Israel in sharper focus

DAVE GORDON

Some of the most high-profile international author/journalist/activist defenders of the state of Israel spoke at a conference in Boston recently to expound upon how Israel is under threat politically, in the media, on campus and on the world stage.

The conference, War by Other Means: The Global Campaign to Delegitimize Israel, took place at Boston University on Oct. 10 and 11 under the auspices of Boston-based CAMERA (the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting), co-sponsored by the Florence and Chafetz Hillel House at BU. Alan Dershowitz, Daniel Pipes, Mark Steyn, Bret Stephens, Anne Bayefsky, Irwin Cotler and Melanie Phillips were joined by a dozen other speakers from around the world. Roughly 600 people attended from across Canada and the United States.

Dershowitz, author of The Case for Israel, spoke on Israel and the Case for Moral Clarity. During the question-and-answer period, a student asked how to respond to accusations of Israel’s human rights violations. Dershowitz answered, “Have them list each of the 192 countries and prioritize them according to the worst human rights violators. You won’t see Israel in the top 10 or top 20.”

When asked why he thought Jordan and Egypt have joined in the recent peace talks, Dershowitz said, “I think it’s important to get all those countries involved. I think they are there to provide support for whatever the ultimate resolution is. They are neighbors on either side and it’s important that they be on board for whatever peace is made. I’m glad they’re there. I’d be delighted to see Saudi Arabia and the Emirates, and other countries that have an interest in peace, involved in the process at the right time.”

However, Steyn, syndicated columnist and author of America Alone, disagreed with Dershowitz’s assessment.

“Most border disputes don’t drag in third or forth or fifth parties,” he told the Independent. “I think all of these people are just an obstacle to any resolution. Can you imagine, take exactly the same year that Israel was created, what if India and Pakistan’s border were now being mediated, by not just the parties, but by neighboring states such as China, Iran, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Burma [and] Afghanistan? There’d be no resolution! So, if Jordan wants to take back the West Bank, only then should it be part of the negotiations.”

When asked about the recent Israeli demand that the Palestinians and, eventually, the Arab world, recognize Israel as a Jewish state, Steyn said the idea is “stupid talk. It’s the corruption of language. It’s like ‘land for peace.’ I don’t need you to recognize my right to exist. I exist. If you don’t recognize that, you live in [la-la] land. One side is trading concrete reality; the other side is trading imaginary horses**t manure. It’s completely preposterous.”

The real issue, he said, has nothing to do with land, and more to do with Jews. “Israel-hatred is old-fashioned Jew-hatred gone geopolitical – the world is saying that [Jews have] no property rights, just provisional. The world says, ‘Hamas might have a charter that says it wants to destroy Israel but, perhaps, if we just brought them to the table, we can get them to recognize Israel.’ I don’t get this. I’m not going to negotiate my right to exist,” he told the Independent.

“If you give somebody something and then their response is that they suggest that perhaps it might be possible that they’d emerge to move towards the probability to acknowledge the likelihood of being amenable to negotiating your right to exist, you are so removed from reality you shouldn’t be in that room.”

He said he appreciated Hamas’ honesty, however. “They’re up front with their charter. I don’t have to be in the room for them to eventually recognize Israel. They can hire the local lady from the Gaza typing pool to change that line about wanting to destroy Israel. Then we can move on.”

In her talk, Bayefsky discussed the United Nations’ inconsistencies and hypocrisies towards Israel. She is a member of the International Law Association Committee on International Human Rights Law and Practice, on the governing board of UN Watch and the editor of eyeontheun.org. Bayefsky said that the UN is “an organization founded on the ashes of the Jewish people and, according to its charter, a protector of human rights ... but [it] has turned its back on its purpose and instead become a leading sponsor of antisemitism.”

In its history, she said, the UN has had 10 emergency assemblies, six of those on Israel. It has virtually ignored a million dead in Rwanda, two million dead in Sudan, and never held an emergency session on either, yet saw fit to pass – last year alone – another 20 resolutions condemning human rights violations in Israel. By comparison, Iran, Syria, Zimbabwe and other obvious offenders have never been subjects of a single resolution. “This, despite Saudi Arabia’s gender ‘apartheid,’ Egypt’s systematic torture and Russia’s predilection to silence human rights defenders.” More UN resolutions have condemned Israel than resolutions on the other 191 member states combined, she said.

The basic civil rights of more than a billion Chinese are trampled on, she continued, “but there is one special division in the UN dedicated to Palestinian human rights with a full-time staff.” The UN Council has deliberately ended investigations on Cuba, Belarus, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Liberia, Uzbekistan, Iran and Turkmenistan, she said, but continues to channel energy towards Israel.

“In addition to this staggering array of discrimination and double standards by opponents of Israel, the old-fashioned kind of antisemitism is never far from the surface,” she maintained.

Phillips, the author of Londonistan, spoke on The British Hijacking of Reason. “The British are world leaders in their [obsessive] attacks against Israel ... like a global pogrom, every action is reported in the media malevolently, as instigating the genocide, ethnic cleansing, Nazi-style behavior.”

Moreover, Israel-hatred spills into children’s literature and books on nature, for example. “Suddenly, out of the blue, comes a gratuitous attack against Israel for a crime supposedly committed against the Palestinians,” she said.

“You find regular tirades about Israel. These are not only positively out of place and inappropriate, but absolutely unhinged.” One accusation last year included an article in a medical journal accusing Israel of dropping a silent bomb on Gaza that vaporized all living things.

Pipes, a syndicated columnist, spoke on Perceptions of Israel in the Arab-Muslim World: The Islamic Background. He promoted Toronto-based moderate Muslim and radio host Tarek Fatah’s new book, The Jew is Not My Enemy: Unveiling the Myths that Fuel Muslim Antisemitism, describing Fatah as a “serious intellectual in Canada,” and saying, “such voices do exist and they should be encouraged.”

The entire wave of recent talks has been a futile effort, maintained Pipes. “What’s interesting is, everyone I’ve encountered and heard from ... has said that this is a farce. Why try?” he asked. “Because [Barack] Obama has a bee in his bonnet. The reason he has this is something called ‘linkage,’ an article of faith, especially of the left wing of the Democratic Party. They say that not necessarily everything is solved by the Israeli-Arab conflict, but the conflict aggravates other issues. If only you could solve [it], Islamism, Iranian nukes, autocracy, you name it, will be easier to deal with ... it’s an exercise in political fantasy. Just ignore other issues at the expense of the conflict in Israel.”

As for the issue of Palestinian recognition of the Jewish state, he said the idea could be simplified. “If they give up their dream of eliminating Israel, then others will invariably follow. The striking thing about Palestinians is that, over the course of 90 years, about a fifth of Palestinians have been willing to live with Israelis. That one-fifth plays a very important role. They’ve sold land, [changed] the mix of politics, helped intelligence for Israelis [and worked] with Israel. My view is that you have to grow that fifth.”

Moreover, those who aren’t supportive of Israel must be seen as against, he asserted. “Palestinians are influenced by vicious leadership – where the penalty for selling land to a Jew is death. Their propaganda has been relentless. They’re deeply radicalized. That needs to be expunged, defeated. It’s war. The way you defeat your enemy is to convince your enemy he can’t win. You end conflicts when one side wants to give up, not by some clever scheme.”

One approach taken by Israeli President Shimon Peres, according to Pipes, is to divert attention from the conflict by encouraging economic growth in the West Bank, “where they can drive nice cars, have bellies full of food and shop.”

Pipes, however, does not believe this will solve any issue. “That’s a novel approach, but it’s upside down. You don’t win wars by empowering your enemy. You win by crushing your enemy.”

Pipes reads more into Binyamin Netanyahu’s insistence of Israel being recognized by the Palestinians and, later, the Arab world: “Words are fine. Signatures are great. But the real thing is a change of heart and giving up on the dream of eliminating Israel, and that can only be proven over a period of time in a consistent way. My way of putting this is: when the Jews of [Hebron] have no more need for security than the Arabs of Nazareth, year after year, we’ve achieved it.”

Member of Parliament from Quebec Irwin Cotler, who has gained renown for his work as legal defence in human rights cases, spoke on Countering the Legal Assault on Israel. Cotler maintained that it is the “protective mask of delegitimization under the cover of the UN” that has stunted the peace process. As such, deals between Israelis and Palestinians must be weighted fairly.

“The peace process deals with the settlements, Palestinian refugees and the lines for a Palestinian state. I think that’s a selective, prejudicial narrative. If you want veritas, truth, emet, then whenever you speak of an independent Palestinian state, you also have to speak of the legitimacy of a Jewish state,” he said. “You have to speak about the Palestinian state-sanctioned incitement to terror. When you speak about Palestinian refugees, you have to also speak of Jewish refugees.”

Deputy editorial page editor of the Wall Street Journal, Stephens dismissed Israel’s recent rebranding efforts to broadcast its best images to the world, which he characterized as “bikini-clad Israeli women touting an M16 in one hand and mineral water in the other.” Instead, he said, he prefers intellectual dialogue as the means to confront Israel’s critics, to win the hearts and minds of the undecided.

“What most students don’t know is that Israel shares the same values as Americans. Israelis believe in freedom of speech, freedom of the press, gay rights, women’s rights, a free market and a transparent government. Why would you then find allegiance in Israel’s enemies?”

Dave Gordon is a Toronto-based freelance writer. His website is davegordonwrites.com.

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