VICTOR DAVIS HANSON:
Helen Thomas, Turkey, and the Liberation of Israel
The world cares deeply about refugees, disputed territory, and divided cities -- when Israel is involved. Otherwise, otherwise.
It is hard to become much more influential than the doyen of the White House press corps, who is given a ceremonial front-rows seat at press briefings and press conferences. So when Helen Thomas suggested that the Israelis should leave their country and "go home" to Poland and Germany, this was not some obscure, eccentric anti-Semite, but a liberal insider who has come to enjoy iconic status and a sense of exemption from criticism.
Note that Ms. Thomas did not call for just a West Bank free of Jews. And she did not just wish for the elimination of the nation of Israel itself. Rather, Thomas envisions the departure of Israelis to the sites of the major death camps seven decades ago where six million Jews were gassed.
Turkey's role in aiding and abetting the flotilla, and its subsequent anti-Israeli outbursts, were excessive even by the often sick standards of the Middle East -- but not exactly new. State-run Turkish television has aired virulent anti-Semitic dramas like the 2006 Valley of the Wolves, in which a Jewish doctor harvests organs from captured Iraqi civilians. Former Turkish prime minister Necmettin Erbakan once claimed that the Jews had instigated World War I in order to create Israel. Israel, Erbakan further asserted, in full-blown Hitlerian prose, was a "disease" and a "bacteria" that needed to be eradicated. The current prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, talks of sending in the Turkish fleet to confront the Israeli blockade, says he is sick of Israeli lies, and warns that his new Turkey is not "a young and rootless nation," as Israel presumably is (note the code word "rootless"). So speaks our NATO partner and EU wannabe. This week, in reaction to criticism from the West, Erdogan labeled such concerns "dirty propaganda" -- note well, not just propaganda but a "dirty" sort.
In an odd way, Thomas's sick suggestions and Turkey's new Islamist and vehemently anti-Israel foreign policy will have a liberating effect on Israel. After all, if the ceremonial head of the White House press corps wants Israel's citizens either gone or dead, there is a legitimate suspicion that things are not quite right in the capital of Israel's staunchest ally. And if the most secular, democratic, and pro-Western Muslim country in the Middle East wishes to pick a fight to prove its Muslim fides, then there is not much hope that Israel is going to win over anyone else in that region.
Anti-Semitism as displayed by both Thomas and Turkey's leaders is not predicated on criticizing Israel, much less disagreeing with its foreign policy. Instead, it hinges upon focusing singularly on Israeli behavior, and applying a standard to it that is never extended to any other nation.
There are plenty of disputes over borders and land in the world. But to Helen Thomas or the Turkish government, Kashmir or the Russian-Chinese border matters little -- although the chances of escalation to nuclear confrontation are far greater there than on the West Bank. Has Thomas ever popped off, "Why don't those Chinese just get the hell out of Tibet?" or "Why don't those Indians just get out of Kashmir?"
The Palestinian "refugees" -- a majority of whom are the children, grandchildren, or great-grandchildren of people actually displaced in 1948 -- compose a small part of the world's refugee population. There are millions of refugees in Rwanda, the Congo, and Darfur. Well over a half-million Jews were ethnically cleansed from the major Arab capitals between 1947 and 1973, each wave of expulsion cresting after a particular Mideast war. Again, few care to demonstrate for the plight of any of these people. Prime Minister Erdogan has not led any global effort to relocate the starving millions in Darfur, despite his loud concern for "refugees" in Gaza. The United States gives far more millions of dollars in aid to the Palestinians than does their Muslim protector in Turkey, who saves cash in winning Palestinian support by practicing anti-Semitism on the cheap. Nor have I heard of any German suicide bomber blowing himself up over lost ancestral land in Danzig or East Prussia, although that land was lost about the same time as some Palestinians left Israel. Few worry that in 1949 tens of thousands of Japanese were forcibly expelled by the Soviet Union from Sakhalin Island.
The world likewise cares little for the concept of "occupation" in the abstract; it is only the concrete example of Palestine that earns its opprobrium. We can be assured that President Obama will not bring up Ossetia with President Putin. He will not raise the question of Tibet with the Chinese or occupied Cyprus with Prime Minister Erdogan. Will Helen Thomas ever ask, "How can Turkey be allowed to keep Nicosia a divided city?" Will she worry whether Greeks are allowed to buy property in the Turkish sector of that capital?
2 comments:
While I agree on the blind Jew hatred motive, I also believe that there is a geographic aspect also.
Israel does happen to be in the middle of the Mohammedan world and also controls their oldest and most respected shrine outside of Arabia itself.
Having relieved myself of what I believe as a responsibility of full disclosure, I can now freely assert that no, I do not support Israel 99.9%. I support them 100% as relates to the issue of their right to the land and to defend themselves with overwhelming force if need be.
I became convinced of the same thing, after the MSM told the world that Israel was killing Palestinians "by the thousands and burying them in mass graves" during, what became known as, the "Jenin Massacre."
The whole thing was a lie. In total, there were 56 Palestinians killed, 48 of them were combatants.
The MSM never apologized, nor did any other human being that I know of.
That is when I knew there was a MASSIVE problem with anti-Semitism.
I tend to NEVER believe anyone when they accuse Israel of anythhing.
Hard evidence is always needed, in my opinion, because there are simply too many lies put out by anti-Semites in high places.
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