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Why we few criticize Israel
Is Sri Lanka Worth Criticism?
2/25/02 11:26:56 AM
Joe Sobran / (Old) National Review
Commentary -- Why we few criticize Israel
By JOSEPH SOBRAN
WASHINGTON - People sometimes ask me why I'm so critical of Israel, as
if I should be devoting more of my attention to Sri Lanka, or perhaps
Zaire. But the question is always a little nervous, as it wouldn't be
if I were writing equally often about Sri Lanka or Zaire.
I could understand this curiosity if some other small, remote country
were one of the world's four or five military powers; if it received a
quarter of our foreign aid; if it were constantly on our front pages;
and if its sympathizers regularly occupied much of the op-ed space of
The New York Times and other major newspapers. But there is only one
country of whom these things are true, and that is Israel.
Nobody thinks it's odd that there should be 20 columnists who are
apologists' for Israel; but apparently it is unfathomable that there
should be one or two who are critical of Israel.
But there's another reason that is both personal and professional.
Israel has a very powerful lobby in this country, with a highly
accomplished propaganda corps. And that lobby is not content with
making the case for Israel and putting fear into nearly all the
politicians in Washington, who are supposed to be representing the
interests of the United States. It also tries to shut up opposition in
the free press.
I have felt its pressure. So have Rowland Evans and Robert Novak. So
has Patrick Buchanan. And a great many newspaper editors.
We still hear of the fear engendered by Joe McCarthy. But people
talked freely about that fear even 'at the height of Sen. McCarthy's
career. I believe that someday historians will look back with more
wonder about the quieter and more paralyzing fear engendered in our
own era by domestic Zionist power. The press was never afraid of Sen.
McCarthy; it is very much afraid of Israel's U.S. sympathizers.
One result is that the news we get from Israel is heavily self
censored and bowdlerized. The average American thinks of Israel as a
"democratic" country whose domestic troubles are due to unruly Arabs.
Not one American Christian in a hundred realizes that if he lived in
Israel, he would be the victim of official discrimination forced, like
the Soviet Jew, to carry an identification card effectively
stigmatizing him.
If Israeli propaganda were true, there would be no need to Quash or
intimidate critics. The very act of trying to silence opposition is a
kind of confession in itself. Ring Lardner said it well: "'Shut up,'
he explained."
Is there no case to be made for Israel? Of course there is. I have
made it myself. I would make it again -- if Israel had not become a
threat to freedom of speech and ethical debate in this country. But
when you risk injury to your career in the U.S. by defending the
interests of the U.S., something is seriously wrong. A proper parallel
is not with Joe McCarthy, who at least was trying to uphold America's
position, but with the publishing industry in New York during the
1930s, when a book critical of the Soviet Union stood scant chance of
seeing print.
Suppression is a good tactic, but a bad strategy. In the long run, the
truth has a way of seeping through. No matter how many clever excuses
you make for a Yitzhak Shamir, it's not a terribly good idea to have
Americans identifying Israel with Yitzhak Shamir. Israel was much
better off when Americans identified Israel with Abba Eban -- now in
political exile for his moderation.
And it isn't wise, in the long run, to make Americans afraid, in their
own country, to speak their minds about a foreign country. They will
eventually resent the colossal impudence of it. And the country on
whose behalf the suppression was enacted will bear the consequences.
Joseph Sobran is a senior editor of the National Review.
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The only real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking
new landscapes but in having new eyes. -Marcel Proust
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"Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe
simply because it has been handed down for many generations. Do not
believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do
not believe in anything simply because it is written in Holy Scriptures. Do not
believe in anything merely on the authority of Teachers, elders or wise men.
Believe only after careful observation and analysis, when you find that it
agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all.
Then accept it and live up to it."
The Buddha on Belief, from the Kalama Sutta
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A merely fallen enemy may rise again, but the reconciled
one is truly vanquished. -Johann Christoph Schiller,
German Writer (1759-1805)
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It is preoccupation with possessions, more than anything else, that
prevents us from living freely and nobly. -Bertrand Russell
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"Everyone has the right...to seek, receive and impart
information and ideas through any media and regardless
of frontiers."
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
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"Always do sober what you said you'd do drunk. That will
teach you to keep your mouth shut."
--- Ernest Hemingway
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