From the Editor

Moral Equivalencies

False moral equivalencies -- a staple in the propaganda war against Israel -- are now being used against the U.S., moreover by "friendly," "moderate" Arab states.

The following is from journalist Rami G. Khouri in the Jordan Times of August 28: "[I] fear that neither Arabs nor Americans are working significantly to break the cycle of anger, ignorance, resentment, and politically facile and self-serving one-dimensional stereotyping that increasingly defines interaction between these two worlds [American and Arab-Islamic]. Donald Rumsfeld and Osama Bin Laden are two different faces of the same ugly coin that we must reject. They sell us false goods from the vast marketplace of their own fears. They peddle arrogant, simplistic, violent, hysterical and cartoon-like stereotypes of our two societies, promising a world of perpetual gunfire."

Madison vs. Peres

The following quote from The Federalist Papers (No. 8) is apposite to both the U.S. and Israel today. "Safety from external danger is the most powerful director of national conduct. Even the ardent love of liberty will, after a time, give way to its dictates. The violent destruction of life and property incident to war, the continual effort and alarm attendant on a state of continual danger, will compel nations the most attached to liberty to resort for repose and security to institutions which have a tendency to destroy their civil and political rights. To be more safe, they at length become willing to run the risk of being less free."

Contrast this with Israel's mindless Foreign Minister, who cavalierly dismisses external dangers. "The more we give up land, we discover we have more Ph.Ds per kilometer -- so we are going to make a living on the Ph.Ds, and not on the mileage." (Speech at University of Pennsylvania, November 1994)

Islam in Europe

Bruce Bawer's "Tolerating Intolerance: The Challenge of Fundamentalist Islam in Western Europe" in Partisan Review (Vol. LXIX, No. 3) reveals how European countries, in their zeal to be "tolerant," bid fair to undermine civilized norms of conduct and erode personal freedom. For example, Bawer reports that the Norwegian paper Dagbladet reported that 65% of rapes of Norwegian women were by "non-Western immigrants," i.e. overwhelmingly Moslems. The Dagbladet article quoted a professor of social anthropology at the University of Oslo: "Norwegian women must take their share of responsibility for these rapes" because Moslem men found their way of dressing provocative. Note the professor's conclusion was not that Moslem men in the West needed to adjust to Western norms but the opposite: "Norwegian women must realize that we live in a multicultural society and adapt themselves to it."

What is more, government leaders promote the worst elements of Islam in their societies. Bawer quotes Solheib Bencheikh, the progressive grand mufti of Marseille who charges the French government chooses "the most reactionary, the most politicized and the most fanatic" of Islamic leaders for participation in that country's new Moslem Council. Bencheikh argues that the French [and other] governments, simply confirm and reinforce the power of the extremists "legitimizing the forces we decry in the Muslim world."

Remembering Sept. 11

A Toronto film event commemorating September 11 (financed by Viacom) includes the Vivendi-bankrolled film with a segment directed by Egyptian Youssef Chahine celebrating a Palestinian suicide bomber. One interviewee imparts this remarkable insight: "The U.S. and Israel are democracies, their governments are elected by their people -- thus it is legitimate to attack their people."

ADL Program Backfires

The Anti-Defamation League has sent eight college newspaper editors to Israel, a number of whom, a Jewish Week report reveals, returned more hostile to Israel than when they left. Sample quote from Abel Pena, incoming editor of the University of California at Irvine paper: "In my opinion they do this [suicide bombing] because they feel oppressed in one sense or another. I don't want to be quick to judge people in doing suicide bombing." While part of the problem may lie with the ADL's screening procedure, much of it seems to lie with the ADL's program itself, which brought the group together with radical Israeli Arab students who served, altogether predictably, as Hamas-propagandists.

Outpost               - 2 -               September 2002