Financial Times' Chris Patten - Hard on Israel, Soft on Hamas

Steven Stotsky
CAMERA/Middle East Issues
02 August '10

Chris Patten's op-ed in the Financial Times on July 29, 2010, offers another example of his inability to get past his ideological blinders and offer a fresh look at the conflict. Employing loaded language, Patten offers a one-sided condemnation of Israeli policies while failing to explain how Palestinian intransigence and belligerence precludes policies he favors.

Loaded Language

Patten pejoratively labels Israeli residential neighborhoods in the West Bank as "colonies," thereby equating Israeli residential neighborhoods on disputed land contiguous to Israel with past British colonial practices. He charges that "Palestinians are being squeezed out of" Jerusalem, even though the city's municipal records tell a different story.

Patten is particularly incensed about Israel's security barrier, which he calls "The Wall," despite the fact that 95 percent of its length is fence and it is no different in intent than similar barriers built by other nations. Patten is no stranger to the need for security barriers, as the former Governor of the British colony of Hong Kong, he oversaw a security fence in the frontier closed area that kept mainland Chinese immigrants out of Hong Kong.

Patten objects to much of the barrier being built on disputed territory in the West Bank. He doesn't inform his readers that the Israeli's constructed the barrier not to define the borders of the state, but in response to the Palestinian suicide bomber campaign of 2001-2004, and that it has been very effective in reducing suicide bombings.

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