Israel Approves Homes for Settlers

 
     This is a critique of an article written by Marjorie Miller which
appeared in the December 2 1996 Philadelphia Inquirer on page A2.

	The subtitle of the article is "Netanyahu endorsed building 
hundreds of units in the West Bank.  Arabs assailed the efforts".  
Notice the use of the term "West Bank".  West Bank means the 
west bank of the Jordan river.  One would expect that there must 
be some other name for that area.  Actually there is, that area is 
Judea and Samaria.  The Inquirer will not call it Judea and Samaria 
because that would legitimize Israel's claim to the area.  If the 
subtitle of the article was "Netanyahu Endorsed Building Hundreds 
of Units in Judea" everyone would think that what Netanyahu was 
doing was fine and the Philadelphia Inquirer doesn't want everyone 
to think that what Netanyahu is doing is fine. 

	The first paragraph of Ms. Miller's article states: 
"Even as the Arab League condemned his expansion of Jewish 
settlements, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday 
approved construction of hundreds of new homes in the occupied 
Jordan Valley and vowed that Israel would retain control of the 
area in a permanent accord with the Palestinians."  Notice the 
phrase "occupied Jordan Valley".  We all know that people occupy 
this valley.  Why does the Inquirer insist on telling us that it is 
occupied?  They tell us this because they want us to believe that 
Jews are unjustly occupying it.  
 
	Ms. Miller quotes King Hussein of Jordan as saying 
"Without visible progress in implementing agreements reached 
earlier between the Israeli government and the Palestinians in 
particular, we are at the mercy of events."  "Anything could 
happen that could throw us completely off the track we have 
chosen."  King Hussein is saying that if the Arabs start a war with 
Israel, which they have threatened to do, it's not their fault, because 
they are at the mercy of events.  The "events" he is referring to is 
Israel not caving in to Arab demands.  Why does Ms. Miller choose
to quote King Hussein's anti-Israel nonsense without any attempt to
balance it with facts?
 
	Ms. Miller writes: "In the last six weeks. Netanyahu has 
moved decisively to expand Jewish settlements in what Arab 
leaders view as a violation of the spirit of the agreements."  At least 
Ms. Miller didn't say the settlements are in violation of the 
agreements which they are not.  The Arabs are expanding 
their settlements and are violating the agreements constantly yet 
they are upset because they say that Israel is violating the "spirit" of 
the agreements but that fact is omitted by Ms. Miller.   

Ms. Miller tells us how Netanyahu plans to expand Israeli
communities in the Golan Heights. She explains that "Israel
captured that territory from Syria in the 1967 Six Day war and
Syrian President Hafez al-Assad says it must be returned if he is to
make peace with Israel". Ms. Miller neglects to mention that the Golan
was part of Biblical Israel and that Jews lived there until the 9th century.
Any one who visits the Golan can see archaelogical remains of Jewish
communities there.

	From Mrs. Miller's article in the Inquirer one would think 
that Israel is ruthlessly settling and uprooting Arabs.  This is oddly 
totally the opposite impression that one gets when one reads the 
November 28 1996 issue of the Israeli newspaper Haaretz quoted 
below: 
 
     "Bennie Kasriel, who heads the Maaleh Adumim Regional 
Council, complained after a meeting between settlers and Prime 
Minister Netanyahu and Defense Minister Mordechai, that 
"nothing new came out of the meeting...everything raised at this 
meeting was already  raised at previous meetings.  Everything is 
frozen." 
 
					Submitted by: 
 
					Mark Feinstein 
 
	

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