Posted
21th August 2001
Arab-American Denounces Palestinians
By
Joseph Farah
It is a sad statement about the Arab-American community that
I find myself virtually alone publicly denouncing the violence
of the Palestinian Arabs. It is sad because it shows how little
diversity of opinion exists among Arabs in America, where we
have the freedom to speak out without repercussion. In the Arab
world, by contrast, there is less freedom to state opinions.
With more freedom here than anywhere in the Arab world, more
Arab Americans should speak out.
I
published a column titled "Myths of
the Middle East" on October 31, 2000. I received in response
15,000 e-mails from just Israel, and thousands from the United
States as well. The Jerusalem Post reprinted the piece and told
me that it evoked more reaction than anything the paper had
ever printed.
But
the reaction was not all positive. I received death threats
that were turned over to the FBI. Indeed, many Arab-Americans
were quite distressed over the things I had written. But 10
to 20 percent of the Arab-Americans who responded said that
my message was long overdue.
The
column was designed to debunk two central myths about the Middle
East. Myth-shattering is important to a journalist like me.
Interestingly, I have two specialties as a reporter: the Middle
East and Hollywood. The two fields have a lot in common, for
both are characterized by myths.
The
first myth is that the conflict in the Middle East today is
about the struggle for a Palestinian state because Palestinian
Arabs were displaced by the creation of Israel, and the world
is now responsible to assist in the establishment of a Palestinian
homeland. Regarding Palestinians as a distinct people, however,
is a notion that must be reconsidered. There is no distinct
Palestinian culture or language. Further, there has never been
a Palestinian state governed by Palestinians in history, nor
was there ever a Palestinian national movement until after the
1967 Six-Day War, when Israel seized Judea and Samaria.
The
Palestinian national movement has one primary goal: the destruction
of Israel and the creation of a Palestinian state to supplant
Israel, with Yasir Arafat as its leader.
A
second myth deals with the issue of Jerusalem and the Temple
Mount. The myth is that Jerusalem is really an Arab city, and
that the Temple Mount is the third holiest site in Islam, and
a central focus of Islam. The truth is that the Palestinians
expressed very limited interest in the Temple Mount before 1967.
Further, Jerusalem has always been a city with a substantial
Jewish population, even during the period of Ottoman rule, 1517-1917.
There
are other myths which I explored in subsequent columns. If you
believe the Western media, Arafat is a Nobel Prize peacemaker
who is central to any settlement. He is portrayed as the place
where the peace process begins and ends. But this is not the
truth about Yasir Arafat.
I
recently interviewed an analyst who worked for the National
Security Agency in 1973. This man intercepted communications
between Arafat and his murderous Black September organization
in Khartoum, capital of Sudan. The communication involved the
1973 kidnapping of two U.S. diplomats and one Belgian diplomat.
In the end, Arafat gave the order to kill all three. Why do
the American people not know about this incident? Where are
the investigative journalists? And why has the U.S. government
not charged this man with the deaths of two U.S. diplomats?
Because Arafat is thought to be Israel's "partner for peace."
The charade continues.
There
is only one country in the region with an acceptable level of
freedom, and that is Israel. When I go to the Middle East and
visit Syria or Lebanon or Egypt, there is no question that I
am in a police state. And believe me, working as a journalist
in a police state is no fun. By contrast, when I am in Israel,
I feel that I am in a free country.
So,
why is the media always critically focused on Israel? It is
one of the few places you can take a television camera with
virtually unlimited access. Why can't we take cameras to Syria
when the president there decides to destroy an entire town?
Simple: we are not allowed.
The
West has a different standard for the Arab Middle East than
it does for the rest of the world. It is not a healthy thing,
but shows a kind of disdain. Arabs need to be judged by the
same standards as everyone else.
When
I engage in debates with Arab-Americans, I constantly raise
this. Their families came to the United States for freedom and
opportunity, just like mine did. So, why, when they look at
the Middle East today, do they side with the regimes that perpetuate
the oppression that their parents or grandparents fled? Why
do they think that they are standing up for Arabs when they
justify the murderous actions of someone like Saddam Hussein?
*Joseph
Farah has worked over twenty years as a journalist, including
stints as executive news editor of the Los Angeles Herald Examiner
and editor-in-chief of the Sacramento Union. He founded the
Western Journalism Center in 1992 and has taught journalism
at UCLA. He is founder and CEO of the Internet news site WorldNetDaily.com
..
|