Palestinians should come out as winners
I have long wondered whether there is an objective way to measure bias in articles and Web sites about the Palestinian conflict. And I believe I found one. Both sides of the conflict are eager to present their position as based on a just claim to the land of Palestine and thus both sides have an interested in downplaying the role of the others in the region.
Before Israel was founded millions of Jews lived among Arabs as "dhimmis". They were underprivileged, differently taxed, and often had to be be marked as Jews in public. They were often not allowed to hold public office or worship according to their beliefs in public. This status was celebrated as the tolerance of Islam, which appears to rival the intolerance of fascist Germany in the 1930s. And no, I am not neutral here.
The Jews of the Arab world were very much in the same situation as other minorities, including Kurds and Christians, and subject to the same treatment in the last 50 years. The arrival of surviving Jews from Europe (where the Nazis ran the industrial equivalent of racism) and America gave the Jews of the Arab world the chance to fight back. And fight back they did.
The Arab world at the time was still under the administration of the victors of World War I who obtained as mandates the land which was taken from the Ottoman Empire and that was not Turkish. (Unfortunately Kurdistan was split between a "Turkish" and an "Arab" part, although Kurds are neither Turkish nor Arab.) One of the mandates was Palestine, which was split into a Jewish part and an Arab part. Arab Jews and European/American Jews accepted the partition, Arabs did not. This led to the first war between Israel and its neighbours and Jewish and Arab refugees leaving Israel/Palestine and other countries of the general region.
The objective method to measure bias I have found consists of the simple process of determining who is mentioned in the article or on the site. There are two groups that biased pundits of either side have reason to downplay: Jews of the Arab world (Mizrahim and Sephardim) and Palestinian Arabs. It appears that there are five methods to deal with the existence of these people:
1. Source mentions Palestinian refugees but no Mizrahim/Sephardim.
(This appears to be most common.)
2. Source mentions Palestinian refugees and Mizrahim/Sephardim.
(Liberal Palestinians?)
3. Source mentions Palestinian refugees and Mizrahim/Sephardim refugees.
(Balanced?)
4. Source mentions Mizrahim/Sephardim refugees and Palestinians.
(Common Israeli right-wing position.)
5. Source mentions Mizrahim/Sephardim refugees but no Palestinians.
(Potential Israeli hardliner position. Not seen in the wild?)
I believe the list is quite neutral.
Using this list, I would argue that the mass media fall into category 1. I have not found many reports or newspaper articles that even mention Jewish refugees or the fact that they, in contrast to Arab refugees, received no international support. The Arab countries they fled have also not bothered to grant them a "right of return" or financial compensation, although it can be argued that these Jews probably don't want to live in an Arab country. Incidentally, Palestinians seem to have no fear of living in Israel should they get a "right to return". And incidentally, the number of Arab and Jewish refugees appears to be about the same (600,000 to one million).
I refuse to accept any source as valid that falls into category 1.
Now as for the peace plan, it should be based on the idea that Jews and Arabs are both human beings and worth the same.
I think the first step would be to compensate Palestinian refugees. I think the fairest way to determine how much the Palestinians should get for loss of their homes is to let the Arab countries that always so wanted to help the Palestinians decide how much that is. This will give the countries of the Arab League an opportunity to show the Palestinians their support without killing Jews.
Israel will then have to pay that amount to a democratic Palestinian government.
And the Arab countries will have to pay the same amount to Israel for the Jewish refugees.