Soccer Dad

What about mengistu?

This week, the Washington Post's Outlook Section looked at a number of tyrants who haven't made the news. Douglas Farah looked at tyrants in Africa. Robert D. Kaplan looked at potential successors to the likes of Saddam Hussein. Yet for all these lesser known tyrants one still escapes mention. Not as Instapundit laments, Robert Mugabe.

Probably the most murderous tyrant of the 1980's was Col. Mengistu Haile Mariam of Ethiopia. Now a guest of Mugabe in Zimbabwe, Mengistu is guilty of causing the deaths of about 1,000,000 people as his resettelment policy exacerbated a drought into a famine. (I've also seen the figure that his security forces killed 500,000 in a program called "Red Terror." But it wasn't clear if that was in addition to or included in the million who died in 1984-1985.)

For all the outrage we've seen generated over the massacres and genocides in the Balkans, Rwanda and, now, Darfur, there was little outrage over the massive destruction in Ethiopia.

One of the byproducts of that ignorance is that little attention has been paid to the one country that did the most to save Ethiopians - Israel. Israel rescued thousands of Ethiopian Jews from certain death. But despite the tremendous humanitarian effort, Israel received precious little credit for it. (The New York Times, immorally, broke the story of the rescue too soon causing the effort to be suspended. But the rescue has continued til today.)

Martin Peretz recounted and outrageous example of how Israel's efforts were viewed by Jesse Jackson (Washington Diarist, The New Republic Feb 11, 1985)

Teddy Kollek, the mayor of Jerusalem, thought Jesse Jackson might be somehow able to help extricate these folk from their imprisonment. If Jackson, who has put himself in the business of public rescue, were to succeed it certainly would reduce the hostility felt toward him by Jews and others who don't like anti-Semitism. So Kollek cabled Jackson and asked for help.
That much was in the papers. What was not in the papers was Jackson's response, which was shameless. In a phone call to Kollek, Jackson explained that he had some questions and some conditions. Would the Ethiopian Jews serve in the Israeli army and become a "military asset"? And might not some of
the new citizens of Israel settle on the West Bank? Alas, the answer to both of these questions would have to be "Yes." None of this makes Jesse Jackson very happy; he might be more eager to redeem Jews if they would forswear defending their homeland. And, oh yes, Jackson had one more stipulation: before he'd consider doing anything, the prime minister of Israel would have to make a public plea for his intervention. How can someone who traffics so calously in the oppression of one group speak compellingly for the freedom of another?

No it's not just "Hymietown."

Israel's rescue should have been one of the stories of the decade. Even if the absorption of the Ethiopian Jews hasn't always gone smoothly it's still a remarkable achievement.

Instead the world preferred to downplay Mengistu's evil as well as Israel's benevolence. Neither quite fit the storyline we were supposed to believe.

UPDATE: In comments at Israpundit Failed Messiah writes

The US paid for most of Operation Moses and helped run the operation. The NY Times had the story for weeks but DID NOT PRINT IT. They were given the story by affilliates of the Israeli government who did NOT want a rescue. The NY Times spoke with the men at State who ran the operation and held the story ar their request. later, the same men who leaked to the Times leaked to the Washington Jewish Week. The WJW did NOT ask State – it simply ran the story. The Times (and the Boston Globe, which also was leaked to and also went to State and HELD THE STORY) was furious and ran the story the next day. Theoperation continued for almost 6 more weeks until PM SHIMON PERES ANNOUNCED THE AIRLIFT on January 5, 1985. The rescue ended the next day, as a DIRECT RESULT OF PERES’ ACTIONS.

Truthfully I either didn't know or remember all of this. I don't think that it changes my main points that a) Mengistu's tyranny was not adequately acknowledged b) Israel's rescue of Ethiopian Jewry was not appreciated. I didn't write (though I may have implied) that Israel was the only country to save Ethiopians. I still think that Israel's rescue was highly undervalued and Failed Messiah doesn't convince me otherwise. Nor does he convince me that the New York Times was correct in its actions. That others were wrong doesn't absolve the Times.
As far as commenter Shalamaz goes, I didn't mean to whitewash anyone. Though Ethiopia was on the map at the Washington Post it had no information about the crimes of the current regime.

Technorati tags: Israel, tyrants, Mengistu, Ethiopian Jews.

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Crossposted on Israpundit and Soccer Dad.

Posted by SoccerDad at April 24, 2006 3:05 AM | TrackBack