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April 09, 2007
Robert Novak opens mouth, swallows propaganda
In his recent column in the Washington Post, Robert Novak's credulity toward his Palestinian tour guides, rehearsal of discredited tropes and total lack of curiousity about the other side of the story is a painful example of the cliche that "lies run around the world before truth gets out of bed and puts on its shoes." Let us count the ways.
Hani Hayek, an accountant who is the Christian mayor of the tiny majority-Christian Palestinian village of Beit Sahour, was angry last week as he drove me along the Israeli security wall. "They are taking our communal lands," he said, pointing to the massive Israeli settlement of Har Homa.This debunking of Peace Now statistics doesn't mention Har Homa specifically, but Novak might read it and be a bit skeptical of Palestinian claims about ownership of land.
But life is hard for Palestinians, whose deaths because of conflict increased 272 percent in 2006 while Israeli casualties declined.Innuendo designed to give the impression that most of those deaths, if not all, are caused by Israelis, not other Palestinians. It also implies that those deaths are of innocents, not terrorists or their accomplices. It ignores "work accidents" and honor killings. It ignores all the Palestinians treated by Israeli doctors. It is a cowardly passive-voice statement, letting Novak off the hook from making any specific claims he would have to defend.
In a minor incident last week of the type that goes unnoticed internationally, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) troopers killed a Palestinian man...What alternate-universe is Novak living in if he thinks these"minor incidents" don't get noticed? Any violence which can possibly laid at Israel's doorstep is not only noticed but made a cause celebre, whether or not it is true, or what the cause was. What really goes unnoticed are all the Palestinians killed by each other (for example, children gunned down during firefights between Hamas and some other gang).
The Britain-based organization Save the Children estimates that half the children in the occupied territories are psychologically traumatized.More passive voice implying they are traumatized by Israelis. What about the Palestinian TV which encourages them to be martyrs and shows them made-up bloody scenes of destruction? What about terrorist gangs waging civil war all around them and using them as human shields?
Palestinians argue that things have gotten worse because of pervasive feelings of hopelessness.If they are hopeless it is because they are encouraged by their leaders to believe in committing suicide rather than bettering their lives. Or because their people continue to be ruled by thugs who steal from them and brutalize them. But part of their cultural pathology is that they cannot admit this, for their Arab "brothers," the UN, the EU, and the cultural elite of most of the world encourage them to blame it on Israel. In other words, the tragedy of the Palestinians is that they are used as tools by those who claim to be their advocates. Which would make anyone hopeless and confused. (And Mr Novak, that is a much more interesting story, as well as a true one.)
The U.S.-backed boycott following the election victory of the extremist group Hamas in early 2006 has made the Palestinian Authority destitute, crippling government services.Oh bullshit. Why do they need Israel or the US for jobs? What happened to the billions of dollars poured into the Palestinian "economy" by the EU and the UN and the Arab bloc? Is it Israel's fault all that money went for weapons and Arafat's Swiss bank accounts? Palestinian expats are well-educated and entrepreneurial - if there wasn't so much graft and violence, they could create jobs. But even if none of them ever lifted a finger to work, if all the money poured into that place had been distributed among the population each Palestinian would have a McMansion with a swimming pool and a Porsche.
Israel left them greehouses and buildings when they left Gaza, the Pals burned them down. That's how they feel about doing something with their lives. You going to blame that on Israel too?
Bethlehem's mayor, Victor Batarseh, has a special problem because tourists and pilgrims no longer stay overnight in the city of Christ's birth. Out of money and credit, he is ready to lay off the city's 165 staffers.
Gee, could terrorism and intimidation by increasingly radical Islamists in the territories have anything to do with it?
...the separation barrier in most places is a big, ugly and intimidating wall, not merely a fence.
It is a wall - not in "most places," but in a very few - where snipers were firing into Israeli bedrooms from the top of hills. Where there is no danger of that, it is a fence. But Novak's shoddy hatchet job fails to mention this as well.
Concerned by the disappearance of Christians in the land of Christianity's birthplace, Smith could also become (as I did) concerned by the plight of all Palestinians.
Nowhere in this column does Novak mention the increasing intimidation and violence against Christians by radicalized Muslims. Again, innuendo. As with all of these seemingly factual statements, he doesn't say who or what is responsible, but you are supposed to get the idea. And the commenters in the Wapo forum sure do.
Novak should hang up his journalism hat and become a full-time propagandist for Hamas.
Judith | 04/09/07 at 10:19 PM | Categories: - Gaza and Palestine
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Comments
if these pieces weren't so effective in shaping opinion -- and therefore leading to catastrophic policy decisions -- they'd be a joke. a bad joke to be sure. but now they're a deadly bad joke, and the list of folks for whom they're deadly only begin with israelis and palestinians who would like to live civic lives (presumably what Novak also approves of)... the free press, whose very principles Novak betrays with his cheap malevolence, is high on the list.
good fisking.
ralph the bald | April 10, 2007 12:58 AM
Novak has been a gutter anti-Semite for as long as I can remember. He is one of the reasons why lots of Jews just could not vote Republican.
Robert Schwartz | April 10, 2007 01:42 AM
Thanks, Ralph! Many of my links were scavenged from Augean Stables. Speaking of "shaping opinion," I decided to fisk this one because it appeared on Memeorandum with 5 blogpost already linked to it and all were taking him seriously.
Several of them were basically pro-Israel blogs which took Novak at face value and said things like "everyone knows how pro-Israel I am but they do bad things too..." Yes, Israel does bad things too, but not the bad things Novak was implying, not to mention that he totally avoiding holding the Pals responsible for anything.
So now this post is also on Memorandum linked to that story and I hope it will counter the bullshit somewhat.
Judith | April 10, 2007 01:46 AM
Novak is a good reminder that self-hating Jews can be found across the political spectrum. Like Simone Weil before him, he sees Jewish particularity as lacking compared with the mystical universalism of the Church.
Of course, his blindness for recognizing the particularism of Hamas is telling.
Eric | April 10, 2007 11:22 AM
The situation in the Middle East would tax Solomon's wisdom !!
Paul | April 10, 2007 12:50 PM
Eric, i don't think it would tax solomon's wisdom. he'd see in a minute who was the sincere and who the insincere players, just as he saw through the two mothers. it's actually something of a no brainer -- so much so that we have to twist ourselves into knots to "see both sides." one side is ready to play positive sum games (literally dying to), while the other side is dying to play zero-sum... and when they lose, negative sum.
ralph the bald | April 11, 2007 02:10 AM
I find the idea that Novak was "duped" by Palestinian spin to be highly unlikely. He knew exactly what he was doing in pushing standard anti-Israel propaganda. The only thing different this time was that Novak was "reporting" his hatred of Israel rather than simply asserting it. Fortunately for us, the "douchebag of liberty" is an ex-Jew, while the person who coined the phrase is a proud MOT.
mhpine | April 11, 2007 03:29 PM
No one here is claiming that Novak was duped. I know he knew exactly what he was writing, although he is being credulous by definition. But as I explained before, this post is for the average Memeorandum reader who might not know enough to "see around the corners" of Novak's assertions. Especially the passive-voice ones, which are particularly manipulative.
Who coined the phrase "douchebag of liberty"?
Judith Weiss | April 11, 2007 04:00 PM
If the average Memeorandum reader is that uninformed, I wish you the best of luck in combatting such staggering ignorance.
Novak received his well-deserved moniker from Jon Stewart.
mhpine | April 11, 2007 05:54 PM
Good for Jon Stewart.
i don't know what the average Memeorandum reader thought, I was appalled by the "proIsrael" "conservative" bloggers who took Novak at face value.
Judith | April 11, 2007 08:02 PM
I was appalled by the "proIsrael" "conservative" bloggers who took Novak at face value.
Some people are too lazy to do any sort of fact checking.
Jack | April 12, 2007 12:40 AM
I think it's silly to ask whether Novak "knew what he was doing" or some such. I think Novak lost his perspective and reflective consciousness, if not his mind, some time ago. I do not say this for general ideological reasons; I do not generally consider paleo-conservatives or other such groups to be so afflicted. But Novak is either getting senile or losing perspective due to too much time as a live pundit. And sometimes I think he is disingenuously outrageous, as when he expressed support for legal cockfighting, bullfighting, and even dogfighting:
http://archives.cnn.com/2002/ALLPOLITICS/11/26/cf.opinion.cockfighting/
DWPittelli | April 13, 2007 10:18 PM
Hamas using Palestinian children as human shields: gosh. I wonder where they might have picked up that idea.
