U.S. officials slam pro-Israeli ads in American media

21/04/2010


United States administration officials have voiced harsh criticism over advertisements in favor of Israel's position on Jerusalem that appeared in the U.S. press with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's encouragement. The authors of the most recent such advertisements were president of the World Jewish Congress Ronald Lauder and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Elie Wiesel. "All these advertisements are not a wise move," one senior American official told Haaretz.

In the advertisement, Wiesel said that for him as a Jew, "Jerusalem is above politics," and that "it is mentioned more than 600 times in Scripture - and not a single time in the Koran." Wiesel called to postpone discussion on Jerusalem until a later date, when there is an atmosphere of security allowing Israeli and Palestinian communities to find ways to live in peace.

The ongoing confrontation with the U.S. administration over construction in East Jerusalem was present in many of the comments made by senior Israeli officials during Independence Day.


Netanyahu himself said in an interview to ABC that freezing construction in the east of the city was an impossible demand, and refused to answer questions on the Israeli response to demands from Washington. Instead, he called on Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas to return to the negotiating table without preconditions.

Foreign Minister Lieberman, meanwhile, made Jerusalem the focal point of his speech in a festive reception for the diplomatic corps at the President's Residence in Jerusalem. President Shimon Peres spoke first, calling for progress in the diplomatic process. Lieberman, who took the podium immediately after Peres, made diametrically opposed statements in his speech, stressing that the Palestinian Authority is no partner for peace.

in full: http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1164297.html

Wow. What a slam. From an unnamed U.S. "official."

That gets my vote for Misleading Headline of the Day.

There is nothing in the entire article that supports the claim made in the headline (which Ha'aretz may eventually elect to change, as they frequently do).

Only the first paragraph of the article even makes an attempt to provide any support for that claim. The rest of the article makes no mention of any US officials "slamming" the advertisements.

The first paragraph begins with a lead sentence where the article's author claims (as is suggested by the headline) that US administrations officials (plural) have voiced "harsh criticism" over the Jerusalem ads.

The only support for that claim, however, is one statement (singular) from an unnamed "senior American official" who states only that the ads are "not a wise move".

No other comment is provided from any other US administration officials in spite of the fact that it is claimed in the headline and opening sentence that more than one official made such criticism.

And the comment that is provided does not appear to meet the standard of "harsh criticism" as another poster pointed out upthread.

Furthermore, in the same opening sentence, the claim is made that Netanyahu himself encouraged the ads. While this may be true, there is nothing in the article that lends any support to this claim.

And to underline the sloppiness of the reporting presented here, I would also note that there is an obvious typo in the second to last paragraph where a "senior Labor official" is supposed to have said "They main message coming from this discussion..."

Hopefully some editor at Ha'aretz can took a look at this piece and ask the author to take another crack at it. It'd be a good idea to speak to the headline writer as well (although that person most likely took their cue from the article's poorly supported lead).