Editor’s
Note:
Once upon a time, Viewpoint had a subscriber base over
135,000. What happened? We now are under 50,000. 91% of
the
readership is in the US and the editorial policy of
examining alternate views from main stream press has
caused
an exodus over the months as the editorial policy
strikes
many as harsh.
In the US we live in an atmosphere where when one
criticizes
Israel, the charge of “anti-Semitism”. In fact Webster’s
Dictionary actually defines “anti-Semitism” as views
that
“opposition to Zionism.” No kidding, look it up. Is it
any
wonder why people in the US read this and suspect
nefarious
motives?
It is in the spirit of free speech and bringing light to
the
darkness that we remain committed to offering
alternative
views of the Middle East region. We are also expanding
links
to articles at the bottom of this email to additional
articles of interest on the region.
Those Who Dare to Criticize -By Robert Fisk
Behold Mary Robinson, former president of Ireland,
former UN
High Commissioner for Human Rights, would-be graduation
commencement speaker at Emory University in the USA. She
has
made a big mistake. She dared to criticize Israel. She
suggested - horror of horrors - that "the root cause of
the
Arab-Israeli conflict is the occupation". Now whoa there
a
moment, Mary! "Occupation"? Isn't that a little bit
anti-
Israeli?
Are you really suggesting that the military occupation
of
the West Bank and Gaza Strip by Israel, its use of
extra-
judicial executions against Palestinian gunmen, the
Israeli
gunning down of schoolboy stone-throwers, the wholesale
theft of Arab land to build homes for Jews, is in some
way
wrong?
Maybe I misheard you. Sure I did. Because your response
to
these scurrilous libels, to these slurs upon your right
to
free speech, to these slanderous attacks on your
integrity,
was a pussy-cat's whimper. You were "very hurt and
dismayed". It is, you told The Irish Times, "distressing
that allegations are being made that are completely
unfounded".
You should have threatened your accusers with legal
action.
When I warn those who claim in their vicious postcards
that
my mother was Eichmann's daughter that they will receive
a
solicitor's letter-- Peggy Fisk was in the RAF in the
Second
World War, but no matter-- they fall silent at once.
But no, you are "hurt". You are "dismayed". And you
allow
Professor Kenneth Stein of Emory University to announce
that
he is "troubled by the apparent absence of due diligence
on
the part of decision makers who invited her [Mary
Robinson]
to speak". I love the "due diligence" bit. But
seriously,
how can you allow this twisted version of your integrity
to
go unpunished?
Dismayed. Ah, Mary, you poor diddums.
I tried to check the spelling of "diddums" in Webster's,
America's inspiring, foremost dictionary. No luck. But
then,
what's the point when Webster's Third New International
Dictionary defines "anti- Semitism" as "opposition to
Zionism: sympathy with opponents of the state of
Israel".
Come again? If you or I suggest--or, indeed, if poor wee
Mary suggests--that the Palestinians are getting a raw
deal
under Israeli occupation, then we are "anti-Semitic". It
is
only fair, of course, to quote the pitiful response of
the
Webster's official publicist, Mr. Arthur Bicknell, who
was
asked to account for this grotesque definition.
"Our job," he responded, "is to accurately reflect
English
as it is actually being used. We don't make judgment
calls;
we're not political." Even more hysterically funny and
revolting, he says that the dictionary's editors
tabulate
"citational evidence" about anti- Semitism published in
"carefully written prose-like books and magazines".
Prepost-
erous as it is, this Janus-like remark is worthy of the
hollowest of laughs.
Even the Malaprops of American English are now on their
knees to those who will censor critics of Israel's
Middle
East policy off the air.
And I mean "off the air". I've just received a
justifiably
outraged note from Bathsheba Ratskoff, a producer and
editor
at the American Media Education Foundation (MEF), who
says
that their new documentary on "the shutting-down of
debate
around the Israeli-Palestinian conflict"--in reality a
film
about Israel's public relations outfits in America--has
been
targeted by the "Jewish Action (sic) Task Force". The
movie
Peace, Propaganda and the Promised Land was to be shown
at
the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.
So what happened? The "JAT" demanded an apology to the
Jewish community and a "pledge (for) greater sensitivity
(sic) when tackling Israel and the Middle East conflict
in
the future". JAT members "may want to consider
threatening
to cancel their memberships and to withhold
contributions".
In due course, a certain Susan Longhenry of the Museum
of
Fine Arts wrote a creepy letter to Sut Jhally of the MEF,
referring to the concerns of "many members of the Boston
community"--otherwise, of course,
unidentified—suggesting
a rescheduled screening (because the original screening
would have fallen on the Jewish Sabbath) and a
discussion
that would have allowed critics to condemn the film.
The letter ended--and here I urge you to learn the
weasel
words of power-- that "we have gone to great lengths to
avoid canceling altogether screenings of this film;
however, if you are not able to support the revised
approach,
then I'm afraid we'll have no choice but to do just
that".
Does Ms Longhenry want to be a mouse? Or does she want
to
have the verb "to longhenry" appear in Webster's? Or at
least in the Oxford?
Fear not, Ms Longhenry's boss overrode her pusillanimous
letter. For the moment, at least.
But where does this end? Last Sunday, I was invited to
talk
on Irish television's TV3 lunchtime program on Iraq and
President Bush's support for Sharon's new wall on the
West
Bank. Towards the end of the program, Tom Cooney, a law
lecturer at University College, Dublin, suddenly claimed
that I had called an Israeli army unit a "rabble"
(absolutely
correct--they are) and that I reported they had
committed a
massacre in Jenin in 2002.
I did not say they committed a massacre. But I should
have.
A subsequent investigation showed that Israeli troops
had
knowingly shot down innocent civilians, killed a female
nurse and driven a vehicle over a paraplegic in a
wheelchair.
"Blood libel!" Cooney screamed. TV3 immediately, and
correctly
dissociated themselves from this libel. Again, I noted
the
involvement of an eminent university-- UCD is one of the
finest academic institutions in Ireland and I can only
hope
that Cooney exercises a greater academic discipline with
his
young students than he did on TV3--in this slander. And
of
course, I got the message. Shut up. Don't criticize
Israel.
So let me end on a positive note. Just as Bathsheba is a
Jewish American, British Jews are also prominent in an
organization called Deir Yassin Remembered, which
commemorates the massacre of Arab Palestinians by Jewish
militiamen outside Jerusalem in 1948. This year, they
remembered the Arab victims of that massacre--9
April--on the same day that Christians commemorated Good
Friday.
The day also marked the fourth day of the eight-day
Jewish
Passover. It also fell on the anniversary of the 1945
execution by the Nazis of Pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer at
Flossenburg concentration camp. Jewish liberation 3,000
years ago, the death of a Palestinian Jew 2,000 years
ago,
the death of a German Christian 59 years ago and the
massacre of more than 100 Palestinian men, women and
children
56 years ago.
Alas, Deir Yassin Remembered does not receive the
publicity
it merits.
Webster's dictionary would meretriciously brand its
supporters "anti- Semitic", and "many members of the
Boston
community" would no doubt object. "Blood libel," UCD's
eminent law lecturer would scream. We must wait to hear
what UCD thinks. But let us not be "hurt" or "dismayed".
Let's just keep on telling it how it is. Isn't that what
American journalism school was meant to teach us?
*************************************************************************************
Robert Fisk is a reporter for The Independent and author
of
Pity the Nation. He is also a contributor to
CounterPunch's
hot new book, The Politics of Anti-Semitism.
*************************************************************************************
|