The New York Times has a long history of antipathy to the establishment and existence of a Jewish state, but what most rankles the Times is when Israeli voters hand the reins of power to the right-of-center Likud Party, currently under the leadership of Prime Minister Netanyahu.  In fact, among liberals whose world views have been shaped by reading Times "news" articles and editorials, Likud has become a downright dirty word. This visceral dislike of the Likud is vividly illustrated by the Times' Jerusalem bureau chief, Ethan Bronner, in a Sunday, Sept. 18, "news analysis," titled "Israel and Turkey, Foes and Much Alike." Bronner draws a Turkey-Israel parallel, depicting them as two countries which have gone through similar political shifts -- from "aggressively secular societies run by Westernized elites to populist ethno-religious states" with more hawkish, religious orientations. For Turkey, Bronner dates this seismic shift to 2002 when Prime Minister Erdogan and his...(Read Full Post)