One of the key tenets of the Palestinian narrative that underlies the land-for-peace process is that Israel currently occupies a country known as “Palestine” in the same way Germany once occupied Poland, or China still occupies Tibet.

Arabs spreading propaganda

Those trying to correct this fallacy in service to establishing a more genuine base upon which to build peace scored a major victory this week when The Washington Post acknowledged there is no “occupied Palestine.”

A Post news article from last Friday toed the typical party line by referencing “Israel’s continued occupation of Palestinian land in the West Bank.”

The Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA) filed an objection with The Post, noting that officially the areas known as the “West Bank” are not occupied sovereign lands, but rather disputed territories whose status needs to be resolved in negotiations.

The Washington Post agreed, and the very next day ran a correction reading:

“A Sept. 5 A-section article about Jordan agreeing to buy natural gas from Israel incorrectly referred to Israel’s occupation of ‘Palestinian lands’ in the West Bank. The Israeli-occupied territories are disputed lands that Palestinians want for a future Palestinian state.”

The same correction was featured prominently on the newspaper’s website.

The reality is that a majority of Israeli are prepared to negotiate away the bulk of their biblical heartland for the sake of regional peace, but insist that such negotiations be grounded in historical accuracy, rather than based on a fantasy contrived to paint the Jews as foreign invaders.

View original Israel Today publication at: http://www.israeltoday.co.il/NewsItem/tabid/178/nid/24913/Default.aspx