Friday, April 9, 2010

1. Those Darn Israelis - the following column appeared in last Saturday's Halifax paper. I did not notice it at first, but thankfully, a friend brought it to my attention.

LETTER REMOVED AT REQUEST OF AUTHOR

I was absolutely outraged over the comments he made about Israel, and penned the following original reply (I include the whole reply because of the factual information in it):

To The Editor:

While I can accept legitimate criticism of the policies of the Israeli government, I have seldom read something as offensive and uninformed in the pages of the Chronicle-Herald as Jack Warkentin’s rambling rant published in Saturday’s edition.

His assertion that Israel seized Palestinian land through terrorism is simply astounding. The breadth of his comment leaves me to wonder whether he is referring to the formation of Israel in 1948, or its capture of Egyptian, Syrian and Jordanian controlled territory (not Palestinian) in 1967.

If the former, then perhaps he should consider that the State of Israel was founded on lands designated for the Jews of Palestine by the 1947 UN Partition Resolution that divided the former Ottoman Empire lands governed by the British Mandate - the original two state solution. While liked by neither Jews nor Arabs, the Partition Resolution was accepted by the Jews and rejected by the Arabs. On the declaration of the State of Israel some 6 months later in 1948, it was immediately attacked by 6 Arab armies. The lands designated for the Arabs ended up in the control of Egypt (Gaza) and Jordan (the West Bank).

If the latter, then perhaps Mr. Warkentin might do some study of the Six Day War in 1967. After closing the Straits of Tiran (an act of war in and of itself), Egypt and Syria very publicly planned to attack and destroy Israel, and coerced Jordan into joining. The result was a victory for the Israelis that left them in control of Sinai, Gaza and the West Bank. Having been defeated militarily, the Arab diplomatic reaction was to hold the Khartoum Conference in September 1967, after which the Arab countries famously pledged the "Three Nos" - no peace with Israel, no recognition of it, and no negotiations with it. Six years later, Egypt and Syria launched a devastating attack on Israel on the holiest day of the Jewish year.

But what is truly breathtaking is his suggestion that the Israeli refusal to negotiate a just peace with the Palestinians is the "root cause of much of the world’s hostilities". Ignoring any questions of Palestinian responsibility for the current morass, Mr. Warkentin is apparently building upon a recent statement to the same effect attributed to US General Petraeus - which, by the way, General Petraeus has emphatically denied making.

But let’s examine this ridiculous allegation further. To which hostilities does he refer? The Russian-Georgian dispute? The Russian-Chechen dispute? The war in the Congo that leaves 45,000 people dead every month? The tensions between North & South Korea, between India and Pakistan, or China and Taiwan? Afghanistan? Shia and Sunni Muslims murdering each other all over the globe? Sure - it must be Israel’s fault!

Natan Sharansky, the former Soviet dissident and current Israeli politician, advocates the so-called "3D Test" in determining whether criticism of Israel is legitimate or amounts to antisemitism. The three prongs of the test are "double standards, demonization and delegitimization". On those grounds, Mr. Warkentin’s comments are clearly antisemitic.

In closing, I have no idea who Mr. Warkentin is, nor why he is qualified or permitted to express such comments in print. However, the serious issues of the Israeli-Palestinian interaction deserve much better.

For a variety of reasons, the Editor was not prepared to print the entire response, though it did agree to consider printing a scaled-down version. Here is the final version I submitted - I hope it gets published:

To The Editor:

I have seldom read something as offensive and uninformed as Jack Warkentin’s anti-Israel rant published in last Saturday’s newspaper.

Limited space does not allow me to reply to his allegations about Israel seizing or control of Palestinian lands. I will focus instead on his assertion that Israel’s refusal to negotiate a just peace with the Palestinians (which ignores any questions of Palestinian responsibility) is the "root cause of much of the world’s hostilities".

To which hostilities does he refer? To name but a few - the Russian-Georgian dispute? The Russian-Chechen dispute? The war in the Congo that leaves 45,000 people dead every month? The Sudanese Civil War and the humanitarian catastrophe in Darfur? The civil war in Somalia that has reduced that country to a lawless no-man’s land? The tensions between North and South Korea, India and Pakistan, or China and Taiwan? Afghanistan? Shia and Sunni Muslims murdering each other all over the globe? Mr. Warkentin would have readers believe that if only Israel would make peace with the Palestinians, all of these problems would simply vanish - a truly breathtaking assertion.

Natan Sharansky, the former Soviet dissident and current Israeli politician, advocates the so-called "3D Test" in determining whether criticism of Israel is legitimate or amounts to antisemitism. The three prongs of the test are "double standards, demonization and delegitimization". On those grounds, Mr. Warkentin’s comment is clearly antisemitic.

The serious issues of the Israeli-Palestinian interaction deserve much better analysis.

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