Friday, January 02, 2015

Misleading Headlines: “Abbas trades stalemate for confrontation in ICC move”

The Reuters wire states that “Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has entered into his most serious confrontation yet with Israel by signing onto the International Criminal Court” and that “the failure of peace talks this year to win a state or halt the spread of Israeli settlements seems to have clinched his decision that now is the time for what commentators on both sides describe as "lawfare" - conflict by means of law.”


I would have no objections if the term “stalemate” referred only to the “failure of peace talks this year to win a state.” But “failure to… halt the spread of Israeli settlements” is stalemate only if stalemate means that one side gets to make all the moves.

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