Just a day before The Guardian. Review section published an absurd article denouncing The Guardian's. anti-Israel bias, Seumas Milne, the Comment Editor of The Guardian, had a letter published in The Jewish Chronicle. pointing out just how pro -Israel The Guardian. has been.
See this:
Colin Schindler is surely wrong to claim that "rejectionists" of Israel are "disproportionately promoted" on the Guardian's comment pages or that we have had a "plethora of rejectionist articles".
All staff columnists and a large majority of outside contributors who write on the Israel-Palestine conflict support a two-state solution. The only article I recall explicitly rejecting Israel's right to exist was by British Muslim writer Faisal Bodi three-and-a-half years ago (before my time as comment editor). We've had occasional pieces that might be regarded by some as rejectionist: for example an anti-Zionist article by British Palestinian Ghada Karmi and a handful by longtime Palestinian two-state supporters who question whether two states are still viable, wondering instead whether to campaign for equal rights in a single state.
But the weight of comment in the Guardian could not by any stretch of the imagination be regarded as rejectionist. In fact some critics have argued that the case for a single-state solution is under-represented on our pages given the number of, say, British Muslims who support it.
The Guardian's comment pages try to provide the broadest spectrum of opinion in any English-language newspaper with its centre of gravity on the centre-left.
Some JC readers might be surprised to know that in the past year we have, by my tally, had 13 pieces by Israeli writers and six by Palestinians on the comment pages.
Among the Israelis have been the settlers' leader, Israel Harel; Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom; Foreign Ministry legal adviser Arthur Lenk; former Sharon government adviser Jonathan Spyer; and Emanuele Ottolenghi - as well as Meron Benvenisti; Uri Dromi; Avraham Burg; Avi Shlaim; Sharon Sadeh; Roman Bronfman; and Yossi Sarid.
Seumas Milne
COMMENT EDITOR,
THE GUARDIAN
FARRINGDON ROAD, LONDON EC1
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