HELPING PALESTINIANS

Respected Palestinian journalist Khaled Abu Toameh writing for the New York Hudson Institute HOW TO HELP THE PALESTINIANS says the "the leaders of the Palestinian Authority do not want the international community to hear anything about massive abuse of human rights and intimidation of journalists that its security forces are practicing almost on a daily basis in the West Bank."

He adds that what they want the US and the rest of the world to continue believing is "that peace will prevail tomorrow morning only if Israel stops construction in the settlements and removes a number of empty caravans from remote and isolated hilltops in the West Bank."

But the Palestinians do not need another dictatorship or additional security forces, militias and armed gangs. Toameh wants hospitals, schools and housing projects and for the Palestinians to abandon the culture of uniform and weapons in favor of improved infrastructure and medical care but it won't happen while the international media has a policy of double standards in covering the Israeli-Arab conflict.

Such a pity that news editors like those for example at the Melbourne Age don't take any notice of what Abu Toameh writes because, if they did, they might even help the people in the region resolve the conflict that has been eating away at Israelis and Palestinians for decades. All they need to do is tell the whole truth about what's happening in the region.