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Rachel Neuwirth is a Los Angeles based analyst on the board of directors of the West Coast Region of the and the chairperson of its Middle East committee.
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By Rachel Neuwirth
March 4, 2003
I was saddened that Professor Edward Said of Columbia University could present false statements as he did a week ago at UCLA. Said leveled charges against Israel and America, barely mentioning the endless terrorism aimed at Israel by the Arab world and the Arab/Palestinians in particular. Said presented the "Palestinians" as mere victims, never mentioning the countless acts of terrorism aimed at Israel and America.
The world faces the diabolical threat of untethered militant Islam, and Said's biased words make naive young audiences believe that his utterances are "profound insights."
Said blamed the failure and misery of the Arab Palestinians on Israel and America alone, barely mentioning the ills of the Arab societies.
How can anyone make peace with those who consistently lie and transmit intense animosity? The Arab-Israeli conflict cannot be resolved without a regional acknowledgement of and commitment to Israel's right to exist securely as a Jewish state.
The malevolent content of Said's words made me uneasy. Said spoke in eloquent, humanistic axioms, but at the same time he attempted to equate the vicious suicide/homicide culture of many Arab Palestinians with the defensive actions the Israelis have been forced to impose. Said said that uprooting trees and demolishing buildings is more dehumanizing than the culture of suicide/homicide.
A rabbi asked whether Said would sign off for peace if the Palestinians were handed all the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, and he said "No!"
Said knows exactly what he is and was doing. He commits crimes of the minds without any regard to the intelligence and knowledge of the mature people in the crowd. I wouldn't be surprise to learn that some Islamists (Saudis) pay him to do so. I don't want to give him any slack. I do not want to leave any doubt about his agenda nor about calling him to task.
Said's bias was evident in his frequent use of "Zionist" instead of "Israeli." Does he not realize how this takes the humanity out of Israel, giving it a pejorative label instead of a national identity?
Said never mentioned that in 1948, five Arab countries launched a war against a one-day-old Israel. Instead he focused on the main consequence of that war: the creation of Arab refugees, stating that Israel "short of genocide" expelled 800,000 of them. This not only disagrees with UN estimates of a bit over 400,000 refugees but also ignores the fact that most of the Arabs/Palestinians were encouraged to leave by the Arab World itself!
He also failed to mention that, as with all other Arab-Israeli wars, it was the Arabs who initiated the 1948 war. Said in fact claims that all the Israeli-Arab wars were initiated by Israel.
Arab leadership had an opportunity to create a Palestinian state as envisioned (1) by the Peel Commission in 1938, (2) by the UN itself in 1947, and (3) again in 2000 when Israeli PM Barak offered most of the disputed (not "occupied") territory. But, their leadership does not look out for the best interests of its people nor is it truly interested in making peace with Israel.
Prof. Said, can you tell us who the Arab Palestinians' leaders were prior to Yasser Arafat? Can you fill us in with specifics about that "ancient Palestinian" history? Can you also tell us how the Arabs of "Palestine" are so different in language, culture, and history from that of neighboring Arabs?
Many Arab-Palestinian children dream of becoming killers of Jews. Can you explain this? Is it perhaps because they are indoctrinated by their parents, their schools, their mosques... their society?
Said depicted the land of Israel/Palestine as if Arabs once owned all of it. But the Ottoman Empire and absentee landlords owned more than 70% of the land of historic "Palestine."
The Palestinian Arabs have largely turned their society into something barbaric, comprised of countless terrorist factions overseen by a despotic mafia. The beauty of their poetry, music, art, literature, and legendary hospitality are now eclipsed by their hatred and their reputation for terrorism and deceit.
Said has made a career out of the "Palestinian" experience. I think he has failed them, however. With his deceptive words and poisonous rhetoric, Said does not pave the road to peace. Peace will never come to Israel or Said's people if they base their identity and ideology upon lies and hatred and continue their suicidal/homicidal evil.
Views expressed by the author do not
necessarily reflect those of israelinsider.
 
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