Krauthammer versus Kristof

Their recent columns on Israel provide about as clear and succinct examples of diametrically opposed views on who is to blame for the current Israeli-Palestinian impasse as you are likely to find. Here’s Krauthammer, blaming the Palestinians. Here’s Kristof, blaming the Israelis.

You won’t be surprised to learn that I think Krauthammer is much closer to the truth. As for Kristof, anyone thinks it’s clever to write a line like “That’s the saddest thing about the Middle East: hard-liners like Hamas empower hard-liners like Mr. Netanyahu”–which, by equating the two parties, implies either that Hamas is as willing as Netanyahu to commence negotiations forthwith and has already recognized the other side’s right to a state, or that Netanyahu is, or at least is as “hard-line” as if he were, a casually genocidal ideologue whose governing ideology is based on a combination of medieval religious doctrine and modern racist conspiracy theories–ultimately doesn’t deserve to be taken seriously. But your mileage may vary.

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