The Atlantic Refuses to Correct Error Regarding Israel’s Borders

On July 12, the Atlantic published an article by Graham Allison which was mostly about President Trump, but that still managed to include misinformation about Israel and its Prime Minister. (“Trump Might Not Want to Relinquish Power.”)  Allison wrote:

Putin, Xi, Netanyahu, and Trump all differ from one another in many ways, of course. But each has reasons to avoid relinquishing his hold on power. Putin, Xi, and Netanyahu genuinely have grand ambitions. Each wants to expand his country’s formal borders—Russia’s into Ukraine, Israel’s into the West Bank, China’s to reintegrate Hong Kong and Taiwan. 

The Atlantic’s Editor-in-Chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, who once lived in Israel and published a column in the Jerusalem Post, surely knows that Israel has never had a “formal border” between itself and the West Bank. In 1949, temporary armistice lines were agreed upon between Israel and Jordan. Israel’s territorial victory in 1967 also did not create a “formal border.”

As CAMERA has explained before: 

The Green Line… served as an armistice demarcation line between Israel and Jordan. The armistice line was established April 3, 1949 by Article III of the Israel-Jordan Armistice Agreement and was never the “border” between Israel and the West Bank.

On the contrary, the agreement specifically notes that the lines are not borders: “The Armistice Demarcation Lines defined in articles V and VI of this Agreement are agreed upon by the Parties without prejudice to future territorial settlements or boundary lines or to claims of either Party relating thereto.”

In short, the word “border” implies legality, political significance and permanence that does not apply in this circumstance.

Yet, despite multiple contacts from CAMERA, the Atlantic has so far failed to correct its error. Why would a reputable publication let such a false claim stand?

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