PRIME Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will never miss an opportunity to justify his stubborn refusal to come to an agreement with the Palestinians. ... On Sunday ... Netanyahu pulled a new rabbit out of his ... hat: The Anti-Defamation League`s latest anti-Semitismsurvey. Obviously the prime minister didn`t address the problems inherent in the very existence of surveysof this kind, since the phrases presented to those surveyed are actually classic stereotypical perceptions ...

that only strengthen global anti-Semitism. . .

Netanyahu ... seized on one of the survey`s findings, which states that the place with the highest level of anti-semitism is the Palestinian Authority areas, where 93pc of adults allegedly holdanti-Semitic views. Of course that finding can, and should, be explained in the context of the Israeli occupation that [... has been] going on for 47 years. . .

But despite these obvious explanations, Netanyahu chose to say that, `this is the result of ... incitement bythe Palestinian Authority, which distorts the image of ... Israel and ... of the Jewish people ...` The primeminister was not satisfied with making the gross comparison between the Palestinians and the Nazis. ... He ... concluded [with] `Whoever sees the creation of Israel ... as a catastrophe does not want peace`. The ... simplistic attitude displayed by Netanyahu with regard to the Palestinian tragedy ... is at the heart of the problem.

-(May 19)=