Trump's Controversial New Draft Pick

The Article:
The Haaretz news article, written by Judy Maltz on December 16, 2016, on Trump's new Israel Ambassador being a large donor for the West Bank Settlements discussed the controversy surrounding President Donald Trump's new pick the Israel Ambassador.

David Friedman is the focus of the article, discussing the different causes and organizations he supports. The most important organization discussed is the American Friends of Beit El Institutions (AFBEI) which was created in 1988 and raises millions of dollars each year from supporters in the United States to assist the various residents and businesses in the Beit El settlement in the West Bank. Friedman volunteers as president of the organization.

The article also discusses the Beit El Yeshiva that benefits from AFBEI's donations, referring to the yeshiva's head rabbi as a "militant rabbi". The head rabbi, Zalman Baruch Melamed, who has advised Israeli soldiers to disobey their orders to evacuate Israeli settlements has, in the past, also argued that homosexuality comes from eating certain foods. Adding to this, Maltz also mentions that one of the large donors of the organization are the parents of Donald Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and that Friedman has had also been Trump's Bankruptcy Lawyer for over 15 years.

One of the last things that the article discusses is the yeshiva's newest approach in its curriculum, largely supported by the AFBEI, which aims to set up online programs that help Jewish students and Zionists in the United States to become better advocates for Israel and to be better communicators with students in the "social justice" community.

Analysis:
Although Haaretz, Israel's longest running paper, is well known to be a left-wing news source that holds many liberal stances on Israeli and foreign issues, it and this article can still be trusted to give factual accounts of the events portrayed. The paper discusses issues all over the world but mainly focuses on Israel. It has been openly against the Israeli settlements and keeping control over the occupied territories.

The article, in my opinion, does not do a good job of staying unbiased but I do not believe it was intended to be unbiased. The issue discussed is a very controversial one the author and the newspaper disapprove of. It does provide some factual evidence about the amount of funds that the organization receives but there are parts of the article where the authors bias leaks though. The author mentions the rabbi heading the Beit El yeshiva and his stance on the Israeli settlements, which itself is completely relevant to the topic of the article, but then brings up that the rabbi has made some unfounded claims as to the cause of homosexual tendencies. In my opinion this is completely irrelevant to the topic and is only mentioned as a way of discrediting the rabbi and portraying him as an ignorant and untrustworthy source. In this sentence, the authors bias was clearly visible.

It is also important to note that as the Beit El yeshiva, as well as any other organization that benefits from the donations, is in Beit El, an Israeli settlement, it is obvious that its teachings would support the settlement.

The author attempts to be unbiased thought the paper but, as I see it, an unbiased article would have no reason to go this far in depth into the various organizations that Friedman supports and how Trump has several connections to them. Friedman's connection to Trump as his lawyer for over 15 years and Trump's son-in-law's family being a large donor to the AFBEI are not something that would be important unless the author sees them as negatives.

Maltz does not, however, present the idea of the settlements in a negative way. She does not include any opinions of people for or against Trump's decision but does link to another article on Haaretz, by Debra Nussbaum Cohen, on the same topic. While Cohen does include opinions from both sides, she makes a statement in the first sentence stating that some Jewish leaders are worried by Trump's nominee, clearly showing her negative bias on the topic.