Today a number of Norwegian media channels are running the NTB article “Abbas – no negotiations without building freeze” (Abbas – ingen forhandlinger uten byggestans). Pretty much the same media has run pretty much the same NTB article repeatedly over the last years. It’s the settlements, stupid, the editors are tellling the journalists who tell the public, it’s the Jewish settlements which threaten the peace process. In order to believe this, you have to disregard the following:
1) Israel forced Jewish settlers out of the Gaza strip in 2005. 9000 Israelis were made to leave their 21 settlements. In return, the people of Gaza voted the genocidal Hamas into power and as a consequence everyone is worse off: the evicted settlers, the Palestinians in Gaza, and Israel as a nation (BBC).
2) A poll conducted in October/November shows that when given a choice between armed struggle or peace negotiations, 58 percent of the Palestinians polled agreed with the former (armed struggle) while only 36 percent agreed with the latter (peace negotiations). Moreover, while 30 percent of the Palestinians thought a two-state solution ought to be a permanent solution, 60 percent thought a two-state solution ought only to be a temporary solution until a one-state solution could be reached.
Under these circumstances it is perhaps not altogether strange that Israel continues to allow Jews to live on the West Bank. A far more puzzling phenomenon lies in how a united Norwegian media corps fails to recognize facts which do not directly favor the Palestinians. Luckily, this phenomenon has been illuminated by psychologists.
It’s called groupthink.
via israelwhat.com
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