Omar Abdel-Baqui is now the main journalist covering Palestinians for the Wall St. Journal. His anti-Israel animus comes shining through; his mistakes have prompted constant corrections from CAMERA, but under Emma Tucker those mistakes the Journal has published are neither acknowledged nor corrected. It would seem that Tucker’s motto is “never apologize, never explain.” “Under New Editor, the Wall Street Journal Is Misreporting Facts About Israel,” by Andrea Levin, Algemeiner, July 31, 2024:
Abdel-Baqui recounts various harsh political events that have ostensibly shaped the lives of the young woman and fellow Palestinian teens, but he continuously omits facts key to an accurate understanding of how Palestinians themselves are culpable for their circumstances. Thus Abdel-Baqui writes:
Though their parents recall an era of hope amid the 1990’s Oslo Accords, the latest breakthrough agreement between the two sides, Palestinians under the age of 25 – who comprise most of the population – say the door to coexistence with Israelis always felt barely ajar. It has been slammed shut since Oct. 7.”
The repetitive door metaphor omits how exactly that “era of hope” and “door to coexistence” surrounding Oslo was blocked.
There is no mention of Palestinian terrorists blowing up Israeli buses, cafes, and religious events in the wake of the 1993 Oslo agreements. The terror attacks began only six months after the September 1993 agreement — in 1994 in Afula, Hadera, and then Tel Aviv. The bloodletting intensified in 1995 and 1996, when gruesome mass bombings occurred in Jerusalem, Ramat Gan, Beit Lid, and elsewhere. All the while, Israel continued attempting to implement Oslo measures aimed at getting to an “end of the conflict” predicated on Yasser Arafat’s false pledge to resolve disagreements peacefully….
Abdel-Baqui doesn’t discuss the more than a thousand Israeli civilians who were murdered in the Second Intifada; in fact he makes no mention of any specific attacks by Palestinian terrorists, including mass bombings that occurred at pizza parlors, on busses, and at Passover dinners.
Abdel-Baqui does not mention the fantastic corruption inside Fatah, in the West Bank, and inside Hamas in Gaza. Just three Hamas leaders — Mousa Abu Marzouk, Khaled Meshaal, and the late Ismail Haniyeh — have managed to steal a total of $11 billion from the aid meant for the people of Gaza. On the West Bank, Mahmoud Abbas and his two sons Yasser and Tarek, have amassed a family fortune of $400 million. And below the senior echelon, Hamas and Fatah officials have also been allowed to help themselves to aid money, though much lesser amounts than the leaders, a way to secure their loyalty to those at the top. Nor does he mention the ruthless suppression of all internal dissent, such as the beating to death, by Mahmoud Abbas’ goons, of his severest critic, Nizar Banat. In Gaza, Hamas deals just as harshly with those who dare to speak out against it.
In relaying the pain and disappointment of other Gen Z Palestinians, Abdel-Baqui refers to the sealing off of the West Bank after October 7 and how it prevented friendly Palestinian interaction with Israelis, and before that, the building of a “barrier across much of the military-occupied West Bank” because of a “Palestinian uprising known as the Second Intifada.”…
That “friendly Palestinian interaction” with Israelis is a fiction. The one attempt at a “friendly interaction” – by the Israeli side, of course – consisted in the employment of almost 20,000 Gazans and more than 100,000 Palestinians in Judea and Samaria (a/k/a the West Bank) by Israeli employers, in an attempt to help the Palestinian economy. After October 7, of course, the Israelis were compelled to end that jobs program, particularly after it was discovered that some of those Palestinians from Gaza who had been employed in Israel had gathered intelligence information about Israeli border communities that proved useful to Hamas when it smashed into Israel.
Once more, there’s not the slightest hint by the Wall Street Journal reporter that the Second Intifada and the security barrier were the results of Palestinian rejection of coexistence and peace. The Gen Z’ers and their families are cast as innocents simply looking for an open door if Israel would only offer one. The formulation is a lie insofar as it overlooks critical facts such as those cited above and many related ones….
But Israel had offered an “open door” to more than 120,000 Palestinians given jobs in Israel and the territories, with salaries far greater than what they could attain at home — assuming they could have found jobs at home. And it had been prepared to offer still more jobs to Palestinians, until the treachery of some, who had helped Hamas combatants enter Israel on October 7, forced Israel to shut down the program and to seal the border between Gaza and Israel.
mgoldberg says
Telling the truth is not an arab/muslim strong point. The idea of ‘truth’ for them is whatever Mohammad stated was good, was the good and what he said was bad was indeed, bad. So how does that translate into common understandings? Well, infidels are amongst the vilest of G-d’s creatures. So when the Jew hatred ( the ultimate envy by Mohammad of the Jews who didn’t see him as their prophet) was codified and enforced, the idea of any scenario giving credence to others as equal to muslims became impossible. For the freedom of arabs depends in their story, the rule by muslims not anyone else. And any rule by non muslims, especially Jews is unacceptable. And so, the story is skewed and changed to reflect the commanded hatred of the others- the Jews and here, we have young arabs who should be able to discern simple facts of the last 30 yrs thru a lens beyond their own arab hatreds of others and see the events described above. The distortion by Leftists, by Jihadist and by ordinary muslims is reinforced by disallowing any such thinking that might see the effects of the Jew hatred upon the acctual history. Even Oct 7th was not enough to convince them that the madness and hatred was just that. The overiding theme was how it showed some arab/muslim strength. Indeed the slaughters, the rapes, the mutilations could be changed into mere lies by non muslims- even as the muslims filmed and bragged at what they had accomplished. For islam, there is only muslim victory, never defeat. The vulgarity and distortion of reality is a deadly reminded of just how deep the differences are. There is no Two state solution. There is only coming to grips with how much hatred and envy the arab side has to maintain in face of all other facts.
gravenimage says
+1
Hindu American says
Per the philistine journalist “…the door to coexistence with Israelis …has been slammed shut since Oct. 7”.
Hmmm..I wonder what happened on that date when the ingrate Israelis slammed the door shut? Did some people do something?
I wonder how the philistine defines “coexistence”?
gravenimage says
All important points.
rick says
Abdel-Baqui writes “Palestinians under the age of 25 – who comprise most of the population – say the door to coexistence with Israelis always felt barely ajar. It has been slammed shut since Oct. 7.”
Oct. 7th was the culmination of decades of inhuman attacks on Jews in Israel. Just as the Holocaust was the culmination of 2,000 years of European attacks on Jews.
Understanding Oct. 7th as a Holocaust event would be the correct way to understand why Israel did and is doing what she is now. Of course an Arab, especially a highly political one, could never understand events the way a Jew does. As Jihadists say “We love Death and Jews love Life. That makes us superior” It also opens Palestinians up to a very angry and powerful Jewish nation making them pay a steep price.
rick says
Where is the Petition to sign calling for the firing of Abdel-Baqui from the Wall Street Journal? This story bolsters my decision not to renew my WSJ subscription. Is the paper’s last three pages worth the anti-Israel nonsense that is reported on the other pages?
Wellington says
I gave up on the WSJ years ago principally back then because I had concluded that it was just fine with illegal immigration but it has gone from bad to worse. I simply don’t bother with it any longer except to occasionally take cognizance of what it is doing wrong—and which is much.
gravenimage says
The WSJ used to be a good publication with reliable reporting. Sadly, not in recent years, though…
James Lincoln says
I still get the WSJ mainly to follow financial trends, etc.
Their opinion section, however, has taken a “left” turn…
࿗Infidel࿘ says
It’s the Murdochs. Even if Rupert was otherwise Right leaning, he was too pally w/ Saudi prince Alaweed bin Talal, the same guy whom Mayor Giuliani rebuffed when he offered a check after 9/11 and then was returned it after he criticized US policy towards Israel. Prince Alaweed has been a major financial backer of the Murdochs whenever they needed him, regardless of how much of News Corp stock he owns
Just boycott everything of News Corp: FNC, FBN, WSJ, NYP….. Best way to do it is to cut the cord: discontinue all cable or satellite services, be it DirecTV, Comcast, Cox, Spectrum, whatever. Whenever you pay them, the proceeds go to every channel that they carry regardless of whether you watch them or not. So in other words, by sticking w/ your cable service, you are indirectly sponsoring CNN, MSNBC, ABC, PBS, Fox, et al – all of who spew propaganda
Instead, have a broadband internet connection, then one of those multimedia toys – Sling, Roku, even Amazon Prime and then on those Android-like platforms, download Klowd TV. One can then watch a variety of sensible news channels, such as Newsmax, Salem News Channel, The First, OANN….. Aside from that, one can also download Rumble & watch various shows like Don Jr, Dan Bongino, et al. Or go to YouTube and watch any number of Right leaning channels or podcasts that one can watch, depending on who one trusts
Let News Corp, Disney, Comcast, Verizon, AT&T, all tank!
OLD GUY says
Freedom of the press now means they can tell a story anyway they like it, or just make one up.
gravenimage says
Error-Prone Omar Abdel-Baqui of the Wall St. Journal
……………………………..
“Error-prone” is grimly hilarious. Hugh. Of course, these from Omar Abdel-Baqui ate not honest errors.