Monday, November 09, 2020
Elder of ZiyonOn April 16, 2010, the New York Times issued a correction on a photo caption from two days prior:
Several officials point out that Mr. Obama has now seized control of Middle East policy himself, particularly since the controversy several weeks ago when Israeli authorities announced new Jewish housing units in Jerusalem during a visit to Israel by Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. Mr. Obama, incensed by that snub, has given Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a list of demands, and relations between the United States and Israel have fallen into a chilly standoff.
Correction: April 16, 2010A picture caption on Thursday with the continuation of a news analysis article about a shift in the Obama administration’s Middle East policy referred incorrectly to Ramat Shlomo, the name of a Jewish housing development that Israel says it is expanding despite objections by the United States and the Palestinian Authority. It is a neighborhood in East Jerusalem, not a settlement in the West Bank.
Even saying it is in "East Jerusalem" is false. It is in the northern part of Jerusalem in an area that was never considered part of Jerusalem under Jordanian occupation.
Nevertheless, it is certainly not a "West Bank settlement."
Yet, now, the New York Times has reverted to referring it in exactly that way:
Mr. Biden and Mr. Netanyahu do go back a long way. But in 2010, Mr. Netanyahu alienated the then-vice president when his government announced the approval of 1,600 Jewish settlements in the West Bank while Mr. Biden was still in the country. Hillary Clinton, who was secretary of state at the time, berated Mr. Netanyahu for what the White House viewed as an affront.
Actually, the writer (Mark Landler, the London bureau chief) made a worse mistake, referring to every apartment and housing unit as a "settlement," which is absurd.
As usual, New York Times errors only go one way.
(h/t Irene)
