For some unknown reason, AP’s editors considered an analysis that is biased against Israel worthy of publishing.
Israel is the only true democracy in the Middle East. All citizens may influence leadership through a transparent, democratic process, serving as an example even to its enemies.
However, the Associated Press (AP) compiled 1,500 reports in which it examined Israel’s compliance with basic democratic guidelines, questioning whether it is in fact a true democracy.
AP’s conclusion was that it was not sure, or, as their story was titled, “Is Israel democratic? Not so clear.”
An Israeli-Arab casts her vote. (Hadas Parush/Flash90)
The author claims that the report is significant because Israel’s “claim to be the only true democracy in the Middle East has been key to its branding and its vitally important claim on US military, diplomatic and financial support.” Therefore, if Israeli is not a democracy it deserves nothing, the writer argues.
The report does not suspect that the Israeli elections are rigged.
So what is the problem? The so-called “occupation.”
Palestinians living in Judea, Samaria and Gaza cannot vote in Israeli elections, as opposed to Israelis who live in Judea and Samaria (since 2005, there are no Jews in Gaza) and have representatives in parliament.
AP bases its report on Israel’s extreme-left Haaretz daily, which wrote that “Israel is galloping toward an anti-democratic, bi-national future saturated with hatred and racism.”
The AP report provides a skewed analysis of the political state of affairs in Israel, but has no clear bottom line. It basically advocates allowing all Palestinians to vote for the Knesset, even though, living in the Palestinian Authority-run territories, they are not Israeli citizens (as opposed to Arab Israelis), do not consider themselves as such and do not wish to be Israeli. In fact, they do vote – in the rare and often unstable Palestinian elections.
AP Known for Anti-Israel Bias
In December, former AP reporter Matti Friedman exposed what he considered to be the news agency’s violations of every tenet of journalistic ethics in its Israel coverage, presenting the seven most deceitful anti-Israel practices perpetuated by the world’s most influential news wire.
In conclusion, Friedman asserts: “When the people responsible for explaining the world to the world, journalists, cover the Jews’ war as more worthy of attention than any other, when they portray the Jews of Israel as the party obviously in the wrong, when they omit all possible justifications for the Jews’ actions and obscure the true face of their enemies, what they are saying to their readers—whether they intend to or not—is that Jews are the worst people on earth. The Jews are a symbol of the evils that civilized people are taught from an early age to abhor. International press coverage has become a morality play starring a familiar villain.”
By: Aryeh Savir
Staff Writer, United with Israel