Template Watch: U.S. Presses PA on Gaza

This is the beginning of Template Watch -- a continuing series!

This series will describe news events of the previous day that were important, newsworthy, but unfavorable to the Palestinians -- and thus were ignored by the New York Times, in accordance with the Sulzberger Indifference Template.

Today we have an item that moved over the wires yesterday reporting that the Bush administration was pushing the Palestinian Authority to exert control over Gaza. Even Reuters picked it up -- but you won't read about it in the Times, whose policy is to ignore U.S. statements pressuring Palestinians, while playing up statements even mildly critical of Israel. Here's how Reuters reported it:

The Palestinian Authority must immediately start to exert control over Gaza, a senior Bush administration official said on Thursday, suggesting it was a prerequisite to restarting the "road map" peace process and addressing Palestinian issues on the West Bank.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, acknowledged that renewed violence was "not helpful" to U.S.-sponsored peace efforts, saying "it shows the need for the Palestinian Authority to reorganize its security forces and step forward and take control of the security situation in Gaza." .

Note the fatal flaw of the above -- it says that the Palestinians are failing to do something. Wrong! As far as the Times is concerned, the threat to peace in the Middle East comes from -- and only from -- the warlike, unreasonable Israel and the diabolical Ariel Sharon.