Telegraph falsely claims that Likud is the most centrist part of coalition

The Telegraph's Inna Lazareva not only joined the heard of independent media voices suggesting that Israel is moving dangerously right, but included a straight-out factual error in her report.

The Telegraph not only joined the herd of independent media voices suggesting that Israel is moving dangerously right (‘US voices unease over birth of the ‘most right-wing government’ in Israel’s history, May 27), but included a straight-out factual error in their report.

Here’s the concluding paragraph, in reference to the inclusion of Avigdor Lieberman as the country’s new defence minister:

Mr Netanyahu’s Likud party will become the most centrist element of a coalition that will represent an alliance between the religious right and the nationalist right.

Leaving aside the fact that the left-right paradigm in Israel is inherently problematic, the current coalition includes Kulanu – a party almost always characterized as centre or centre-right, including by the Telegraph in previous reports.  So, it is not accurate to describe right-wing Likud as “the most centrist element” of the coalition.

We contacted Telegraph editors alerting them to the error, and received a prompt reply letting us know that the passage will be corrected. 

UPDATE: Shortly after this post was published, Telegraph editors removed the false claim from the article. 

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