A Friday full of "surprises"...first, we uncover Obama's terrorist pals boarding a ship to attack Israel, and now we find the house organ of the Obama Administration (that's the New York Times) engaged in bald-faced lying to their dwindling readership about the Israeli reaction to Netanayhu's tumultuous trip to the States. Via Yid with Lid, here's the money shots...first, from the aforementioned Times:
"Israelis See Netanyahu Trip as Diplomatic Failure."
“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel returned from Washington on Wednesday to a nearly unanimous assessment among Israelis that despite his forceful defense of Israel's security interests, hopes were dashed that his visit might advance peace negotiations with the Palestinians.”
Well, the assessment was "nearly unanimous"...except in the opposite direction that the Times is pointing. Israeli left-wing newspaaper Ha'aretz reports:
"Ha'aretz Poll: Netanyahu's Popularity Soaring Following Washington Trip"
A new poll conducted by Dialog, under the supervision of Prof. Camil Fuchs of the Tel Aviv University Statistics Department, showed that 47% of the Israeli public believes Netanyahu's U.S. trip was a success, while only 10% viewed it as a failure...
While in a Haaretz poll five weeks ago Netanyahu seemed to be in hot water with the public, with 38 percent expressing satisfaction with his performance and 53 percent disappointed with it, in yesterday's poll the results were essentially reversed: 51 percent were satisfied, while 36 percent were not.
Not only did Obama empower his arch-rival with his "smart diplomacy", his attack on the prime minister helped strengthen Netanyahu's conservative coalition going into the Israeli election season:
A Telesker poll published in Ma’ariv on Wednesday found that the Likud had strengthened against Kadima. The poll predicted that the Likud would rise from 27 to 30 Knesset seats, while Kadima would fall from 28 to 27.
Asked who was more fit to be prime minister, 36.9% said Netanyahu; 28.3% said Kadima leader Tzipi Livni....
I understand the desire at the NYT to do whatever possible to support their dream administration, especially given that they threw out any journalistic consideration of parity well over a decade ago. But are they not ill-serving their customer base by providing them with deliberately false information? Sure, it makes them feel good for the moment, but in the end, they'll be shocked that their worldview - taken from the pages of the Times - has no real relation to...well, the world's view.
Expect the Times to become a local, Upper West Side-only paper, by....2012. Latest.