Dear HonestReporting Member,
Though known primarily as a “business” periodical, the Journal is a leader in news reporting as well. Since the beginning of the latest violence, the Journal’s editorials and staff columnists have put aside all pretensions about the peace process, and focused like a laser on Palestinian aggression.
We proudly present this month’s HonestReporting award to The Wall Street Journal. In particular, we commend the following writers for their consistently accurate reporting:
– Seth Lipsky, contributing editor whose column appears Wednesdays
– Bret Stephens of The Wall Street Journal Europe
– Robert L. Pollock, assistant editorial features editor
To read these fine editorials, check out the Journal online at: http://www.wsj.com
Following are excerpts from WSJ editorials. If you feel these are deserving of praise, write to:
[email protected]
Thank you for your ongoing involvement in the battle against media bias.
HonestReporting.com
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“SECURING PEACE”
(WSJ – May 22, 2001)
The Palestinians have made it plain they will not stop fighting until 100% of their demands have been met. As Israel cannot acquiesce in this, it has no choice but to defend itself. The West is thus faced with two choices: demand Israeli capitulation or force the Palestinians to stop shooting…
As matters now stand, the only likely way in which the violence is going to end is if Israel brings it to an end. Israel will have to use its forces to seize Palestinian arms caches and do everything practicable to ensure that Palestinians will not be able to use their territories as safe havens for a guerrilla war. Harsh as this scenario may sound, it would bring the violence swiftly to an end and — if history is a guide — make an equitable negotiated settlement possible.
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“ARAFAT ALWAYS GOES TOO FAR”
(WSJ – July 9, 2001)
As the world waits to see whether the current, fragile ceasefire will put an end to nine months of low-level warfare between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, the past may prove instructive. For, in essence, we’ve been here before. [Arafat’s] history, wherever he has gained a territorial foothold, has not been that of a reliable or even rational partner, even with potential Arab allies. His history is one of pushing too far…
Mr. Arafat’s history in Jordan and Lebanon suggests this is headed for no good end. From internal corruption and abuse of power, to the repeated breach of agreements, to the apparent use of territory as a base for terrorism, the situation of today’s Palestinian Authority is strikingly similar to those two prior episodes.
* * *
“WESTERN MEDIA DISTORT MIDEAST PICTURE”
(WSJ – April 9, 2001)
(authored by Gary Kasparov, world chess champion)
Israel today is a success story, and not only by the modest standards of the region. Its very existence is a nagging, constant reminder to neighboring Arab despots that they keep their own people in miserable conditions. For men like Yasser Arafat, Bashar Assad, the leaders of Hezbollah and others of their ilk, permanent confrontation with Israel has always been their only claim on legitimacy.
If the region were appeased with respect to Israel, would Arab masses tolerate the squalor in which their leaders have plunged them? If the “blood-thirsty Jews” were not identified as responsible for all that’s wrong, the man on the street in Cairo, Amman, Damascus or Gaza would look at the vineyards of the Golan Heights, at the fast-growing Silicon Valley of Haifa and at the bustling thoroughfares of Tel-Aviv — all erected from scratch in the middle of the desert — and would turn his anger where it belongs, against his corrupt and ineffective government.
* * *
“CARNAGE FOR THE CAMERAS”
(WSJ – October 5, 2000)
After the collapse of the July Camp David summit in which Ehud Barak made concession after concession, Mr. Arafat found himself in a situation he hadn’t faced since receiving his Nobel Peace Prize in 1994: taking the blame for the deadlock. He seems to have calculated, quite correctly so far, that offering up a few martyrs for the cameras might swing perceptions back in his favor. If he now succeeds in his demands for international intervention in Jerusalem or something similar, he will resort to violence again in the future. And much of the media will have played a role in stoking that violence…
