In its latest Sunday Review section, the New York Times published another anti-Israel article, this time condemning Israel's alleged "occupation" of the West Bank in light of the 50th anniversary of the 1967 Six-Day War.
The author, Nathan Thrall, is a senior analyst at the International Crisis Group, whose board consists of the anti-Israel and leftist billionare George Soros. Soros accused Israel for "not seeking a political solution but pursuing military escalation — not just an eye for an eye but roughly speaking ten Palestinian lives for every Israeli one."
The Times piece, titled "The Past 50 Years of Israeli Occupation. And the Next," consists of generic anti-Israel sentiments. For example, Thrall wrote, "This resilient and eminently sustainable arrangement, so often mischaracterized as a state of limbo assumed to be temporary, has stood on three main pillars: American backing, Palestinian weakness and Israeli indifference. Together, the three ensure that for the Israeli government, continuing its occupation is far less costly than the concessions required to end it."
While America does send $3.1 billion in annual assistance to Israel, it also provides $400 million to the Palestinian Authority, which has been accused of abusing the taxpayer funds, such as rewarding Palestinian terrorists for murdering civilians like West Point graduate Taylor Force last year in Tel Aviv. The family of Force's murderer, Bashar Masalha, has been monetarily rewarded by the PA. (The Taylor Force Act was recently introduced in Congress and, if enacted, would halt US assistance to the PA.) Moreover, Israeli indifference is laughable, especially considering the PA's headquarters is in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
"For Israel, the most pervasive myth is that there is no Palestinian partner for peace. Palestinians are irredeemably rejectionist, runs this argument; they will not give up on their impossible goals and have never made real compromises, in spite of every generous Israeli proposal," Thrall wrote. "The truth is that the history of the Palestinian national movement is one long series of military defeats and ideological concessions."
Israel has made numerous offers, only to be rejected by Palestinian leaders Yasser Arafat and Mahmoud Abbas. In 1995, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak offered 95 percent of the West Bank to the Palestinians, only to be rejected by Arafat. In 2014, negotiations between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Abbas collapsed after the latter formed a coalition with the terrorist group Hamas, among other issues. Those instances are just a couple of many lost opportunities for peace.
Moreover, Thrall does not condemn the PA's staple of violence and its partnership with the US-designated terrorist group Hamas. "As bloodshed diminished, though, Israel’s sense of urgency about the Palestinian problem dissipated," he wrote. Apparently, Thrall doesn't mind the barbarism of the PA against Israelis (and even against their own people).
"Violence will not solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It just makes its resolution much more distant," former Kerry adviser David Makovsky wrote in response to Thrall's piece.
Finally, Thrall also stated, "Official Israeli and Palestinian population statistics indicate that Jews have been a minority in the territory Israel controls for several years now, and with no repercussions: A majority of the world’s nations still speak of undemocratic rule by a Jewish minority as a hypothetical future, not an unacceptable present."
Like Thrall's article, that statement is nothing but further from the truth.
As of 2016, there are 6.45 million Israeli-Jews and almost 1.8 million Arab-Israelis. Although there are more Palestinians than Israelis in the West Bank, UN Resolution 242, enacted after the 1967 War, states that the West Bank is “land [which Israel seized from Jordan in the 1967 War] for peace [between Israel and the Palestinians].”
More improtantly, Israel withdrew from the Gaza strip in 2005 and it is today under control of Hamas, which has launched rockets into Israel from schools and other civilian areas.
It's one thing to criticize, it's another to demonize. Thrall's article is an example of the latter toward Israel, which the New York Times and its peers on the Left have done so for the past 50 years. "And the next" needs no prediction.
