Friends,
After my last letter and a phone call, The Washington Post made a correction to their backgrounder on Israel – located on their website [see below]. The accuracy of this site is critical since it is a source for students, congressmen, and others of influence. The correction, though insufficient, gets rid of the horrid opening sentence - that “Israel has been at war with Palestinians displaced by the creation of the Jewish state.” The replacement, in the second sentence also misses, but that will be addressed in a follow-up email.
It’s hard to get through a sentence in The Washington Post’s primer without seeing bias. Israel surely was not “one of the world’s most effective and well-armed militaries” in 1948 as the article states. According to Larry Collins and Dominque Lapierre, O Jerusalem!, (NY: Simon and Schuster, 1972), p.352 :
When Israel declared its independence on May 1948, the army did not have a single cannon or tank. It’s air force consisted of nine obsolete planes. Although the Haganah had 60,000 trained fighters, only 18,900 were fully mobilized, armed and prepared for war.
Hardly the hallmark of the “most effective and well-armed militaries.”
To be continued…
Michael
Corrected version:
BACKGROUND
Israel and the Mideast Conflict
By Jefferson Morley
washingtonpost.com Staff WriterMonday, July 17, 2006; 6:49 PM
Israel's conflict with the Palestinians dates back more than half a century. Thousands of Palestinians were displaced by the 1948 conflict sparked by the creation of the Jewish state. With one of the world's most effective and well-armed militaries, the Jewish state defeated Arab armies in 1948, 1967 and 1973. Israel also put down two Palestinian uprisings while continuing to settle territories once claimed by Arabs and to pursue peace negotiations with Palestinian leaders.
For the rest of the article, see http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/17/AR2006071701076.html
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Original version:
BACKGROUND
Israel and the Mideast Conflict
By Jefferson Morleywashingtonpost.com Staff WriterMonday, July 17, 2006; 6:49 PM
Israel has been at war with Palestinians displaced by the creation of the Jewish state in 1948 for more than a half century. With one of the world's most effective and well-armed militaries, the Jewish state defeated Arab armies in 1948 and 1967. Israel also put down two Palestinian uprisings while continuing to settle territories once claimed by Arabs and to pursue peace negotiations with Palestinian leaders.
[the rest of the article is the same, see link above]
[though the date is from last year, it is continually posted and new information is added on]
