A few days ago a friend was over and gave us some startling news: Jordan's King Abdullah said he regretted his father's 1994 decision to make peace with Israel. He had made the announcement, she said, in a Wall Street Journal Article, which was summarized in an article emailed to her from a friend from some news outlet called "Israel Today." Such news was shocking to me, as it went against what I believe is the king's overall desire for peace and stability in the region, and represented a totally new direction in his sentiment. In fact, I didn't really believe it, so I asked to see the Israel Today Article. So, here it is, pasted below, complete with the headline, "Jordan's King Abdullah Regrets Peace with Israel."
Headline News
Tuesday, April 06, 2010 Israel Today Staff
Jordan's King Abdullah regrets peace with Israel
Jordan's King Abdullah II, widely regarded as the most moderate of Arab leaders, indicated in an interview with The Wall Street Journal published on Tuesday that he regrets his father's decision to make peace with Israel. "Our relationship with Israel is at an all-bottom low. It hasn't been as bad as it is today and as tense as it is today," said Abdullah.
He noted that Jordanians do not see any real tangible benefit from the peace with Israel: "There is no real economic relationship between Jordan and Israel. So economically we were better off in trade and in movement before my father signed the peace treaty."
What Abdullah didn't mention was that according to the peace treaty between the two nations, Israel provides Jordan with a large portion of its annual water needs, and that many Israelis do business in Jordan, even if their Jordanian counterparts choose not to reciprocate.
Abdullah went on to say that recent tension over Jewish building in Jerusalem is highly relevant to Jordan, since it is still recognized as the custodian of Muslim and many Christian holy sites there. However, Abdullah again left the picture incomplete, failing to note that when his country illegally occupied Jerusalem from 1948-1967, it summarily denied Jews and often Christians access to their holy sites.
Abdullah concluded by warning Israel that its future would be at stake if it did not make peace on Arab terms in the very near future. Such saber-rattling from a leader considered Israel's best friend in the Arab world is further evidence of the increasing radicalization of the region, even its more "moderate" elements.
Now, there are a lot of things one could say about this article, but let's start with the most obvious: King Abdullah never said he "regretted" his father's decision to make peace with Israel. He said the relationship between Jordan and Israel is at an all-time low, and he said that Jordanians don't see any economic benefits as a result of the treaty. Regret, though, never entered the conversation. The headline, and the conclusion drawn by the Israel Today staff, is false.
Now let's skip to the last paragraph. Here the staff at Israel Today reports that the king said Israel's "future would be at stake" unless it made "peace on Arab terms", said he was "saber-rattling" and becoming more radical. The paragraph has an ominous feel to it, and Abdullah is portrayed as threatening the very existence of Israel. There's one problem, though: the article provides no proof that he actually said these things. And, after reading the original Wall Street Journal article, I discovered why: he didn't say them. What he did say--when asked the question, "What is your message when you meet with the Israelis?"--was this: "I think the long-term future of Israel is in jeopardy unless we solve our problems." He explained that 57 countries still do not recognize Israel, and that a solution to the Palestinian issue would facilitate recognition, and thus give Israel more stability. He also said that Israel will only find it more difficult to negotiate a solution in a decade or so, when--because of birth rates--the Arab-Israeli population will constitute half of the population of Israel, meaning Israel will no longer be able to negotiate from the position of relative strength that it does now. Nowhere in the original article, though, does the king make any kind of insistence that Israel make peace "on Arab terms," and nowhere does he do anything remotely close to "saber-rattling". In fact, as seen in the above quotation, he referred to "we" solving "our problems."
What he did say in the original article--although not mentioned in the Israel Today recap--was this:
"The extremists around are saying, hey look, nothing is happening, dialogue does not work, communicating with the Israelis is not the way to go forward, the idea of resistance, the spread of fear and hatred is the message they put forward, is the way to go. Even in the Arab Summit in Libya, you had to be careful where some countries were hinting, how long are we going to give you moderates a chance to pursue peace. Because really, look everybody, their way of doing it is not right."
Far from running down the road to radicalism, he was speaking against and warning about those who wanted to forgo a more peaceful peace process. What was asserted about the king by Israel Today was nowhere near what he actually said. It was, instead, lies, lies, lies.
So what does all this matter? Why am I writing about this? According to the Israel Today website, Israel Today exists to provide a "biblical perspective" to Israel based news. Also, a quick Google search revealed that scores of similarly focused websites, blogs and news outlets picked up this story, and ran it whole. I am writing this because the authors are Christians, and they are lying. And their lies are being picked up and swallowed by other Christians. This may sound harsh, but that is what this is. It is lying. As a Christian myself, I find it maddening. It is maddening to me when ideology trumps Christian faithfulness. Unfortunately, if you pay attention to politics at all, you know that this is far from the only example of Christians lying, other Christians swallowing the lie and still other Christians defending the lie.
The situation between the Israelis and Palestinians is complex and tragic. Many people have died, many more have lost their homes and livelihoods, and no one on either side is living the life they could be living as the result of the absence of peace. Telling lies is not helping anyone.
