Why We Few Criticize Israel
By Joseph Sobran
WASHINGTON - People sometimes ask me why I'm so critical
of Israel, as if I should be devoting more of my
attention to Sri Lanka, or perhaps Zaire. But the
question is always a little nervous, as it wouldn't be if
I were writing equally often about Sri Lanka or Zaire.
I could understand this curiosity if some other small,
remote country were one of the world's four or five
military powers; if it received a quarter of our foreign
aid; if it were constantly on our front pages; and if its
sympathizers regularly occupied much of the op-ed space
of The New York Times and other major newspapers. But
there is only one country of whom these things are true,
and that is Israel.
Nobody thinks it's odd that there should be 20
columnists who are apologists for Israel; but apparently
it is unfathomable that there should be one or two who
are critical of Israel.
But there's another reason that is both personal and
professional. Israel has a very powerful lobby in this
country, with a highly accomplished propaganda corps. And
that lobby is not content with making the case for Israel
and putting fear into nearly all the politicians in
Washington, who are supposed to be representing the
interests of the United States. It also tries to shut up
opposition in the free press.
I have felt its pressure. So have Rowland Evans and
Robert Novak. So has Patrick Buchanan. And a great many
newspaper editors.
We still hear of the fear engendered by Joe McCarthy.
But people talked freely about that fear even 'at the
height of Sen. McCarthy's career. I believe that someday
historians will look back with more wonder about the
quieter and more paralyzing fear engendered in our own
era by domestic Zionist power. The press was never afraid
of Sen. McCarthy; it is very much afraid of Israel's U.S.
sympathizers.
One result is that the news we get from Israel is
heavily self censored and bowdlerized. The average
American thinks of Israel as a "democratic" country whose
domestic troubles are due to unruly Arabs. Not one
American Christian in a hundred realizes that if he lived
in Israel, he would be the victim of official
discrimination forced, like the Soviet Jew, to carry an
identification card effectively stigmatizing him.
If Israeli propaganda were true, there would be no need
to Quash or intimidate critics. The very act of trying to
silence opposition is a kind of confession in itself.
Ring Lardner said it well: "'Shut up,' he explained."
Is there no case to be made for Israel? Of course there
is. I have made it myself. I would make it again -- if
Israel had not become a threat to freedom of speech and
ethical debate in this country. But when you risk injury
to your career in the U.S. by defending the interests of
the U.S., something is seriously wrong. A proper parallel
is not with Joe McCarthy, who at least was trying to
uphold America's position, but with the publishing
industry in New York during the 1930s, when a book
critical of the Soviet Union stood scant chance of seeing
print.
Suppression is a good tactic, but a bad strategy. In
the long run, the truth has a way of seeping through. No
matter how many clever excuses you make for a Yitzhak
Shamir, it's not a terribly good idea to have Americans
identifying Israel with Yitzhak Shamir. Israel was much
better off when Americans identified Israel with Abba
Eban -- now in political exile for his moderation.
And it isn't wise, in the long run, to make Americans
afraid, in their own country, to speak their minds about
a foreign country. They will eventually resent the
colossal impudence of it. And the country on whose behalf
the suppression was enacted will bear the consequences.
Joseph Sobran is a nationally syndicated columnist who
now maintains a Website at http://www.sobran.com.
