[Peace-discuss] Joel Finkel's response to Krauthammer

[David Green]

Joel Finkel of NIMN sent this letter to the Chicago
Tribune in response to Charles Krauthammer outrageous
commentary piece in today's paper. 

To the editors,

I want to thank Charles Krauthammer for his commentary
of Monday, June 19.  He shows how even a mediocre
demagogue can turn the murder of an extended family
into a sanctimonious justification for military
occupation.  By applying the age-old technique of
blaming the victim, and by employing well-worn myths,
half-truths, and outright lies, Krauthammer justifies
Israeli brutality towards the imprisoned Palestinian
population of Gaza.
 
Despite what he says, when Israel removed its illegal
settlers, Gaza did not “become the first independent
Palestinian territory ever.”  Its borders, seas, and
airspace are controlled by Israel, which has closed it
to international traffic.  This has led to a
humanitarian crisis, as documented by the United
Nations.  Under international law, Gaza is still under
illegal Israeli occupation.

The crude rockets used by Palestinians, which,
thankfully, almost never harm Israeli civilians, are
not used because “the Palestinians prefer victimhood
to statehood.”  Krauthammer’s explanations are
insidious lies designed to confuse people.  

Contrary to his claim that the Palestinians rejected
the 1947 U.N. Partition “because it would have created
a small Jewish state next door,” the Jewish partition
was larger (55% to 45%).  After the war of 1948, of
course, it became 78% to 22%.  Even David Ben-Gurion
stated that he would have rejected the Partition Plan
if he were a Palestinian.  From a Palestinian point of
view, no one had the right to take any part of their
homeland, let alone most of it, and gift it to an
immigrant people for their exclusive use, be they
Jews, German Templars, or Martians.

Krauthammer is wrong in claiming that Palestinians
“declared war instead.”  Palestinians were too busy
fleeing from the Palmach and the Haganah, who were
overrunning their villages and farms, expelling them
from their homes, creating arabrein regions for Jews
only, and creating 750,000 Palestinian refugees who
have never been allowed to return home.  Israeli
historian Benny Morris, who now complains that
Ben-Gurion did not order the expulsion of all of them,
has shown that most of the Palestinians were expelled
before the war began in 1948.  Hundreds of thousands
fled into Gaza, where their livelihood has been
systematically destroyed by Israel.

Krauthammer repeats the myth of Barak’s “Generous
Offer” at Camp David and claims that Arafat rejected
it and then started "a terror war, a.k.a. the second
intifada, which killed thousands of Jews.”  This
argument speaks volumes about Krauthammer minimal
knowledge and insular sensibilities.

First, it shows his ignorance of basic facts.  Camp
David was bound to fail for many reasons, which are
detailed by Agha and Malley in their optimistic New
York Review of Books article of August 9, 2001.  As
they predicted, negotiations went further months
later.  It was Barak who walked away from the talks at
Taba when it appeared that Arafat was interested in
signing an agreement.

Secondly, it shows that Krauthammer is only interested
in Jews.  Palestinian deaths are of no consequence to
him.  According to the Israeli human rights group,
B'Tselem, between September 29, 2000 and June 6, 2006,
696 Israeli civilians have been killed by Palestinians
while 3221 Palestinians, who were not the target of
Israeli assassinations, were killed by Israeli
security forces.  One death on either side is one too
many.  But let us recognize that the ratio is almost 5
Palestinians killed for each Israeli civilian killed. 


Finally, it shows that Krauthammer knows nothing of
the Intifada.  As even Shin Bet (Israeli secret
police) leaders understand, the Intifada began as a
popular uprising not only against the Israeli
Occupation, but against Arafat and Fatah for their
complicity with the Oslo Accords, which had had
ruinous affects upon Palestinian society.  It was an
uprising against the entire Oslo paradigm.  In the 6
years of the Accords, during which they were to be
prepared for statehood, Palestinians saw half of their
remaining land confiscated by Israel for exclusive
Jewish use.  

Today, Palestinians are left with 11% of their
historic homeland.  It has been strategically carved
up so as to prevent the creation of a viable,
sovereign state.  This is not, as Krauthammer might
fantasize, because “Palestinians prefer victimhood to
statehood.”  It is because Palestinians really are the
victims and because Israeli leaders have always wanted
to prevent the creation of a Palestinian state.

No wonder the Palestinians did not accept partition in
1947.  Does Krauthammer think it would have made a
difference if they had?  Conquering all of the land
had been many Zionists' plan all along, and the
Palestinians knew it.  It was hardly a secret, and the
Palestinians could read.
 
It is important to study Charles Krauthammer in order
to understand how facts can be ignored, or simply made
up, in the service of ideology.  Krauthammer proves
that morality can be stood on its head so that victims
are turned into criminals.  He transforms my Jewish
heritage into a beast that sanctifies Jewish
supremacy, murder, and ethnic cleansing.  It was not
simply Huda Ghalia’s family that was attacked so
viciously on the Gaza beach.  It was my Torah. 

Joel R Finkel
finkel at sd-il.com



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