“no longer credible”

Wed, Feb 27, 2002 at 7:12:05 am PST

Even other Arabs are starting to see through the duplicitousness of the Palestinian Authority:

"When Israel announced that it had seized the [Karine A] weapons ship, I doubted the Israeli account and espoused the PA's claim - that the whole thing was a fabrication. I did this out of a sense of obligation to support our Palestinian brothers, and out of trust in the veracity of their account. But it seems that the [Palestinian] leadership deceived us with its account, and we, in turn, unintentionally deceived our readers." ...

"Now, not only is Arafat confessing to the [Israeli] account, but he goes further still, and has sent [a letter] to the American secretary of state [from] which it can be interpreted that he takes responsibility for this incident."

"Therefore, I take responsibility before my readers; I and my readers were victims of our obligation to and trust in the Palestinian leadership. I assure the readers that since Arafat has confessed his responsibility to Colin Powell, I will no longer take the Palestinian leadership's declarations seriously."

Notice, however, that this author is not upset about the fact of the weapons-smuggling and deception—he’s upset that Arafat admitted it. And he offers up a revealing glimpse into the mindset of Arab journalism, intellectually dishonest and corrupt to the core:

"A journalist in our Arab world is confused, [caught] between his respect for himself and his readers and the Arab attitude towards the news. Fearing that he will be denied, the journalist misses the opportunity to analyze important news. If he writes about it [anyway], he... is stricken with anxiety, lest his commentary be published in the same issue that carries the denial of what he reports."

"The [guiding] principle [in the Arab world] is not to treat the public with candor and transparency, but to conceal information [from it], such that if [the news] is picked up by the foreign press, we can deny it. Sometimes we are forced to confirm an item after we have denied it, because it has turned out to be a proven fact."

Every once in a while you come across a curious piece like this in the Arab press, where the author openly admits bias, censorship, and lying.