Inside the War on Israel

Many people, so polls say, think that Israel is a danger to world peace and often go so far as to conclude that the state ought not to exist.

Some of these, in Europe especially, are classic anti-Semites who cannot live with the novelty of Jews responsible for a country of their own. But there is more to it than that. In the first decades of its existence, Israel was widely admired as the national refuge which Jews deserved and an egalitarian society as well. The Six-Day War of 1967 was the turning point. The Soviet Union and its clients, Egypt and Syria, were humiliated. Vengeful Soviet propagandists worldwide threw the book of communist insults at Israel, calling it Hitlerite, imperialist, an occupying power, the tool of the United States, and the rest of it.

Here was a blinding example of the kind of manipulation of public opinion that George Orwell immortalized in "1984" as a Two Minute Hate - and it worked. The hard and the soft Left concur that Arab armies have indeed attacked Israel repeatedly, and might do so again, but Israel ought in response to empower a Palestinian state. This irrationality is one of the most damaging legacies from the Cold War.

Without Yasser Arafat, the idea that aggression should be rewarded with statehood would never have got off the ground. He was quick to volunteer as a Soviet client. With his innate publicist's skill, he dramatized the Palestinians either as underdogs or as violent triumphalists - both approaches that excited the press and folded them into his cause of nationalism. Reporters willingly ignored Arafat's despotism and corruption, as well as the brutalized misery he obliged his people to endure. The legitimacy of Israel could not have been called so glibly into question without this false and sentimentalized representation of Palestinian reality.

The journalist Stephanie Gutmann can hardly bring herself to believe that things have come to this pass, and "The Other War" (Encounter Books, 280 pages, $25.95) is her response. She is qualified to ask how it has happened, and to wonder whether it can be rectified. Her family were refugees from tsarist Russia, and her father, a psychologist, might well have settled in Israel rather than the United States. He often took his children to Israel - once for a stay of nine months. After the failure of the Camp David talks, and the outbreak of another intifada in 2000, she saw at first hand that the press portrayal of a vicious Israel wantonly persecuting virtuous Palestinians was not true. She accepted assignments that allowed her to investigate how bias was transformed into received opinion.

The fate of little Muhammad al-Dura is her first case in point. Looking terrified - as well he might - this boy was photographed with his father at a dangerous crossroads in the Gaza Strip. Moments later, a bullet killed him, and that photograph became an international symbol of the assault on Palestinian innocence. But the evidence arising from the event has many gaps and discrepancies, and Ms. Gutmann is only one of a number of researchers who conclude that in all probability Palestinian gunmen fired the fatal bullet, and not Israelis.

Early in the intifada, two Israeli reservists lost their way on the West Bank and were lynched. The press connived with the Palestinians in suppressing coverage of their deaths, and Italian journalists went so far as to surrender their tapes and write apologies for filming these scenes of murder.

In reprisal for repeated suicide bombings, the Israelis later cleared out terrorist bases in Jenin on the West Bank, killing some 50 people, and losing almost half that number themselves. With few exceptions, the press reported that there had been atrocities on an unprecedented scale, thousands of victims, war crimes, massacres, genocide, and the rest of it. This fantasy revealed prejudice extraordinary in itself, and which could only encourage terror.

Ms. Gutmann does a good job examining the way supposedly independent-minded Western journalists willingly relay whatever the Palestinians tell them and believe the worst of Israelis. All sorts of factors are in play. From her own experience, she blames the official spokesmen of the various Israeli ministries and the army, each of whom jealously guard their turf and do not liaise; are starved of money and resources; and too often speak an incomprehensible English. Their poor performance tends to drive the journalist pack straight over to the Arab side, to congregate all together in the famous American Colony Hotel. In addition, these spokesmen, like all Israelis, see themselves as fighting for their lives and care little what others think of them.

She further describes her own reporting on the Palestinian side. Without the help of a friendly young Palestinian "fixer," she would have been blocked altogether. As it was, she was prevented from carrying out minimal inquiries into local corruption. To do the routine work of asking questions on the West Bank or in Gaza is to risk death. The Palestinian press itself is rigidly controlled. The murder of those accused of collaborating with Israel, the abuse of women, tribal and family feuding, are among the many taboo subjects. Journalists are allowed to report only the drama of the Palestinian national cause.

The New York Times, CNN, Associated Press, and the BBC - the last in the particularly egregious examples of its correspondents Orla Guerin and Barbara Plett (who wept on television at the news of Arafat's last illness) - are among the outlets Ms. Gutmann singles out for an animus against Israel that is systematically leading them astray and falsifying the perception of Israel available to the public. In contrast, she devotes a chapter to Khalid Abu Toameh, a Muslim Arab from the West Bank who has Israeli citizenship and writes for the Jerusalem Post, among other outlets. Reporting fully and objectively on the Palestinians, he shows neither fear nor favor to anyone. Remember his name: More than professional, he is a hero.

Biased Western journalists flatter themselves that they are obtaining justice for the victimized Palestinians, but in fact they only drive these unfortunate people toward ever more violence and death. The phenomenon described in this book is a compound of self-righteousness, stupidity, and group-think, completely characteristic of modern times. Someone, someday, will have to take up the subject where Ms. Gutmann leaves off, and explain this ongoing Two Minute Hate.

Mr. Pryce-Jones is senior editor of National Review. His "The Closed Circle: An Interpretation of the Arabs" is published by Ivan R. Dee.

A total war throughout the entire middle east is in the offing, waiting in the wings for the turning point in Iraq. As the US nears success in Iraq, the Jihadists and Iranians will attack Israel. They will try to undermine the US effort by playing the one card that trumps all with the Islamic people---anti semitism. hold on to your hats

No, the "danger to the world" is the world itself, not Israel. The nations that were scattered at the Tower of Babel are trying to get together again.
while they keep putting God on "hold". Meanwhile the leftists and the forces of filth and the false religions are being allowed power over these nations by these nations.

No, don't blame Israel. The only problems Israel is to blame for are Israel's problems. They don't need any or ours.

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. May they prosper that love her!

In addition, these spokesmen, like all Israelis, see themselves as fighting for their lives and care little what others think of them.

That's not it. Israelis care very much what others think of them.

It's the absurdity.

Israelis don't have the patience to retort for what they know is crazy on its face. They tell themselves that no one in their right mind would believe such nonsense.

If they had to respond to every bit there would be an officer in the Foreign Ministry who's job is to provide recipes to prove cookies are baked with absolutely no blood and Jews are not hunting the Islamic world for Arab kids eyes.

Israeli are used to Arab lies. Baghdad Bob is common.

Unfortunately, Jews are involved and so the World hangs on to every Arab lie- and that's just about everthing- as the truth.

Biased Western journalists flatter themselves that they are obtaining justice for the victimized Palestinians, but in fact they only drive these unfortunate people toward ever more violence and death. The phenomenon described in this book is a compound of self-righteousness, stupidity, and group-think, completely characteristic of modern times.

Nailed It!
Moral Clarity BUMP !

This ping list is not author-specific for articles I'd like to share. Some for the perfect moral clarity, some for provocative thoughts; or simply interesting articles I'd hate to miss myself. (I don't have to agree with the author all 100% to feel the need to share an article.) I will try not to abuse the ping list and not to annoy you too much, but on some days there is more of the good stuff that is worthy of attention. You can see the list of articles I pinged to lately on my page.
You are welcome in or out, just freepmail me (and note which PING list you are talking about). Besides this one, I keep 2 separate PING lists for my favorite authors Victor Davis Hanson and Orson Scott Card.

I know people will blanch, but I cannot help but notice that every time we betray Isreal we have some really bad weather.

When Bush Sr. took a naval vessel to meet with Arab leaders wanting to take a bite out of Israel we had the "Perfect Storm", that damaged his home in Maine.

His ship was caught in such a bad storm that he wasn't able to leave it for two days to meet with Arab leaders. It is interesting that his ship was parked in the same place that Paul was ship wrecked about 2500 years ago according to scriptures.

Now President Bush has backed Israel into a corner demanding a Palestinian state and we have Katrina followed quickly by even more dangerous Rita threatening Bush's adopted state of Texas and the oil refineries that supply 25% of the nations gasoline. Maybe we should back out of Israel's business if we can't manage to do anything more than damage that beleaguered nation and put it at risk.

"A total war throughout the entire middle east is in the offing, waiting in the wings for the turning point in Iraq. As the US nears success in Iraq, the Jihadists and Iranians will attack Israel. They will try to undermine the US effort by playing the one card that trumps all with the Islamic people---anti semitism. hold on to your hats"

Iran, supported by the Russians will attack Israel, also according to biblical prophecy in Ezekial 38. The scripture talks about Gog and Megog and that the enemies are eliminated with fire and sulfur from the sky. The scripture says it takes Israel several months just to clean up the enemy bodies. I think that when Iran and other Arab coalition forces attack, sponsored by Russia, that Israel will use her Sampson option quite effectively.

"Now President Bush has backed Israel into a corner demanding a Palestinian state and we have Katrina followed quickly by even more dangerous Rita threatening Bush's adopted state of Texas and the oil refineries that supply 25% of the nations gasoline. Maybe we should back out of Israel's business if we can't manage to do anything more than damage that beleaguered nation and put it at risk."

I noticed that too. Bush through Condi Rice keeps telling Israel to be prepared to give more away, despite Hamas moving into Gaza and blatantly telling Israel they will continue to wage war on her. The road map for peace is a joke, the Administration only wants to appease the Arabs so we can continue getting affordable oil. Well, that strategy is failing. Appeasement always fails. After 911 we should have spent 500 billion building a dozen synthetic oil refineries out of soybeans, used nuke power to make the syth oil into biodiesel. Once you power the transportation industry with our own source, you lower demand for petrol by 30% and you get cheaper petrol anyways. The sooner a future POTUS understands this, the better off we will all be.

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