Pelosi didn't botch Israeli message to Syria; U.S. media did
In reports repeating false and baseless attacks on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's (D-CA) recent trip to Syria, major media outlets continue to omit an important fact that undermines those attacks. According to a report Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz published before Pelosi's visit to Syria, the real message Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert asked Pelosi to deliver to Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad was that Israel has no plans to launch a pre-emptive military strike on Syria this summer. Three members of Pelosi's congressional delegation, including Pelosi herself, have since confirmed this was the message they received from Olmert. Yet outside of a single Associated Press report, major American news organizations have altogether ignored what appears to have been the essential element of Olmert's message, even as they reported a "clarification" by Olmert's office stating that Israel's policy toward Syria remained the same as it was before Pelosi's visit.
Before Pelosi had even returned to the United States, major media figures were issuing stinging criticism of her trip. The Washington Post editorial board opened the flood gates with an April 5 editorial titled "Pratfall in Damascus," which declared that Pelosi had "misrepresent[ed]" a message from Olmert to Assad. As evidence, the Post pointed to Pelosi's remark at an April 4 press conference that she had "communicate[d] a message from Prime Minister Olmert that Israel was ready to engage in peace talks," and an April 4 statement of "clarification" by Olmert's office that stated, "What was communicated to the U.S. House Speaker does not contain any change in the policies of Israel." Media figures representing other major news organizations such as CNN and Newsweek quickly echoed the Post, suggesting that Pelosi had "fumbled" Olmert's message and made "rookie mistakes" during her Syria trip.
The allegations that Pelosi distorted Olmert's message rest entirely on the premise that Pelosi failed to deliver the preconditions Israel has long set for negotiations with Syria -- that the Syrians end their support for Hamas and Hezbollah, two groups deemed terrorist entities by the Israeli government. Both Pelosi and the rest of her bipartisan seven-member delegation have disputed that charge, as Media Matters has noted. But more to the point, media outlets that have accused Pelosi of misrepresenting Israel's message ignore an essential fact: As blogger Joshua Micah Marshall detailed in an April 8 entry for the weblog TalkingPointsMemo.com, before Pelosi had arrived in Syria, Ha'aretz reported on April 3 that Israel had instructed Pelosi to deliver "a message of calm" to the Syrians, in order to avert "the possibility of a Syrian attack on the Golan Heights that will start as a result of a 'miscalculation' on the part of the Syrians, who may assume that Israel intends to attack them." From Ha'aretz:
this is lengthy and continued at.... http://mediamatters.org/items/200704170005
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