Israel Matzav

The New York Times corrects Jodi Rudoren

Recall Jodi Rudoren's column calling stone throwing by 'Palestinians' a 'hobby.' Recall also that as an aside in that column, Jodi asserted that the 'settlements' are currently deemed 'illegal' by the United States, a position that was only taken during the Carter administration over the 46 years since Judea and Samaria were liberated. As Adam Kredo noted:

The United States considers Israeli settlements illegal, Rudoren  stated in her article.

“The United States, along with most of the world, considers these settlements illegal, and some of them sit in the heart of the area imagined as a future Palestinian state,” wrote Rudoren.
However, this statement is factually inaccurate, according to Middle East experts and an analysis of official U.S. policy on Israeli settlements since 1949.

“This is not the declared policy of the United States,” Steven Rosen, a former top official at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), wrote in a 2012 analysis of U.S. policy.

“Successive U.S. administrations have deplored settlement activity as an obstacle to peace, but no American president—except Jimmy Carter—has taken the view that building Jewish homes in Jerusalem constitutes a violation of the Geneva conventions,” wrote Rosen, currently director of the Washington Project of the Middle East Forum.

While Carter stated in 1980 that he considered the settlements illegal, every presidential administration of the last 30 years—as well as those before Carter’s—has refused to state this as U.S. policy.

President Barack Obama has repeatedly declined to declare settlements illegal despite pressure for him to do so.

The United States in 2011 vetoed a United Nations Security Council Resolution that would have labeled Israeli settlements illegal.

“If an American president were to take the position that all Israeli construction outside the former 1967 line is illegal, it would have the effect of criminalizing the Jewish communities of the eastern sector of Jerusalem, where 40 percent of the Jews in that city live,” Rosen wrote in his policy analysis.

If you go back to Rudoren's original New York Times article, you will now find the following paragraph:

The cabinet decision added a number of Jewish settlements in the West Bank territory that Israel seized in the 1967 war to a “national priority list” of communities eligible for extra subsidies for education, housing, infrastructure projects, cultural programs and sports, along with better mortgage rates and loans for new homeowners. Most of the world considers these settlements illegal, and some of them sit in the heart of the area imagined as a future Palestinian state. The United States has not taken a position on the settlements’ legality for several decades, saying instead, according to the State Department, “We do not accept the legitimacy of continued settlement activity.” 

And at the bottom you will find the following correction:

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: August 8, 2013

An article on Monday about a decision by the Israeli cabinet to add several Jewish settlements in the West Bank territory seized by Israel in the 1967 war to a list of communities eligible for extra subsidies and better mortgage rates and loans for new homeowners misstated the United States’ view of such settlements. While much of the rest of the world considers them illegal, as the article noted, the United States has taken no formal position in the last several years on whether they are legal or illegal. (In a statement on Tuesday, the State Department said, “We do not accept the legitimacy of continued settlement activity.” )

As usual, the problem is that most of the people who read the original article will never see the correction.

For those who are interested in seeing a fascinating lecture on why 'settlements' are in fact both legal and legitimate, regardless of what the anti-Semites of the world say, please go here.

Labels: anti-Israel media bias, international law, Jodi Rudoren, New York Times, UN Security Council Resolution 242, UN Security Council Resolution 338

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 2:59 PM