It all comes down to the promotion of a cynical Leninist ideology, that will exploit any social issue to establish a totalitarian atheistic socialistic regime, and damnable pride on the part of the media observers. Pride in that they believe the common man is too dumb to govern himself, and pride in that these media observers expect to become part of the privileged ruling oligarchy. All Leftists, media figures and otherwise, hold this view. There are no exceptions.
Thus, Fidel Castro, assorted African Commies, Daniel Ortega, and, yes, Yasser Arafat, among many others, are to be cheered, no matter how despicable their public record. Israel, being a democracy, is a special threat, and must be singled out for punishment. That many nominal Jewish left-wingers are anti-Israel just means that they are really atheists, and that their psychotic politics trumps their ethnicity.
Finally, in the event of a conflict between socialist dictators, as in Stalin versus Hitler, the true believer will always favor the one that most closely matches the Leninist ideal. Hitler's original sin with this crowd, of course, is that he started off as an anti-Communist.
If the enormous evil of Stalin could be ignored for so many years, putting the blinders on regarding the PLO is child's play. Never forget that big-time Stalin apologist, NY Times columnist, and depraved sexual pervert Walter Duranty won the Pulitzer Prize, while dispensing unmitigated mendacity. And never forget that many, many people believed his every word.