by Noam Chomsky
75. Amos Oz, “Has Israel Altered its Visions?,” New York Times Magazine, July 11, 1982.
76. See TNCW, p. 235-6, for quotes and reference.
77. See Flapan, Zionism and the Palestinians., pp. 69f., 82, 222, 259ff., for extensive discussion.
78. Ha’aretz, May 26, 1980.
79. Yediot Ahronot, Jan. 15, 1982; Israeli Mirror.
80. Michael Walzer, “Nationalism, internationalism, and the Jews: the chimera of a binational state,” in Howe and Gershman, eds., Israel, the Arabs and the Middle East.
81. See TNCW, pp. 255f., 286f., for some examples, and my articles in New Politics, Winter 1975-6, Winter 1978-9, for more.
82. See Amos Elon, Ha’aretz, Sept. 28, 1981 (on the development town Beit Shemesh); Shevach Weiss, Al Hamishmar, Oct. 2, 1981; Z. Dorsini, Davar, Sept. 21, 1981; Avshalom Ginat, Al Hamishmar, Sept. 18, 1981. See Davis, Israel: Utopia Incorporated, for some useful background, and The Dawn (Al Fajr, Jerusalem), Nov. 5, 12, 1982, for informative discussion. Also the extensive discussion by Ellen Cantarow, “A Family Affair,” Village Voice, Jan. 25, 1983; and David K. Shipler, New York Times, April 6, 7, 8, 1983.
83. Irving Howe, see above. Howe states: “I have never been a Zionist; I have always felt contempt for nationalist and chauvinist sentiments” (“Thinking the Unthinkable About Israel: A Personal Statement,” New York Magazine, Dec. 24, 1973). We return to the matter.
84. Ze’ev Yaphet, “No Lessons were Learned, Nothing was Done,” “The Exhaustion of the Kibbutz Movement,” Ha’aretz, Oct. 15, 22, 1982. Also “Mapai destroyed us,” Ha’aretz, Oct. 15, 1982.
85. Tamar Maroz, Ha’aretz, Feb. 25, 1983.
86. Michael Elkins, Newsweek, June 8, 1970.
87. Jerusalem Mayor Teddy Kollek, for example, who “expressed his horror at the growth of fascism in Israel,” noting that “the events he was now observing in Jerusalem were familiar to him from his experiences in Europe of the 1930s” (in Vienna) and “would also be familiar to anyone who had recently arrived in Israel from Latin America.” Al Hamishmar, June 22, 1981; Israeli Mirror.
88. This is one of the standard slogans, reflecting the almost hysterical love for Begin in large circles. Americans inclined to ridicule such “Kim ilSungism” on the part of the Israeli underclass might turn to some of their own sophisticates, e.g., the review by left-liberal social critic Murray Kempton of a book by Joseph Alsop on FDR. Kempton describes the “majesty” of Roosevelt’s smile as “he beamed from those great heights that lie beyond the taking of offense… Those of us who were born to circumstances less assured tend to think of, indeed revere, this demeanor as the aristocratic style… [We are] as homesick as Alsop for a time when America was ruled by gentlemen and ladies.” Roosevelt and Lucy Mercer “were persons even grander on the domestic stage than they would end up being on the cosmic one,” and met the crisis in their lives, a secret love affair, “in the grandest style.” “That Roosevelt was the democrat that great gentlemen always are in no way abated his grandeur…[though] this majesty had its notes of condescension to be sure... [His blend of elegance with compassion] adds up to true majesty. He left us with “nostalgia” that is “aching.” His “enormous bulk” stands between us “and all prior history…endearingly exalted…splendidly eternal for romance,” etc., etc. Incidentally, FDR took such complete command that he “left social inquiry…a wasteland,” so much so that “ten years went by before a Commerce Department economist grew curious about the distribution of income and was surprised to discover that its inequality had persisted almost unchanged from Hoover, through Roosevelt and Truman…” But no matter: he brought us “comfort…owing to his engraving upon the public consciousness the sense that men were indeed equal.” Murray Kempton, “The Kindly Stranger,” New York Review af Books, April 15, 1982. The article called forth one comment: in the June 10 issue, Noel Annan referred to “the encomium that Murray Kempton justly bestowed on Roosevelt.”
89. Yediot Ahronot, Oct. 31; Shimon Weiss, Davar, Nov. 1, 1982.
90. David K. Shipler, “Ethnic Conflict Erupts in Israel,” New York Times, Dec. 29; Leah Etgar, “The Arabs took our jobs and are running Tiberias,” Yediot Ahraonot, Dec. 10, 1982; Michal Meron, “Town without pity,” Supplement to Yediot Ahronot, March 11, 1983.
91. Ha’aretz, Nov. 26, 1982.
92. See TNCW, pp. 287f., for some examples.
93. Zvi Barel, “Talking to a settler,” Ha’aretz, April 20, 1982. On the immunity of the settlers, see TNCW, p. 279.
94. Yedidia Segal, Nekudah, Sept. 3, 1982.
95. Amnon Rubinstein, Ha’aretz, April 5, 1982; Ha’aretz, April 4, 1982; Danny Rubinstein, Davar, April 9, 1982, who observes that with the police and the civilian authorities removed, the settlers “can act as they wish in the territories,” giving many examples.
96. David Shipler, New York Times, March 22, 21 1982.
97. Barel, “Talking to a settler.”
98. Danny Tsidkoni, Davar, May 18, 1982.
99. Michal Meron, Yediot Ahronot, March 29, 1982; Amnon Kapeliouk, Al Hamishmar, March 26, 1982.
100. James McManus, Guardian (London), April 7, 1983.
101. The Dawn (Al Fajr), Nov. 5, 1982.
102. MK Tawfiq Toubi, reported in The Dawn, Dec. 3, 1982.
103. For one recent example, see the report by Felicia Langer, the Israeli Communist lawyer who defends many Arabs, quoting an Arab prisoner who recounts in detail what he says happened to him under interrogation in the “Sarafand” interrogation center, leaving him in such a condition that the Nablus prison authorities refused to admit him without a doctor’s report from a military hospital. He specifically implicates Israeli doctors. The Dawn (Al Fajr), Dec. 31, 1982. See Langer’s book With My Own Eyes (Ithaca, London, 1974), and the more extensive Hebrew original Bemo Eynay for many examples. There is ample further evidence. For a few examples, see TNCW, p. 447.
104. For extensive evidence concerning both categories, see Chomsky and Herman, Political Economy of Human Rights. Predictably, our insistence that refugee reports be taken seriously and considered with the same caution and concern whatever their origin has repeatedly been interpreted as apologetics for some official enemy, a matter that merits little comment apart from an inquiry, which might be illuminating, into some of the techniques typically adopted by those whom Bakunin aptly called the “state worshipping” intellectuals; in the West, those who pretend to be anti-Communist while mimicking Stalinist practice.
105. London Sunday Times, June 19, 1977. There is considerable further evidence in the testimony of Paul Eddy and Peter Gillman of the Sunday Times before the UN Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Population of the Occupied Territories (A/SPC/32/L.12, 11 Nov. 1977), including also interesting analysis of the efforts at rebuttal on the part of David Krivine of the Jerusalem Post and the Israeli government. See TNCW, p. 447.
106. Seth Kaplan, New Republic, July 23, 1977.
107. Amnesty International Newsletter, Sept. 1977; Martin Peretz, New Republic, Aug. 2, 1982; Amnon Rubinstein, Ha’aretz, Feb. 27, 1981; TNCW, p. 454. For another remarkable example of a “confession,” regarded by the Washington Post as a “vindication of Israel’s system of justice” and given a stamp of approval also by “civil libertarians” Monroe Freedman and Alan Dershowitz, see Chomsky and Herman, Political Economy of Human Rights, vol. I, p. 381.
108. Report and Recommendations of an Amnesty International Mission to the Government 0f Israel. including the Government’s response and Amnesty International’s comments (London, 1980); Ha’aretz, Sept. 3, 1980; Al Hamishmar, Sept. 3, 1980 (Israeli Mirror).
109. Mattityahu Peled, Ha’aretz, Aug. 8, 1980; see references to the U.S., British and Israeli press on conditions in the prisons in TNCW, TNCW, 7.
110. Jerusalem Post, Dec. 24, 1982; Reuters, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, Dec. 29, 1982; Boston Globe, Jan. 5, 1983.
111. Jerusalem Post, Dec. 12, 1982; “‘Cut off their testicles,’
Sharon said with regard to demonstrators in the West Bank” Yediot Ahronot, Dec. 29, 1982; Ma’ariv, Feb. 18, 1983, quoting Avraham Burg; The Dawn (Al Fajr), Jan 21, Feb. 4, 1983, on the expropriation and the curfew; Michael Precker, Dallas Morning News—Boston Globe, Feb. 17, 1983. The expropriation was noted by Trudy Rubin, Christian Science Monitor, March 4, 1983.
112. Zvi Barel, Ha’aretz, Jan. 20, 1983 (Israleft News Service; Barel, Ha’aretz Weekly, Feb. 6-11, 1983; Edward Walsh, Washington Post— Boston Globe, Feb. 18; David Richardson, Jerusalem Post, Feb. 18; Barel, Ha’aretz, Jan. 30 (translated in The Dawn (Al Fajr), Feb. 11); Eitan Mor, Yediot Ahronot, Feb. 18, 1983; Reuven Padhatzur, Ha’aretz, March 11, 1983, explaining how the defense “broke the rules of the game” by building its case on the demonstration that IDF policy is responsible for the atrocities; the defense was successful, since higher officers, who gave the orders, could not be (and were not) tried. See also Marcus Eliason, AP, Boston Globe, Jan. 22, 1983, reviewing Eitan’s orders and also his statement, which is correct, that the practice of demolishing houses in collective punishment and deportation was practiced much more extensively by his Labor predecessors. Also New York Times, Feb. 10, 18. The sanitized New York Times accounts may usefully be compared to those cited from other American journals, particularly the detailed account of Eitan’s testimony by Norman Kempster, Los Angeles Times, Feb. 10, 1983. Ahronot, Dec. 3, 1982.
113. Aharon Bachar, “Do not say: We did not know, we did not hear’,” Yediot Ahronot, Dec. 3, 1982
114. Aharon Bachar, Yediot Ahronot, Nov. 5, 1982.
115. Yoram Pen,Davar, Dec. 10, 1982.
116. “Peace Now officers recount atrocities,” Al Hamishmar, May 11, 1982; Aharon Geva, Davar, April 4, 1982 (Israeli Mirror).
117. “Human Rights Violations on the Golan Heights: February-May, 1982,” Report of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, Israel Office of the American Jewish Committee (1982). The following account and quotes are from this study. The events discussed were reported by some of the Israeli press, despite efforts by the authorities to prevent journalists from discovering the facts or even entering the area.
118. Ha’aretz, April 16; David Richardson, Jerusalem Post, April 16; Emmanuel Elnekaveh, Yediot Ahronot, Feb. 25; Yoram Hamizrahi, Feb. 25; Nahum Barnea, Davar, April 13, 1982.
119. Ha’aretz, March 15, 1982.
120. Ha’aretz, Jerusalem Post, April 16; see also editorial, “Shame on the Golan,” Jerusalem Post, April 16, 1982.
121. Amos Elon, Ha’aretz, April 13, 1982.
122. Danny Rubinstein, Davar, April 12, 1982. See TNCW, pp. 277-8, for some examples, including even the closing of art exhibits.
123. Jerusalem Post, July 13, 1982; Israleft News Service. The harassment of Bir Zeit apparently began with the Likud takeover in 1977. For some early discussion, see Manfred Ropschitz, ed., Volunteers for Palestine Papers 1977-1980 (Miftah, Kfar Shemaryahu, 1981).
124. UPI, Boston Globe, Nov. 17, 1982.
125. New York Times, Nov. 20, 23, 1982; Benny Morris, Jerusalem Post, Nov. 21, 1982. Israleft News Service, Dec. 1, 1982, contains a detailed chronology and material from the Israeli press. See the advertisement of the Ad Hoc Committee for Academic Freedom, New York Times, Christian Science Monitor, April 1, 1983.
126. Christian Science Monitor, Nov. 16, 1982.
127. David Richardson, “A threat to freedom,” Jerusalem Post, Nov. 19, 1982; Norman Kempster, Los Angeles Times, Nov. 20, 1982.
128. See, among others, Danny Rubinstein, Davar, May 16, 1980; TNCW, p. 274.
129. Boston Globe, Nov. 22; New York Times, Nov. 23, 1982.
130. New York Times, Oct. 21; The Dawn (Al Fajr), Nov. 12, 1982.
131. Danny Rubinstein, Davar, Nov. 19, 1982.
132. W.F. Abboushi. Christian Science Monitor, Nov. 30, 1982.
133. Boaz Evron, Yediot Ahronot, Dec. 3, 1982. Shortly after, the restrictions on one of the editors (and several other people) were lifted; Jerusalem Post, Dec. 21, 1982 (Israleft News Service).
134. Michal Meron, Yediot Ahronot (supplement), Dec. 10, 1982.
135. Erwin Frenkel, “A newspaper’s loyalties,” Jerusalem Post Jubilee Supplement, Dec. 1, 1982.
136. Ha’aretz, Nov. 29, 1982.
137. H. Graetz, History of the Jews (Jewish Publication Society, Philadelphia, 1893, vol II, p.324). See The Universal Jewish Encyclopedia (New York, 1942, vol. 6).
138. Press Release, Association for Civil Rights in Israel, Oct. 27, 1982; Ha’aretz, Oct. 28, 1982 (Israleft News Service, Nov. 15). B. Michael, Ha’aretz, Nov. 7, 1982. The Dawn (Al Fajr), Dec. 10, 1982.
139. Boston Globe, Nov. 27, 1982, under “Names and Faces,” where brief odd items involving various personalities are presented; Al Hamishmar, Nov. 16, 1982; Ha’aretz, March 8, 1983.
140. Letter, New York Review of Books, March 17, 1977. See TNCW, p. 283, for references from the Israeli, British and Swedish press.
141. Aharon Dolav, Ma’ariv, Dec. 10, 1982; Ben-Tsion Tsitriv, Haolam Haze, Dec. 22, 1982; Yigal Bichkov, Ha’aretz, Dec. 9, 1982. There is a watered-down version in the English-language press: Aryeh Rubinstein, “Sleeping scandal,” Yitzhak Oked, “Arab labourers’ housing to be probed,” Jerusalem Post, Dec. 26, 1982.
142. Ian Black, New Statesman, Sept. 29, 1978 (for further references from the Hebrew press, see Chomsky and Herman, Political Economy of Human Rights, vol. II, p. 360; TNCW, p.283); Felicia Langer, Report of the Israeli League for Human and Civil Rights, Jan. 19, 1983 (Langer was the lawyer representing Barguti).
143. Hotam, Feb. 19, 1982.
144. “The Gangrene of the Occupation,” Al Hamishmar, Feb. 19, 1982.
145. For details, see Peace in the Middle East?, pp. 196-7, and references cited, and Adnan Amad, ed., Israeli League/or Human and Civil Rights (The Shahak Papers) (Palestine Research Center, Beirut, 1973); the latter also contains documentation provided by the League on a wide range of serious human rights violations under the Labor government. See also Shahak, The Non-Jew in the Jewish State (a collection of documents, mostly from the Israeli press; privately printed, Jerusalem, 1975), and much else. See Pro-Arab Propaganda in America: Vehicles and Voices, Anti-Defamation League of B’nai Brith (New York, January 1983). This book (including this entry) contain numerous falsehoods and slanders, as one would expect in the “enemies list” of an organization now largely dedicated to defamation.
146. Saul Bellow and Stephen Spender, to mention two examples; see TNCW, pp. 302, 454. Still worse, in my view, are those who give similar stories on the basis of alleged statements by unidentified “Arab friends,” in the New Republic style sampled several times above, and again in the next chapter.
147. Fouzi el-Asmar, To be an Arab in Israel (Francis Pinter, London, 1975; Institute for Palestine Studies, Beirut, 1978); translated from the Hebrew original.
148. For discussion in a far more general context, see Edward Said, Orientalism (Pantheon, .New York, 1978). Also Kapeliouk, Israel, on some of the pronouncements of Israeli Orientalists.
149. Saul Bellow, To Jerusalem and Back (Viking, New York, 1976). See TNCW, chapter 10, for further samples from this classic contribution to a familiar 20th century genre.
150. All cited in a 1969 essay included in my Peace in the Middle East?, pp. 61, 55.
151. Editorial Notebook, New York Times, Nov. 16, 1982.
152. New York Times Book Review, May 16, 1982.
153. “Minus One Friend,” Kol Hair, June 4, 1982.
154. For references and more on these matters, see my articles in New Politics, Winter 1975-6, 1978-9, and TNCW, pp. 285ff., 436-7.
155. Irving Howe, “The Campus Left and Israel.” Howe cites no Tel Aviv street names, but he does illustrate by giving Minister Yigal Allon the wrong first name.
156. “Mainstream chauvinism,” Ha’aretz, March 19, 1982; “This is not verbal violence,” Ha’aretz, Feb. 13, 1983.
157. See TNCW, chapter 9 and Afterword for many examples.
158. Benjamin Beit-H
allahmi, “Israel and South Africa,” New Outlook, March/ April, 1983; Hotam, April 18, 1975, Oct. 1, 1982; Davar, Sept. 8, 1981; Charles Hoffman, “A monkey trial, local style,” Jerusalem Post, March 22, 1983. This kind of material is common in religious circles. For example, the Habad organization of the Lubavitcher Rabbi, much respected here and in Israel, explains that “the body of a Jew is of an entirely different type than that of a non-Jew”; they are, in fact, “two entirely different species” (Likutey Sihot, 1965). For some background discussion, see Israel Shahak, Khamsin, nos. 8-9, 1981.
159. Yediot Ahronot, Sept. 14, 1982; a response to a query in a column called: “Soldiers ask.”
160. Danny Rubinstein, “Religion against Nationalism,” Davar, March 12, 1982.
161. Eliahu Salpeter, Ha’aretz, Nov. 4, 1982.
162. For examples from publications of the military Rabbinate, see Peace in the Middle East?, pp. 108-9; Shahak, Begin and Co.; Said, Question of Palestine, p. 91; TNCW, p. 305.
163. Ha’aretz, May 16, 1974.
164. Al Hamishmar, Jan. 4, 1978.
165. Rabbi Isaac J. Bernstein, Dialogue (New York), Winter 1980.
166. Yediot Ahronot, Dec. 9, 1977.
167. Menachem Barash, Yediot Ahronot, March 29, 1979.
168. Francis Cornu, Le Monde, July 2, 1982; Yoela Har-Shefi, Al Hamishmar, July 25, 1982.
169. Haim Handwerker, Ha’aretz, July 15, 1982. See chapters 5, 6, on the nature of such hasbara.
170. Menachem Barash, Yediot Ahronot, Dec. 20, 1974.
171. Ma’ariv, Oct. 3, 1982.
172. Cited by Danny Rubinstein, Davar, Oct. 8, 1982, in an article expressing concern over the intentions of the movement.
173. Yediot Ahronot, Oct. 4, 1982.
174. There was something similar in the wake of the 1967 victory; see Peace in the Middle East?, chapter 4, and particularly Kapeliouk’s Israel, which investigates in detail how Israel’s grandiose self-image contributed to the near disaster of 1973.
