CAMERA
PBS Ombudsman Upholds CAMERA Criticism of Ben Rhodes’ Settlements Falsehood
by Tamar Sternthal
January 15, 2017

PBS Ombudsman Michael Getler upholds CAMERA’s criticism of the Dec. 23 “NewsHour” interview in which anchor Judy Woodruff failed to challenge or correct a false claim by Ben Rhodes, President Obama’s deputy national security adviser for strategic communications, that Israel is constructing “tens of thousands of West Bank” settlements. As CAMERA noted last week, Rhodes defended the controversial American abstention that day regarding United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334, arguing: The fact of the matter is, though, I think if you look at the map of the West Bank, if you look at the future of the two-state solution, these settlements are encroaching further and further beyond the separation barrier that the Israelis themselves built, thousands of new settlements are being constructed…Later in the interview, when Woodruff questioned him about bipartisan criticism of the abstention, Rhodes doubled down, increasing the figure to “tens of thousands of settlements being constructed.”

According to the anti-settlement organization Peace Now, there’s a total of 228 settlements, including established settlements founded by the Israeli government decades ago, along with wildcat outposts considered illegal under Israeli law, founded since the 1990s’ without government approval. READ MORE