Druker and Haaretz Present: Fantasies Built on Lies
In order to convince readers that establishing a Palestinian state is the right and necessary step for Israel, Druker and Haaretz venture into the realm of fantasy, supporting it with fabrications and falsehoods.
Last week, Israeli journalist Raviv Druker published an article in the newspaper Haaretz titled: “Lapid, Eisenkot and Golan, You Know This Is the Right Path. Now Show Leadership.”
The essence of the article is this: Druker is so eager to see the establishment of a Palestinian state that he openly fantasizes about a far-fetched proposal in which Netanyahu supposedly offers Mahmoud Abbas to move forward with negotiations toward establishing such a state. From this imagined scenario, he proceeds to express anger at opposition leaders Lapid, Eisenkot and Golan for not demanding such a move from Netanyahu.
All of this would be perfectly legitimate. Druker is entitled to indulge in speculation, to be frustrated that his ideas are not taken seriously, and to urge leading politicians to align with his vision. Paper, especially that of Haaretz, can tolerate anything. The problem begins when Druker recruits falsehoods and fabrications to lend weight and credibility to his fantasies. There were several such claims, but two stand out in particular.
Druker states unequivocally:
“Does political negotiation with the Palestinian Authority reduce the threat of Palestinian terrorism? Everyone in the public already has a firm opinion. In my view, the answer is clearly yes.”
However, anyone who has lived in Israel since 1994, when negotiations with the Palestinian Authority began, knows that the opposite is true. The data are clear: during the years of negotiations surrounding the Oslo Accords, terrorist attacks increased by hundreds and even thousands of percent. After negotiations ceased, the number of attacks dropped dramatically, only to surge again in the early 2000s alongside another desperate round of negotiations led by Ehud Barak with Yasser Arafat’s Palestinian Authority.
It requires considerable audacity on the part of Druker and Haaretz editors to advance a claim so contrary to reality. Yet they do not stop there, adding another assertion to support Druker’s demand that opposition leaders pressure Netanyahu to realize his wish. Druker writes:
“The Palestinian Authority has stopped paying money to the families of terrorists and has replaced it with a broader welfare mechanism.”
Stopped paying the families of terrorists? Only recently, Mahmoud Abbas clearly and defiantly stated that this is precisely what he has no intention of doing. Indeed, intelligence monitoring of the Authority’s financial flows has shown that the payments to terrorists’ families continue to flow, exactly as he publicly pledged.
This raises two questions: Where does Druker derive the audacity to mislead Haaretz readers so blatantly? And why do these crude falsehoods pass through the editorial filter of Haaretz?
The answer likely lies in the realm of faith. For Israel’s dwindling political left, guided ideologically by Haaretz, a Palestinian state has become a kind of article of faith. To abandon that belief would be to abandon a core element of identity. That is impossible. The belief must endure. And what if reality obstructs that belief? No problem: distort it. Create an alternative reality—so long as the article of faith remains intact.