Media Distortion about Israel - One Example

Daniel Pipes
www.danielpipes.org
04 January '11

Mark Lavie, a long-time Associated Press reporter in Israel, should know a thing or two about the politics in that country. But he writes today at "Israel's Labor: We'll quit if no progress to peace" about tensions in the ruling coalition that

An exit by Labor, a moderate party sitting uncomfortably alongside hawks in the ruling coalition, could undermine Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's parliamentary majority and force an election. That would sideline Mideast peace efforts for months.

These two sentences contain much loaded language ("moderate," "peace efforts") but what's really noteworthy is that Lavie writes later in the same article:

Even if Netanyahu loses Labor's 13 seats, his parliamentary majority would remain intact, though barely. Counting Netanyahu's own Likud Party, the five hawkish parties in his coalition have 61 seats in the 120-seat parliament, a tiny majority even if Labor leaves.

Not only does Lavie contradict himself here – would the government fall or not? – but he makes multiple other errors. For starters, he fails to mention that:

- Netanyahu could invite the National Union, a right-wing party with four seats, into the coalition.

- Narrow coalitions are the rule in Israeli politics and large coaltions like Netanyahu's are the exception.

(Read full "Media Distortion about Israel - One Example")

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