Continuing their not-so-veiled attempt at over-compensating in favor of Palestinians, CBS used Thursday’s CBS Evening News and Friday’s CBS Mornings to kvetch about President-Elect Trump selecting former Arkansas Governor and two-time GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee as his choice for U.S. Ambassador to Israel.
CBS Evening News anchor Norah O’Donnell commenced the fretting: “Let’s turn now to the Middle East, where the incoming Trump administration has signaled it may be open to Israeli annexation of the West Bank, which most of the international community considers to be Palestinian territory. And in that disputed region, one of Trump’s Cabinet members is eliciting strong reactions from both sides.”
Foreign correspondent Elizabeth Palmer lamented the “violent year in the West Bank” with “Israeli soldiers pursu[ing] militants in residential areas, and Jewish settlers carry[ing] out attacks on Palestinians” would worsen with Huckabee’s “radical views.”
All told, she kvetched his comments about Palestinians has them “deeply worried” and ran to Palestinian politician and anti-Isarel TV talking head Mustafa Barghouti to insist it’s Jews who need to give Palestinians “peace” because, “if they try to displace us, we will resist.”
“Drive around the occupied West Bank, and you can see the Jewish settlements encroaching on what’s been Palestinian land. Right- wingers in the government believe it’s all Israel’s anyway and hope Trump will help them take it. That would be illegal under international law,” she said.
Citing the recent death of a 11-year-old Palestinian boy, she warned Trump that Palestinians better be given “their own state or...they will fight on.”
Yes, we know. Just ask Israel who went through the events of October 7 if they think the Palestinians actually want peace.
A few hours later, Palmer resurfaced on CBS Mornings. CBS Mornings Plus co-host Adriana Diaz had the lead-in, making it seem as though the U.S. Ambassador could unilaterally implement policy:
In the Middle East, there is new attention on the future of the Israeli-occupied West Bank amid signs the new Trump administration may not push back on Israel if it tries to annex that entire territory. Most international groups say the West Bank should belong to Palestinians but Trump’s pick to be U.S. Ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, disagrees.
“All year, violence has been escalating in Israel’s occup ied West Bank,” Palmer began, then reciting the story from the night prior.
Palmer continued the pity party: “Now, the Palestinians fear President Trump’s slate of pro-Israel officials will make it worse, especially his pick for ambassador to Israel, the evangelical Christian Mike Huckabee, who doesn’t believe in a Palestinian state...Right-wingers in Israel’s government believe the West Bank is Israel’s anyway... And hope Trump will help them take it.”
Before concluding with a warning to Trump he’d be responsible for tensions in the Middle East becoming “worse,” Palmer played new sound from Barghouti warning Israelis and the Trump administration that Palestinians “will not give up our right to be free” and “not accept that our children will live in a system of eternal apartheid and discrimination, so we will struggle.”
To see the relevant CBS transcripts, click here (for November 14) and here (for November 15).
