Bad AP writing, and uninformed readers

When the 2006 conflict between Israel and Lebanon ended, the AP put out this story, which was posted at Yahoo, among many other places. Here's how it starts:

"Truce will be Israel's last, Lebanon envoy declares"

WASHINGTON (AFP) — Lebanon's UN ambassador bitterly slammed Israel's month-long bombardment of his country ahead of a hard-won truce, and vowed that the treaty would be Israel's last with any Middle East country.

"Lebanon will be, I think, the last state to sign a peace treaty with Israel," UN ambassador Nouhad Mahmoud told CNN television's "Late Edition" program, without explaining the remark.

He called the agreement a "crucial" test for all the parties involved.

Without yet venturing any opinions on the Middle East conflict, let me just say that this is a classic case of very, very bad writing on the part of the AP, bordering on the irresponsible.

The AP writer cannot tell the difference between a truce and a peace treaty, which is crucial in the Middle East. There have been lots of truces, but fewer peace treaties. Israel has signed two peace treaties with its neighbors so far, each of which was a considerable achievement: with Egypt in 1979 (with Carter's help), and with Jordan, in 1994 (with Clinton's help). Still pending: Syria, Palestine, and Lebanon.

The ambassador was simply saying that Lebanon would be the last to sign. He might have been echoing a column by Tom Friedman, which, if I remember correctly, argued that while many people expect Israel to sign a peace treaty with Lebanon before it does the same with Syria, the reverse would be more likely.

As it turns out, the first time I visited a well-known right-wing blog, I happened upon a discussion of this piece. The blogger, and most of the readers, took the AP report to mean that the Lebanese ambassador had threatened to destroy Israel!