Alfred
Lilienthal
TOPICS & PERSONS in this article: Lilienthal
the only living
American who was at Lake Success in 1947 when the UN voted to partition
Palestine into what was supposed to be a Jewish state and a Palestinian state;
at the United Nations in 1974 for Yasser Arafat's appearance; at Algiers in
November for the Palestine National Council meeting; and at Geneva in December
for the special UN General Assembly session held there because the US government
would not grant Arafat a visa to speak to the UN in New York, PLO
Turned Into Defendants,
Secretary of State George Shultz rejected Arafat's speech in Geneva,
President Reagan, Time magazine of Dec. 26 carried nearly a full page expounding
"The Case for Skepticism," signed by Michael Kramer, who used to write
for New York Magazine, whose pro-Israel stance is well known, Henry Kissinger is
quoted, (Lilienthal) a two-state solution
to the Palestine question, righting an old wrong, diehard apologists for Israel like
George Will and Fred Barnes, mainstream Al Fatah wing of the PLO, Iran's Ayatollah
Khomeini, Syria's Hafez al Assad,
and Libya's Muammar el Qaddafi-have been extremely critical of Arafat's
acceptance of a two-state solution,
Abu Nidal, Syria's Assad, talk show host John McLaughlin, ability of the Mossad or some other
Israeli agency to sabotage the initiative, downing
of Pan Am Flight 103, in his syndicated column which appeared in the Washington
Post on Dec. 22, headlined "The Snowball of Appeasement," (George)
Will
added a new page to the already prevalent myth-in formation and prejudice aimed
at scuttling prospects for a just peace,
columnist argued that the partition resolution of 1947 intended Jordan and
Israel to be the two states to be carved out of the Palestine mandate. Pure
nonsense!, Vice President Dan Quayle, well-known Zionist pundits: William
Safire and Daniel Pipes, former Israeli Foreign Minister Abba Eban, 'Slanting
Through Photography (Arafat),' although Menachem Begin, Yitzhak
Shamir, and Ariel Sharon all
established themselves through blatant acts of violence, it is now the
Palestinians alone who must prove themselves, President Bush, the consequences of still another Middle East peace failure,
and more.
Originally Published In The
WASHINGTON REPORT
On Middle East Affairs
http://www.washington-report.org
The Other Side of the Coin
The
US Media and the PLO:
Will Things Ever Change?
By Dr. Alfred M. Lilienthal
February
1989, Page 8
"Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose" can best describe the
reaction of the establishment and the media to the "Arafat affair," as
many refer to it here in Washington. I speak authoritatively as the only living
American who was at Lake Success in 1947 when the UN voted to partition
Palestine into what was supposed to be a Jewish state and a Palestinian state;
at the United Nations in 1974 for Yasser Arafat's appearance; at Algiers in
November for the Palestine National Council meeting; and at Geneva in December
for the special UN General Assembly session held there because the US government
would not grant Arafat a visa to speak to the UN in New York.
PLO Turned Into Defendants
After
Secretary of State George Shultz rejected Arafat's speech in Geneva as
inadequate both as to recognition of Israel and in its denunciation of
terrorism, European diplomats and Arab-American supporters prevailed upon the
PLO chieftain to hold a press conference, in English, the next morning. This
time his words, which aside from the change in language from Arabic to English,
contained only the minutest deviation from what he had already said, were
accepted as the basis for a US-PLO dialogue. Commenting on the new US position,
President Reagan stated: "Let them match their deeds to their words, and if
they do not, that is the end of our talks with them."
Columnists, editorial writers, and news reporters, with few exceptions, have
picked up the Reagan theme, turning Arafat and the PLO into defendants.
"These PLO 'terrorists' must now show us they will not be reverting to
their old ways," is what now emanates from the same writers and
commentators who were hoping that the ban on US-PLO negotiations would last
forever.
Time magazine of Dec. 26 carried nearly a full page expounding
"The Case for Skepticism," signed by Michael Kramer, who used to write
for New York Magazine, whose pro-Israel stance is well known. Replete
with a snide illustration, the article seeks to link Palestinians with terrorism
and issues a stern warning that the PLO is very likely to revert to its old
ways. Henry Kissinger is quoted: "If you believe that their real intention
is to kill you, it isn't unreasonable to believe that they would lie to
you." The Palestinians, Time insisted, "must prove that they
will not use a West Bank state as a foothold to strike for the rest of
Israel."
Jewish Americans must not now permit, in their name, the scuttling of talks which could lead to direct negotiations between the adversaries and to a two-state solution to the Palestine question, righting an old wrong.
The entire
burden of proof is placed on the Palestinians, not a word about what Israel must
do to build trust, let alone what the US ought and can do to force Israel to the
negotiating table with the PLO.
In the weeks following the Geneva meeting, diehard apologists for Israel like
George Will and Fred Barnes, unable because of Shultz's record to criticize the
secretary of state's initiative as "anti-Israel," constantly alluded
to one act or another of past terrorism, although none of those cited were
instigated by Yasser Arafat or the mainstream Al Fatah wing of the PLO.
Virtually all of the "terrorists" cited are Arafat's sworn enemies,
and the chiefs of state cited: Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini, Syria's Hafez al Assad,
and Libya's Muammar el Qaddafi-have been extremely critical of Arafat's
acceptance of a two-state solution.
While there was discussion of the possibility of a radical wing of the PLO,
Abu Nidal, or even Syria's Assad (as talk show host John McLaughlin himself
interjected) torpedoing the current US-PLO talks, it seemed that none of the
media personalities dared allude to the ability of the Mossad or some other
Israeli agency to sabotage the initiative. (interestingly, on call-in radio and
television shows, members of the general public alluded repeatedly to this
Mossad capability and past record, particularly in connection with the downing
of Pan Am Flight 103.)
It is this diabolical enemy image of Palestinians and of the PLO, never put to rest by either the Congress or the media, that underlies the disastrous failure of US Middle East policy.
As always,
since the creation of Israel, this double standard prevails among professional
journalists and politicians, not so much out of love of Zionism or of the Jewish
state, but out of plain, simple fear. "Do not run afoul of the Zionist
lobby, the pressure groups, and Jewish political-financial power, which can be
and has been exerted against one and all of us."
Conservative, opinionated George Will, whose wife is Jewish, has probably
been the most unwavering supporter of Israel and consistent critic of the PLO in
the United States. In his syndicated column which appeared in the Washington
Post on Dec. 22, headlined "The Snowball of Appeasement," Will
added a new page to the already prevalent myth-in formation and prejudice aimed
at scuttling prospects for a just peace. Without a scintilla of proof, the
columnist argued that the partition resolution of 1947 intended Jordan and
Israel to be the two states to be carved out of the Palestine mandate. Pure
nonsense! If the United Nations had so intended, they would have specifically
named Jordan as the Palestinian state.
As part of his slash and burn attack on the new, moderate Arafat image, Will
alleged that "Arafat gave the order by telephone from Beirut for the murder
of the US ambassador in Khartoum." There is no semblance of substantiation
of this charge. (Were you there, Georgie? How about a $1,000 bet on the validity
of your charge, the money to go to a charity?)
Mythinformation Campaign Continues
Trying to get
back to Washington from Columbus over the Christmas holidays, I picked up the Indianapolis
Star, which carried the George Will article under the headline "Western
Appeasement Gathers Momentum." In this same paper (published by the Pulliam
family, whose illustrious scion is Vice President Dan Quayle) there were two
lengthy back-to-back articles by other well-known Zionist pundits: William
Safire and Daniel Pipes. The latter resorted to sweeping generalizations about
both Arabs and Palestinians to muddy the PLO image. Safire called for a
"united Israel front to the world to ensure the survival of Israel, now
threatened by the PLO."
Even as a young man, Safire was a little shifty. Back in the late 50s, when
he was an assistant on the famed "Tex and Jinx" radio show, broadcast
from the Waldorf Astoria's Peacock Alley, I appeared on the program. I had
brought with me a devastating rebuttal to then-current Zionist propaganda which
I had intended to read at an appropriate moment. The moment came, I reached for
my written rebuttal, and found that both it and Safire had vanished from the
studio.
An appropriate rebuttal to Safire's current Massada-type thinking is
contained in a brilliant article, printed in the New York Times of Jan. 2
and reprinted in the "Other Voices" section of this issue of the Washington
Report on Middle East Affairs, by former Israeli Foreign Minister Abba Eban.
He writes: "Israel's defense system is one of the wonders of the world.
Never in history has so small a country been able and ready to wield such a vast
capacity for defense, deterrence, and reprisal."
'Slanting Through Photography'
Joining the
front against US talks with the PLO, the New York Times Sunday Magazine of
Dec. 18 printed a cover story titled "The Ambiguous Yasir Arafat,"
written by Marie Colbin, Middle East correspondent for the London Sunday
Times. There was nothing wrong with the Arafat cover photograph, but the
other pictures scattered throughout the article constituted "slanting
through photography" par excellence. They included a half-page photo of
Arafat embracing Colonel Muammar el Qaddaffi, and lumped together under the
caption "The Harder Line," photographs of George Habash, "long
Arafat's main radical rival"; "renegade" Abu Nidal; Abul Abbas, a
figure in the Achille Lauro, hijacking; and finally, a current photo of
Arafat deputy Abu Iyad, captioned as a "former Black September
leader." References to the long-defunct "Black September"
organization, with all its connotations of terror, appeared three times in the
piece.
A photo of Arafat at breakfast pointedly informed the reader that this was at
the "PLO villa in Libya." In her text, Colbin referred vaguely to
"acts which went a long way toward disqualifying the PLO as an organization
with which civilized nations could do business, an attitude that persists among
many key American officials."
By contrast, writers in such publications as the Washington Post, who
have in the past been more objective, now seem disinclined to discuss Israeli
misdeeds. Although Menachem Begin, Yitzhak Shamir, and Ariel Sharon all
established themselves through blatant acts of violence, it is now the
Palestinians alone who must prove themselves. "Can we trust the
Palestinians?" is the theme that prevails.
"As Far as He Can Go"
It is a use of
character assassination to poison the US-PLO talks. Arafat says justifiably that
he has been made to do a striptease. Indeed, it is hard to see what more can be
asked of him. To paraphrase a fine from Oklahoma, "He has gone about
as far as he can go." It is wrong to permit the conjuring up of the image
of hated Palestinians killing innocent Israelis, whereas the shoe has for so long
been on the other foot. It is this diabolical enemy image of Palestinians and of
the PLO, never put to rest by either the Congress or the media, that underlies
the disastrous failure of US Middle East policy.
Public opinion, as so often is the case, is far ahead of the politicians, and
this has happened not because the media has done its job, but despite the fact
that until the past year the mainstrearn media have seldom presented the public
with "the other side of the coin." Nevertheless, all indications show
that a majority of Americans are pleased that talks between the US and the PLO
have started and want to see them pursued to a successful conclusion. Many,
probably most, Americans are very aware of Israel's brutality on the West Bank
which, despite Israel's ban on coverage there, is still being widely reported
today. Some are beginning to understand the nature of the "original
sin," the turning over to the Zionists of the Holy Land, with its 66
percent Muslim and Christian-Arab populace, to atone for Western guilt over Nazi
criminality.
President Bush has tried to keep out of it all, although he must surely be
relieved over the Shultz reversal, which absolved the Bush administration of the
responsibility or blame, for starting talks with the PLO. In the course of news
programs before Christmas, there had been quick flashes to Bush, who seemed to
be advocating that Israel talk with the Jordanians. It was consistent with his
rhetoric early in the campaign but surely not a serious indication the new
president is thinking of wasting precious administration political capital on
reviving the Jordan option.
Organized Jewry, with the assistance of the media, as we wrote in What Price
Israel? so many years ago, usurped the voice of the average Jewish American in
staking a claim to a part of the Arab world. Jewish Americans must not now permit
in their name, the scuttling of talks which could lead to direct negotiations
between the adversaries and to a two-state solution to the Palestine question,
righting an old wrong. The essence of universal Judaism remains its unswerving
passion for justice and righteousness.
The consequences of still another Middle East peace failure at this time
would be calamitous, not only to Israelis and Palestinians, but also, and
particularly, for Jewish Americans and for the long-term national interests of
the United States.
Dr. Alfred M. Lilienthal served in the Middle East in World War If and has
spent a lifetime since then educating Americans on Middle East realities. He is
the author of What Price Israel?, There Goes the Middle East, The Other Side
of the Coin, and his monumental The Zionist Connection.
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