March 30, 2002

Dear NPR News.

The 7 AM ET news bulletin about the passage of a UN Security Council resolution which last night called on Israel to withdraw its forces from Palestinian cities, contained that outrageous statement that, "Syria, which opposes peace with Israel, abstained."

As NPR well knows, Syria is among the Arab League states which at their summit in Beirut this week unanimously adopted a Saudi plan offering Israel "comprehensive peace," and "normal relations" in exchange for full Israeli withdrawal from the occupied territories including southwestern Syria.

In recent years, Syria has engaged in several intensive rounds of negotiation with Israel, most recently at Sheperdstown, West Virginia, with the stated goal of achieving a peace treaty in accordance with UN resolution 242. The talks foundered when Israel refused to agree to withdraw completely from all of occupied southwestern Syria (the Golan Heights). The present Israeli government has repeatedly affirmed that it will never agree to withdraw from Syria, and continues to build new Jewish settlements inside Syrian territory. Hence while it is wholly wrong to say that Syria "opposes peace with Israel," it would be correct to say that Israel opposes peace with Syria.

These kinds of ill-informed and propagandistic statements are what bring NPR's Middle East coverage into disrepute.

Yours,