Connie Mack: “the campaign for Israel's first directly elected Prime Minister not only brought a victory for Benjamin Netanyahu but a…”

“the campaign for Israel's first directly elected Prime Minister not only brought a victory for Benjamin Netanyahu but a defeat for the mistaken idea that peace can only be defined from a liberal perspective. While two well-qualified candidates with different ideologies each articulated their vision for the country, many in the American media-- those who reported on the campaign and the experts journalists chose to interview--hid behind stereotypes and missed the real point of the election. At its very core, the campaign was not about whether there should be peace but how to define it. The American media told us the issue was simply this: Shimon Peres, the liberal, wanted peace. Benjamin Netanyahu, the conservative, didn't. Implied in this ridiculous statement is the wrong assumption that only liberals understand peace. In the days since the election, the American media aren't quite certain how to characterize Mr. Netanyahu. When Mr. Netanyahu recently expressed his desire for Israel to continue to seek peace with its Arab neighbors--a position he has advocated all along--a Washington Post story identified him as ``kinder and gentler.'' The media's failure to understand Benjamin Netanyahu and his conservative principles of real peace--real security underscores the differences in how liberals and conservatives view foreign policy.”