Soccer Dad

Whitewashers and their discontents

I hardly ever agree with Larry Derfner. I think that he is responsible for some of the terrible press Israel has received over the past ten years. As one of the main Israel correspondents for many American Jewish weeklies during the mid 90's he (along with Eric Silver and Ina Friedman) consistently reported the news through his leftist prism. No doubt the fact that he's Israeli gave him a credibility in the eyes of many Americqn Jews.
However (like Biur Chametz) I need to acknowledge when he's right. His column "The Barghouti cult" is well worth the read. For one thing he compares Barghouti to Mandela and finds Barghouti doesn't compare with Mandela. (Though, I suppose Mandela may accept such a comparison!)
Derfner effectively employs Google to help make his point:

Young, dark, fiery, charismatic Marwan. (A Google search for "Barghouti and charismatic" turns up 5,680 Web entries; for "Barghouti and fiery," there are 7,010.) He wasn't corrupt nor even rich. Spoke Hebrew, English, loved to talk to the press. During the Oslo years, he hung out with Israeli peaceniks at the "dialogues" in Europe.

But then he delivers the knockout:

I remember seeing a clip of him sitting in the studio of a Palestinian TV station when one of his comrades from the Aksa Martyrs Brigades called in to announce the latest "operation" in Jerusalem. Barghouti became absolutely buoyant over the news, full of praise and gratitude.

This was March 2, 2002, and the "operation" was a suicide bombing in the middle of a Saturday night crowd in the haredi neighborhood of Beit Israel. Ten people were killed, including an 18-month-old girl and a seven-month-old boy.

It was Barghouti more than anyone, more than Arafat, who was identified with the outbreak of the intifada, with that explosion of rage and euphoria, of glorying in the spilling of blood. The Al Aksa Intifada made him.

And in those first days, while all Israeli believers in peace went into shock watching the future being wiped out, this fiery, charismatic SOB was triumphant. As warlord of the West Bank, he more than anyone else was responsible for making the intifada what it's been since Day One – a celebratory bloodletting. Not killing and self-sacrifice just as means to an end, but also as great deeds in themselves.

Someone who revels in the violent deaths of children is not cuddly. He is bloodthirsty. Derfner is right to call the "international left" on the carpet for their glamorizing this terrorist.
But the tendency to whitewash the enmity of the Arab world - specifically the Palestinians - towards Israel is strong even on the Zionist (as opposed to the international) Left. On December 13 Danny Rubinstein wrote "Abbas could not denounce the attack":

Abbas and his fellow members of the Palestinian Authority leadership have trouble saying anything against last night's attack on the military post, in part because Marwan Barghouti's announcement withdrawing his candidacy for chairmanship of the Authority included a call on Abbas to continue the uprising and opposition to occupation.

Rubinstein concludes with a common refrain from the Arafat years:

An East Jerusalem journalist said yesterday that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is too deep and complex to be dependent on the personality of a single leader. Even in Arafat's time, it was clear that the central Palestinian leadership couldn't completely control the situation, and that fact is even clearer in the time of his heirs.

I remember Rubinstein making excuses for Arafat's belligerence or lack of interest in promoting peace. Here he's doing it for Abbas.
What makes this exercise particularly frustrating is that two days later Rubinstein is writing,"Confident Abbas can afford to be anti-weapons" :

Mahmoud Abbas is a confident man, certain of a landslide victory on January 9 in the Palestinian Authority's presidential elections. That is the conclusion that can be drawn from the clear statement he made in his interview with Ash-Sharq Al-Awsat against the use of weapons in the intifada.

Abbas' position was long known, and one that was repeated. But this is the first time he has said so publicly after the death of Yasser Arafat.

So in two days time Abbas goes from being unable to condemn violence to criticizing violence expressing a belief that was "long known."
With Rubinstein, either Abbas is excused for being too weak to condemn violence or he's praised for expressing his long held belief in condemning violence. Together these positions are untenable. (And of course this belief in non violence doesn't quite gibe with his recent meeting with Hamas in Syria. Oh no, that can be explained too. He was trying to co-opt them into the political process. Yeah, Right.)
Crossposted on Israpundit and Soccer Dad.

Posted by SoccerDad at December 16, 2004 12:54 AM | TrackBack