Washington Post fires latest front page salvo against Israel
The reliably anti-Israel Washington Post features a front page story today about the “isolation and exclusion” of Israel’s Arab citizens. It begins with a portrait of a young Arab-Israeli couple. We learn that they were educated at a prestigious art and architecture academy in Jerusalem and live in “an airy,” stylishly furnished house in the Galilee. They have many Jewish friends with whom they take vacations. However, their application to live in a new community of 150 families on state land was rejected, and they seem to have good reason to believe this was due to the fact that they are Arabs. In response, they have filed a complaint of discrimination. Meanwhile, Arab members of the Jewish parliament, working with the Jewish majority in that body, have mandated the construction of a new city in the area for Arabs.
Racial and religious minorities have it tough throughout virtually the entire world. In this case, the apparent victims have recourse through a complaint process, representation in a democratically elected parliament, and what appears to be a comfortable life. That’s not bad by Western European standards, never mind the Middle East.
There’s more to the Post’s story, some of which is just dopey. For example, reporter Scott Wilson seems troubled by the fact that Arabs and Jewish Israelis aren’t living in close proximity, but also by the “increasing Jewish presence” in the old part of Acre, which had become overwhelmingly Arab. And Wilson frets that except for the Druze population, “Arabs are excluded from military service. . .an essential shared experience of Israeli life and a traditional training ground for future political leaders.” Yet he notes that Arab lawmakers hold the army “responsible for enforcing the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories” to the point that they oppose any form of national service for Arab citizens of Israel. Since this irreducibly hostile view of the military and the government must reflect that of their Arab constituents, it would be absurd to consider including non-Druze Arabs in the Israeli military.
In his rush to air whatever Arab grievances he hears, Wilson has neglected to consider whether some of them may contradict others.
The story is also devoid of context. Wilson notes (correctly) that relations between Arab and Jewish Israelis have deteriorated, but he never considers whether this might be caused by anything other than malice on the part of the Jews. In my view, the deterioration dates back to the first intifada. During that era, I happened to be in Israel when Israeli Arabs picked up, but then murdered, a Jewish soldier who was hitch-hiking back to duty after a weekend at home. Hitch-hiking is a way of life for young soldiers, and they had never hesitated to accept rides from Arabs who were identifiable as Israeli by virtue of their license plates. The murder of the young soldier sent shock waves through Israel. Along with other less dramatic but similarly unprecedented acts of hatred, it helped usher in the new, less happy relationship that Wilson describes.
Today's story follows close on the heels of a one-sided piece in which Wilson accused Israel of reducing the residents of Gaza to “beggar status.” Wilson chose to “embed” with the Hamas-supporting residents of Gaza, not the Jewish victims of the constant rocket attacks on towns on the other side of the border. Given that set of sympathies, it’s not surprising that Wilson has now taken on the role of conduit for complaints by the far more sympathetic Israeli Arab population.
UPDATE: To read more about the consistent anti-Israel bias in the Washington Post's reporting, visit EyeOnThePost.org.
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