In his weekly Canadian Jewish News media analysis column “According to Reports,†Paul Michaels, CIC Director of Communications, looks beyond the “hard right wing” label the media use to describe Israeli Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu.
Writes Michaels:Â Overwhelmingly, journalists describe Likud party leader Benjamin Netanyahu, whom Israeli President Shimon Peres has asked to form a governing coalition, as opposing statehood for the Palestinians. However, Netanyahu actually holds a more nuanced view that’s not being accurately portrayed in most media accounts.
For example, in “Israel’s big stick” (Maclean’s, Feb. 25) Michael Petrou wrote: “Likud, led by one-time prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has a party platform that flatly rejects the establishment of a Palestinian state ‘west of the Jordon River’ (i.e., in the West Bank or Gaza).”
While this was once Likud’s official position, the party amended its platform in October 2006, omitting the section that expressly ruled out Palestinian statehood. However, the full platform is available only in Hebrew and is, therefore, not accessible to many journalists. And while its rival, the Kadima party, openly endorses a two-state solution, Likud does not, leaving vague its preferred outcome of final-status negotiations.
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