Ben Knight's August 20 report on "Peace Talks" In the report, Netanyahu has been represented as being equally unwilling to meet face-to-face as Abbas. Does Mr. Knight have proprietary information that the rest of us don't have? Knight's propaganda in the name of equivalence is an insult to readers and an attack on the honor of the Prime Minister of Israel. Clearly, Abbas faces bigger political hurdles than Israeli settlements (e.g. Hamas / Iran in Gaza). More over, the tendency of the international press to deligitimize Israel gives Abbas the hope that a solution might be imposed by the international community without negotiation. He is being rewarded by waiting--any action he takes could hurt his very tenuous political position. Netanyahu, on the other hand, has been seen in interviews even on the CBC expressing a desire for direct talks. How does that translate into being "dragged to the table?" There is a pattern at the CBC to perpetuate a myth of moral equivalence between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. Of course, that is not case. Israel is a sovereign nation and member of the UN with all the institutions of a state. Let us hope that the PA and the Palestinian Arabs endeavor to achieve the same normalcy in the future.

I'm not sure about going after the CBC on the matter of being dragged to the table. Having worked as a reporter in the Middle East, I have experienced news handling by the GoI and it doesn't surprise me that Israel does not get treated in the way we would like. Netanyahu tells one story and a cabinet minister tells another so the reporter discounts them both. There are good people in Israel who can do the press handling job very well but they are not on the "left" so they are not used. What Israel needs is a lot less leftist politicizing and a bit more from the nationalist side.