Douglas Hamilton cites Israel-hating radical leftist in "FACTBOX"

In our previous post, we noted Reuters' use of its "FACTBOX" format to further its Palestinian advocacy agenda under the guise of providing its audience with the facts on Jewish settlements.

Douglas Hamilton surpasses himself in another "FACTBOX" appearing today entitled, "Where does the Middle East peace process stand?"  Quoting an anonymous "Israeli left-wing commentator" on the raison d'etre of the settlement freeze announced by Israel, Hamilton writes:

[the commentator] says the freeze is a masquerade to appease U.S. President Barak Obama and put the onus for the stalled peace process on Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

The commentator cited by Hamilton is none other than Gideon Levy, writer for the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz.  How do we know this?  Well, another Reuters correspondent, Allyn Fisher-Ilan, parroted the same suggestion by Levy in a story on Sunday.

For those unfamiliar with Levy, Spiegel Magazine describes him as Israel's "most radical [leftist] commentator" and reports that:

With the beginning of the second Palestinian intifada in 2000 and the accompanying suicide attacks in Israeli cities... Subscribers [to Ha'aretz] began to abandon the paper in droves. The most common reason given by readers who canceled their subscriptions was one journalist, Gideon Levy

For a newspaper with a nearly exclusive leftist readership, Levy's output was clearly too odious for even the most extreme elements in Israeli society.  And from a Levy story appearing in Ha'aretz in 2004, here's an illustration of why:

At the same time, their state [Israel] continues to strengthen the settlements, which are the major obstacle to the attainment of peace with the Palestinians, which alone can put an end to the firing of rockets at Sderot.

Note that Levy is attempting to justify the thousands of rockets fired by Palestinian terrorists in Gaza into Israeli border communities -- a situation which continues to this day despite the removal of every single settlement from Gaza in 2005.   Not only is Levy's stance morally reprehensible, it has been proven dead wrong.

Yet for Douglas Hamilton and Reuters, amongst all the genuine experts whose views on the Middle East conflict could have been cited, it is the "wisdom" of Gideon Levy which merits inclusion in a "FACTBOX".

Remind us again of Reuters self-proclaimed "freedom from bias".