Arab countries into efforts to restart Israeli-Palestinian negotiations that broke down more than four years ago, a senior Palestinian official said Monday.
However, gaps are wide on the terms of renewing talks. The Palestinians say Israel must freeze settlement building on lands it captured in 1967 before any negotiations can resume. Israel says the issue of settlements can be addressed in negotiations.
During a visit to the region last week, President Barack Obama sided with the Israeli view.
It is not clear how the U.S. can bring the Palestinians back to the table without a settlement freeze.
Oh, wait. Yes it can.
Palestinians cool to partial settlement freeze
A senior Palestinian official on Sunday rejected the idea of a partial Israeli settlement freeze as a way of restarting peace talks, a sign of tough times ahead for the Obama administration’s new attempt to bring the sides together.
Remember when the AP thought that settlements were an obstacle to peace? Now, the refusal to talk is not an obstacle to peace. But the refusal to freeze building in areas that will be part of Israel in any negotiation? Well, that’s an obstacle worth highlighting. And boy, the AP is pissed about Obama insisting that preconditions to peace talks were counterproductive.
Abbas says he won’t return to negotiations without an Israeli construction freeze, arguing that Israel’s building on war-won land pre-empts the outcome of talks on a border between Israel and a future state of Palestine. Abbas last held talks with Netanyahu’s predecessor in late 2008.
Netanyahu has refused to halt construction and instead calls for an immediate return to negotiations. President Barack Obama sided with Israel’s position during a visit to the region last week, saying the Palestinians should return to talks to sort out the settlement issue.
There is also wishful thinking.
The U.S. has not spoken publicly about possible compromises in recent days, though there has been some speculation it would propose a partial construction stop in the West Bank heartland, east of Israel’s separation barrier.
Yeah, we’ll see. And of course, the AP anti-Israel bias runs throughout every article concerning Israel, even one about Christians visiting the Church of the Nativity on Palm Sunday.
Mostly Palestinian worshippers gathered in the Nativity Church in Bethlehem, traditional site of Jesus’ birth, clutching olive branches and bouquets as they sung in praise. The Biblical city of Bethlehem is in the West Bank, a territory east of Israel that Palestinians seek for their future state. Israel retains military control there but Palestinians have a measure of self-rule over their own communities, including Bethlehem.
In a five-paragraph article, they managed to include one paragraph of lies by Palestinians.
In a statement sent to reporters, Palestinian official Hanan Ashrawi said some 60 percent of Christian applicants in Bethlehem and the Palestinian West Bank town of Ramallah had their requests rejected. But military spokesman Guy Inbar said they had issued nearly 20,000 permits so far, and only rejected the applications of 190 Palestinians.
That’s the AP for you. Maybe they should change their name to Arab Propaganda.