Wednesday, August 06, 2008

My Way News - Israel to release over 150 Palestinian prisoners
AP reports: "Israel's prime minister pledged to free more than 150 Palestinian prisoners in a meeting Wednesday with President Mahmoud Abbas, a gesture meant to energize their sluggish peace talks. The release could also boost the prestige of the embattled Palestinian leader, whose Fatah movement is engaged in a tense power struggle with the militant Islamic Hamas."

Comment: I think it's interesting that the mainstream media refers to the Palestinian civil war as a "tense power struggle." If this were any other country where the two political parties were also armed militias and they were shooting at each other, kidnapping each other, bombing each other, and seizing territory it would be called a civil war. The reality distortion field that so often creates a double-standard for Israel is also affecting coverage of the Palestinians. I suspect this is caused by the desire on the part of some in the Western media to romanticize the Palestinians as "freedom fighters" and so they can't be painted as warlike and engaged in armed conflict with each other, that wouldn't be politically correct.

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