New York Times remains silent on Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine

 

The New York Times (NYT) continues its year-long failure to report on or analyze the 2022 Saudi-based Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine solution to replace the failed two-state solution proposed by:

• The 2002 Saudi-inspired Arab Peace Initiative and
• The 2016 United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334.

In her latest article: Spiraling Violence in the Occupied West Bank Signals a Loss of Control--NYT Reporter Isabel Kershner writes:

The Palestinian Authority, the interim body formed in the mid-1990s as part of the Oslo peace process, is supposed to exercise limited self-rule in parts of the occupied West Bank, with security forces numbering about 60,000 members. But it is absent from the hotbeds of Palestinian militancy in the northern part of the territory such as Jenin and Nablus and appears, experts say, to have all but abdicated responsibility.

“It’s a reversal and a collapse,” said Zakaria al-Qaq, a Palestinian expert in national security. Instead of less engagement, he said, “there is total involvement between Israel and the small Palestinian factions, and the Palestinian Authority is outside of the game, on the margins, or not really there at all.”

“We are back to square one,” he added. “There is no Oslo. There is nothing.”

Incensed by Kershner’s acceptance of al-Qaq’s statement as fact - I sent NYT the following comment - which remains unpublished:

“You quote Zakaria al-Qaq, a Palestinian expert in national security as stating: “We are back to square one. There is no Oslo. There is nothing.”

Hasn't Mr al-Qaq - and you also Isabel - heard of the Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine solution published in the Saudi government-controlled Al Arabiya News on 8 June 2022 - which calls for the merger of Jordan, Gaza and part of the West Bank into one territorial entity to be ruled by the Hashemites - with its capital being in Amman - not Jerusalem?

How come the NYT has not published one word about this plan since its publication 12 months ago - whose implementation would replace the terminally dead two-state solution that has failed to achieve any result since its publication in 2002--made public at that time in the NYT by Thomas Friedman--who also has not written one word about this 2022 Saudi solution?

Endorse this latest Saudi solution or trash it if you will. But don't ignore its existence as a possible solution to end the looming humanitarian crisis spiralling out of control in the West Bank that you describe in this article.”

NYT Opinion Columnist Thomas Friedman wrote on May 25, 2021:

“I don’t expect Biden to summon Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to Camp David. As long as both are in power, no serious compromise is possible. But it is vital that Biden urgently take steps to re-energize the possibility of a two-state solution and give it at least some concrete diplomatic manifestation on the ground.

Because without that horizon--without any viable hope of separating Israelis and Palestinians into two states for two peoples--the only outcome left will be one state in which the Israeli majority dominates and Palestinians in East Jerusalem and the West Bank will be systematically deprived of equal rights”

The Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine solution surfaces in Saudi Arabia in June 2022 trashing the two-state solution proposed by Saudi Arabia, the Arab League, the UN--yet the NYT still has not told its readers about this game-changing plan.

Not newsworthy enough?

Whilst Biden tries to re-energize the two-state solution--his White House lunching-buddy Friedman is warning it is:

“...in hospice. Only a miracle cure could save it now“

Meanwhile NYT fiddles as the West Bank burns....

Please join my Facebook Page: “Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine supporters”

Author’s note: The cartoon--commissioned exclusively for this article--is by Yaakov Kirschen aka “Dry Bones”- one of Israel’s foremost political and social commentators--whose cartoons have graced the columns of Israeli and international media publications for decades

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Gaza - Hamas Humiliates And Manipulates World Media

[Published 15 August 2014]


A family of 11 previously reported dead in an Israeli air strike in Gaza has turned out to be false — further fuelling the unprecedented furor caused by the Tel Aviv based Foreign Press Association (FPA) issuing the following statement on 11 August slamming Hamas for its treatment of journalists during the current conflict:

“The FPA protests in the strongest terms the blatant, incessant, forceful and unorthodox methods employed by the Hamas authorities and their representatives against visiting international journalists in Gaza over the past month.

The international media are not advocacy organisations and cannot be prevented from reporting by means of threats or pressure, thereby denying their readers and viewers an objective picture from the ground.

In several cases, foreign reporters working in Gaza have been harassed, threatened or questioned over stories or information they have reported through their news media or by means of social media.

We are also aware that Hamas is trying to put in place a “vetting” procedure that would, in effect, allow for the blacklisting of specific journalists. Such a procedure is vehemently opposed by the FPA."

The FPA has also been mildly critical of Israel as this release on 23 July indicated:

“The FPA strongly condemns deliberate official and unofficial incitement against journalists working to cover the current warfare under very difficult circumstances as well as forcible attempts to prevent journalists and TV crews from carrying out their news assignments. While we do not condone the use of invective by any side, outright attacks on journalists are absolutely unacceptable.

On Tuesday, IDF forces aimed live fire at the Al Jazeera offices in Gaza City. The offices are on the 11th floor of a known commercial centre. The IDF apologised claiming it was in error and said they would investigate the incident.

Also Tuesday, FPA member Firas Khatib of BBC Arabic was physically attacked and abused in the midst of a live feed on the Israeli side of the border.”

The FPA numbers some 480 members representing TV, radio, photojournalists and print media from 32 countries including Australia, Qatar, Brazil, Norway, China , USA. Austria, Dubai, Russia, Japan, Finland, South Africa, Denmark and Germany, Turkey, the UAE and the United Kingdom.

It represents amongst others Le Monde, The New York Times, Reuters, the Guangming Daily, CBS Television, the Associated Press, Der Spiegel, the BBC, Danish Broadcasting Corp. and Bloomberg News. On its website, the FPA lists Australian journalists Matt Brown (ABC) and John Lyons (The Australian) as members.

Paul T. Jørgensen of Norway’s TV2 states that:

“several foreign journalists have been kicked out of Gaza because Hamas does not like what they wrote or said. We have received strict orders that if we record that Hamas fires rockets or that they shoot, we will face serious problems and be expelled from Gaza,”

Alan Johnson reported in the Telegraph:

The Wall Street Journal’s Nick Casey posted a photo of a Hamas spokesman being interviewed from a room in the hospital along with this tweet: “You have to wonder (with) the shelling how patients at Shifa hospital feel as Hamas uses it as a safe place to see media.” After “a flood of online threats”, the tweet was deleted.

John Reed of The Financial Times was reportedly threatened after he tweeted about rockets being fired from the same hospital.”

Yet Jodi Rudoren, Jerusalem bureau chief of the New York Times — who was not in Gaza - tweeted:

“Every reporter I’ve met who was in Gaza during war says this Israeli/now FPA narrative of Hamas harassment is nonsense,”

It was a strange remark to make considering the above claims — and having regard to the following comment reportedly made by New York Times vice president for corporate communications Eileen Murphy that the newspaper’s team in Gaza did not photograph any rocket launches, sent only:

“two very distant, poor quality images that were captioned Hamas fighters” and “hasn’t even seen anyone carrying a gun.”

Even more intriguing - Rudoren’s deputy at the NYT - Isabel Kershner - was one of the FPA board members who approved the condemnatory statement. How could two colleagues from the same newspaper observing the same sequence of events come to such different conclusions?

British freelancer Harry Fear said he was asked to leave Gaza by three plainclothes Hamas officials at Al-Shifa Hospital - apparently for referring to rocket launches near his hotel. He reportedly said he did not feel any intimidation or interference.

Some reporters however reportedly received death threats. Sometimes, cameras were smashed. Reporters were prevented from filming anti-Hamas demonstrations where more than 20 Palestinians were shot dead by Hamas gunmen.

Evidence of Hamas controlling the flow of news is obvious in its failure to allow the media to:

1. independently determine, separate and verify the number of civilian and Hamas deaths

2. photograph any Hamas forces launching rockets from residential areas or civilians being used as human shields.

A BBC investigation has uncovered photos of dead children from earlier conflicts being passed off as casualties in the current conflict — being fed to gullible reporters to send around the World to even more gullible target audiences.

Why would reporters keep going back into Gaza to be so humiliated by Hamas?

They are certainly not reporting what is actually happening.

Maybe they should stay out of Gaza and let Hamas do its own media releases.

The media barons would certainly save a lot of money.