A Nov. 23 WorldNetDaily article by Aaron Klein promotes an “alternative plan” for dealing with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Called the Israeli Initiative, it essentially comes down to paying Palestinians to leave the West Bank and Gaza and for Israel to officially annex those areas. While Klein asserts that the plan “has already gained broad backing, including from some leftist lawmakers and U.S. politicians,” he never states one specific fact: The plan is being advanced by conservatives.
Klein describes Benny Elon, lead promoter of the initiative, only as “chairman of the National Union party and … a member of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.” The National Union party is a right-wing party, and Elon has been a longtime opponent of the Israeli disengagement plan and other plans for peace promoted by non-conservatives, which Klein also doesn’t mention. Klein also describes plan supporter Benjamin Netanyahu is described as a “[o]pposition leader” and “chairman of the Likud party” without noting that Likud is also a conservative-leaning party.
As we’ve detailed, Klein has a problem labeling conservatives as such.
Further, while Klein suggests that Elon’s plan is a new one, WND wrote about it way back in 2002. In contrast to Klein’s claim that the plan “has already gained broad backing,” Wikipedia notes that a 2005 survey found that Elon’s plan had no more public support than Ariel Sharon’s disengagement plan, and that Elon’s National Union party got only 7 percent of the vote in the 2006 Israeli elections.