(Washington Times) - The press has created an illogical and unjustified equivalence between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA). The media disregards the discrepancies that exist between Israel's largely transparent society and the Palestinians' repressive, despotic regime. The Israeli press challenges the legitimacy of Israeli government actions. The Palestinian press is not dissimilar to that of Syria or Iraq. Given recent documented Palestinian distortions of the events in Jenin and Bethlehem, why do the American media still insist on granting credibility to Palestinian spokespeople? When journalists deal with totalitarian, closed regimes, they know that officially released information must be met with a certain level of skepticism. Why is Yasser Arafat's regime -- one that is internationally recognized as being dictatorial, corrupt, and collaborative in orchestrating terror -- not held to the same necessary level of skepticism?
2002-06-05 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive