Posted on 05/27/2004 10:07:44 AM PDT by knighthawk
Nicholas Kristof wins the black belt as the leading Palestinian apologist and Israel hater in the history of The New York Times. This is no small accomplishment. Who else could make guys like me yearn for the return of Anthony Lewis and turn Thomas Friedman into an even-handed observer? Yesterday's column did the trick. Kristof put the blame on Israel for most of the troubles we have around the world, particularly in Iraq. The direct blame.
Indirectly, he rapped President Bush for his "unbalanced" support of Ariel Sharon and called on John Kerry to stop blindly supporting Israel's "bloodstained" prime minister.
If this were just Kristof speaking, I'd ignore it. My alma mater, The Times, has been scapegoating Israel to one degree or another for 30 years. But in recent months the temperature has risen, particularly in the wake of the so-called Gaza incursion.
So I wondered whether this attack on Israel - not just from The Times - was sticking.
There are no polls to inform me. Gallup and the rest tell us everything from breast cancer rates to mercury levels in tuna. But nothing on whether Americans blame Israel on Iraq.
Given my name and notoriety, I'm the last man to get the story straight. But some of my best friends are gentiles, so I called around, coast to coast, asking whether Kristof was on the nose or just another guy beating up on Israel.
"Are we off the record?"
"Let's just say it's not for attribution."
"I mean, you won't quote me."
"Exactly. I only want to know what your friends are saying."
"I won't tell you their names, okay?"
"Just what they're saying."
"They've got a bee in their bonnets about Israel."
"Meaning?"
"They think that Israel is hurting us, is making us unpopular in the world. And they don't like it. Just don't quote me."
I got this "no names" stuff everywhere until I remembered to call my Yale Law School roommate, Henry Pascarella.
Henry is one of the finest lawyers in Greenwich, Conn. All his life, he talks straight. I asked him if he read Kristof's column.
"Yeah, so what?"
"Do the people you know agree with him, that Israel is the root problem of our trouble in Iraq and around the world?"
"No question about it. They blame it all on Israel, they think 9/11 would never have happened but for Israel. I told you that a long time ago; why do you sound surprised?"
I got nervous about my friend. "Ah, you don't buy that?" I said.
"Are you crazy? Of course not. But you asked me what I'm hearing, and I'm surprised that you don't know it. Listen to me, my friend - Israel has few friends around here."
Henry Pascarella is one of those friends, without question, which is why what he tells me disturbs me. "Is it because of the media?" I ask him.
"Of course," he says. "Who knows that better than you?"
What we all ought to know is that Israel has nothing to do with America's troubles around the world. Here we are trying to create in Iraq the first Arab democracy in world history, and the only democracy in the Middle East - Israel - is to blame?
If you believe that, you can believe anything or anybody - even Nicholas Kristof.
If you'd like to be on or off this middle east/political ping list, please FR mail me.
I was listening to some panel discussion on the Middle East on C-Span the other day and a member of the Arab media blasted this thinking. He certainly didn't seem to have any love for the US or Israel but he pointed out the fixation with the Israeli-Palestinian dispute is to deflect attention from the failings of all of the Arab nations in the region. As he said, the only free press the truly exists today can be found in Iraq and Israel. Sadly I can't recall his name.
When it was Pat Buchanan, it was one thing. When it was the New York Times, it was still no problem. But this, this is a problem.
Note to the detractors of Israel: You have cried wolf too many times. Israel could use nukes now and get away with it.
It doesn't matter anymore.
They won't invent a new word, they'll just call it "Justice".
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