Here are two headlines, from two world capitals:
“Jimmy Carter calls situation in Gaza ‘intolerable’ eight months after war” —the Guardian.
“Israeli leaders don’t meet with Jimmy Carter during Middle East visit” — Washington Post.
The former president went to Israel with his human rights friends, the Elders. Here’s the opening of the AP story in the Guardian:
Former US president Jimmy Carter said Saturday that eight months after a bloody war in the Gaza Strip the situation there remains “intolerable”…
“The situation in Gaza is intolerable. Eight months after a devastating war, not one destroyed house has been rebuilt and people cannot live with the respect and dignity they deserve.”
But the Washington Post url includes “jimmy-carter-gets-the-cold-shoulder-in-israel” and the story focuses on the refusal of Israeli president Reuven Rivlin to meet with Carter, and Carter’s decision not to even ask Israeli P.M. Benjamin Netanyahu for a visit because he’s against the two-state solution and won’t meet with him anyway.
This is the 19th and last paragraph of the Post story:
Carter called the lack of reconstruction in Gaza “intolerable.” He said: “Eight months after a devastating war, not one destroyed house has been rebuilt, and people cannot live with the respect and dignity they deserve.”
“Carter gets cold shoulder” could be the more important story although it’s ambiguous in impact. To those who regard Carter positively, the snub is pro-Palestine because anti-Israel and anyhow those who regard Carter positively are likely to be (ready to be) pro-Palestine.
OTOH, some regard Carter negatively and would regard the cold shoulder as natural or even “so what”-ish.
But of course a reader ought to wonder why Carter went there in the first place (although Israel seems the place all American politicians go, doesn’t it?) And to wait for the last paragraph to find out seems a bit — slow in coming to the point.
אַזוי וואָס ס נייַ ?
Thanks, Phil. Why am I not surprised? Rather, I am disgusted by US MSM that remains firmly pro- Israel and decidedly Israel- centric.
Of particular interest to me was what Kate included in her compilation the other day (May 2):
“Carter cancels visit to Gaza; Palestinian Authority implicated
…Regarding the PA’s role in the cancellation of Carter’s visit, a well-informed PA official said that close aides of Mahmoud Abbas put pressure on certain official close to Carter to cancel the visit.” – See more at: http://mondoweiss.net/2015/05/jerusalem-interrogated-released#sthash.a0M1ayfz.dpuf
I guess that Abbas doesn’t care about Gaza at all. He’d rather protect his unelected tuchas than let President Carter meet with Hamas, etc.
At 90 years young, President Carter remains an honest and good man.
Was this article even in the print Washington Post? I didn’t remember seeing it there (I’m a subscriber), so I just looked through today’s print edition, and didn’t find it there.
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