Not Getting It at the Herald

As usual, when it comes to Israel pulling the wings off Palestinian flies, the Sydney Morning Herald editorialist just doesn't get it. Comparing The Guardian editorial cited in my last post but one with what follows, is to plummet, journalistically-speaking, from the sublime to the beyond ridiculous:

"... al-Jazeera takes us into the heart of a live, continuing negotiation with the survival of nations at stake." (The peace talks without fig leaves, 26/1/11)

Ooh, isn't it exciting? The fate of nations? Will little Israel survive, do you think?

"The exposure will be embarrassing and dangerous for the Palestinian negotiators. They've talked of swaps of Arab-populated villages just inside Israel for Jewish settlements in the West Bank... "

Oh, they have, have they? The Herald still hasn't twigged that it's Israel who talks, the Palestinians who listen... and concede: "In several areas, Livni pressed for Arab citizens of Israel to be included in a future Palestinian state as part of a land-swap deal, raising the contoversial spectre of 'transfer'." (Papers reveal how Palestinian leaders gave up fight over refugees, Black/Milne, The Guardian, 24/1/11)

"To be sure, it was not a total surrender at the 2007 Annapolis talks..."

A 99.9999% surrender then?

"But it was largely a negotiation of unequals, with one side making most of the concessions."

And the Herald's going to let you guess which side.

"Even a lame-duck Bush administration, and a discredited Ehud Olmert government, was able to make progress."

Progress? ... you mean, in playing Whac-A-Palestinian?

"Now the test for both sides is to show if they have the political strength to face down their extremists and clinch an agreement."

For God's sake, the Palestinian puppets can't even face themselves in the mirror any longer, let alone anyone else. And what's this extremist nonsense? No, let me guess: a Palestinian extremist is one who has stopped rooting for the 20-year long fire sale of his rights, aka (hilariously) the peace process, and an Israeli extremist is one who burns down Palestinian olive trees... as opposed to Netanyahu & Co, who just send in the bulldozers to uproot them.