When Israel opposes some diplomatic initiative, it never fails: headlines label Israel as rejectionist, obstructionist, moving the goal posts, etc.
So when Mahmoud Abbas rejected international diplomacy in his UN speech, what was the BBC’s headline?
Contrast that with AP:
So which headline’s more accurate? We put together word clouds of the Abbas and Netanyahu speeches to help answer that. First, Bibi’s:
Now Abbas:
Two things strike me:
- Bibi mentions peace more than Abbas.
- Abbas doesn’t mention Israel or Jews as often as Netanyahu referrs to the Palestinians.
Amir Mizroch ran the speeches through a tag cloud to quantify the talking points.
Indeed, Abbas mentioned peace 26 times, while Netanyahu mentioned peace 44 times. And though Netanyahu referred to the Palestinians by name 34 times, Abbas only referred to Israel by name 11 times.
So is Israel’s Prime Minister long-winded, or does the PLO chairman have issues with uttering the name, “Israel?” Seems to me Abbas isn’t just “cool” to peace. He’s stone cold against it.
