Anthony Lewis Drips Poison

Winston Mideast Analysis & Commentary

Anthony Lewis Drips Poison

Emanuel A. Winston, a Middle East analyst & commentator
June 10, 2001

In a recent column in the NEW YORK TIMES (1) Anthony Lewis expresses a brief moment of horror at the fate of two Jewish boys in Israel who were bludgeoned to death by Arabs. For purposes of discussion, I will pretend that Lewis is not the anti-Semite and bigot he has proven himself to be through hundreds of his columns targeted at the Jewish State. Perhaps he is merely dupe or stooge for U.S. State Department mis/disinformation.

Lewis' opening gambit is that he is personally shocked that two innocent Jewish boys were deliberately and brutally murdered by some unidentified person/persons. He does not use the word 'Arab' or 'Palestinian' as the killers. Having established his personal high level of concern for Jewish humanity, he quickly plunges into to the rationale of why the killings took place.

His defense and apologia for the killers were that they were pushed into this horrific act by the "settlements". Not the mere presence of Jews - but the "settlements". This word "settlements" or "settlers" shall be the Lewis cutting edge - explaining murder, rage and, in passing, hate for the Jews which, of course, has been symptomatic of the usual Lewis diatribe.

Because Lewis is an educated man, presumably a practiced researcher on subjects he writes about, Mr. Lewis must, of course, know the following:

I suppose I could start with Mohammed's attack against the Jewish tribes in Medina in the 7th Century for NOT accepting the modified Moon G-d, he called Allah - which set the stage for today's hostilities. But let us be contemporary. Mr. Lewis knows:

That after the Romans exiles the Jews in 70 C.E. the Jews longed for their return to Eretz Yisrael. That for 2000 years Jews prayed 3 times a day to return to Jerusalem - which was mentioned 667 times in the Torah but not once in the Muslim Koran.

That by 1849, Jews were the majority in Jerusalem.

That Arabs have been killing Jews long before the State of Israel was established. We all remember the riots of 1929 and 1936, starting in Jerusalem, spreading to other cities and Hebron where Jews were massacred on the word of Amin al Husseini, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem (the uncle of Faisel al Husseini who died this week and was proclaimed a moderate - dove for peace - but whose public comments echoed his uncle and father).

Yes, the Jews were called Palestinians before 1948. You knew that, didn't you?

Before 1947, Jews lived in Palestine, purchased arid or swamp land at very high prices from absentee Arab landowners. Jews through their sweat, grew crops, drained swamps, fought malaria. They toiled to make the soil fertile and made the desert bloom. The land grew green and thus, due to the contrast with what the Arabs controlled, became known as the "Green Line".

Local Arabs from Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, etc. had migrated in for jobs and good medical care as transient labor (2) and also doubled as thieves and murderers during the night. Jews had to ride on nightly horse patrol to protect the animals, crops and their families. Then, as now, the Arabs were jealous over what the Jews had labored to create and the Arabs wanted it - All!

After World War 1, the League of Nations partitioned all the land the Turks had held for 400 years, with borders drawn for the new countries of Syria, Egypt, Lebanon, Iraq - they also partitioned land for the Jews and Arabs in Mandatory Palestine. They corroborated the British Balfour Declaration for the "Jews to "settle" the land closely and create a Jewish homeland". This was ratified by the League of Nations and the American Congress.

Then the British cut off 75% of Palestine they had promised to the Jews and gave it to the Saudi Prince Abdullah to rule which created Trans-Jordan - for Arabs only.

Now, Mr. Lewis, you did know:

That in 1947 the Jews accepted a tiny, irregular scrap of land as partitioned by the United Nations but the Arabs (themselves beneficiaries of partition of the Ottoman Empire) rejected any amount of land for the Jews. Seven of the Arab countries then attacked using weapons supplied by the West in 1947-48. Everyone thought the Arabs would easily win and solve the "Jewish Question". It must have been a miracle that the Jews beat back 7 well-armed Arab forces.

That the West (Europe and America) had, after all, embargoed sales of weapons to the Jews immediately after the U.N. vote, in deference to the Arabs' sensibilities and plans. The Arabs attacked again and again. Each time the Jews won...six times. The shame to the macho Arabs was overwhelming. Each time they gambled away land in war which they then demanded back - supported by their oil clients.

That the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization) was created by Arafat in 1964 (with the support of Egypt) before the settlements were created. But, despite presumably knowing that history, Anthony Lewis champions the Mitchell Report which highlights Arafat's complaint that Jewish "settlements" are the root cause of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Yes, Jews established settlements to live in their historic heartland where most of Jewish Bible history is documented as well as a front line barrier to the incessant wars and raids of terror. You, Mr. Lewis, say that the "settlements" are an obstacle to peace. Do you conclude that out of ignorance or are you merely venting the party line of the State Department and their media stooges in the leading flagship journals - like your NEW YORK TIMES?

Yes, the Muslim clerics who believe Islam must eventually rule the world are blasting from the Mosques for their peaceful Arabs to kill Jews. The shriek of "Allah Akbar" (G-d is great) and "Itbach al Yehud" (Kill the Jews) is still foaming at their lips. Do you approve? This primitive Muslim macho-driven culture wants the Jews driven out or dead - or so they say. The "settlements" are just today's political war-cry carried forward by self-styled intellectual anti-Semites and bigots of which some in the Media seem to be card-carrying members.

Yes, as you say, the "settlements" are provocative to those Arabs who are now called Palestinians - merely because Jews are in them.

Yes, the Palestinians are expecting the homes, farms and factories built by the Jews to be turned over to them.

Yet, you claim the "settlements" are points of friction but then, so is Tel Aviv (as we saw Friday night June 2nd when a 22 year old Hamas suicide bomber blew up teenagers, killing 20, maiming more than a hundred). The Arabs in Ramallah danced and sang with joy over the killings!

Yes, the Arabs resent the Jews but they do want the hard cash so they come over "The Green Line" as workers often mixed with killers and suicide bombers.

You began your column with crocodile tears for the two Jewish boys bludgeoned to death by Arabs. Why? The Media excuses Arafat's Palestinians (whatever faction they belong to) because they were 'frustrated' and 'angry'. Well, I guess that excuses murders. You end your column by saying: "It would be a true blessing for Israel [to freeze the settlements]. The "settlement" policy is not just a political but a moral danger to the character of the State."

Mr. Lewis, how generous and caring of you to worry about the "Jewish" character of the State if only the Jews would evacuate most of her heartland. The word "Judenrein" or 'free of Jews' a phrase coined for the Third Reich, seems to fit your lips.

Mr. Lewis, your column emanates from the NEW YORK TIMES which also sports Tom Friedman, Deborah Sontag and her husband William Orme, Jr. who also follow a similar line. Please do not insult the intelligence of your readers by pretending concern for Jews and the "character of the Jewish State". There seems to be an incurable xenophobic hatred for the Jewish State from many of the people in your trade.

Without mincing words, you are without a doubt a troubled soul. I won't call you an anti-Semitic bigot because then you would only take issue with that epithet and you would avoid dealing with the facts.

The Jewish people have proven their value to civilization throughout the centuries. That other religions wish to claim first place in the Covenant with G-d and feel they must denigrate, demonize, and even kill off the Jews first - well, that is the core, root problem that causes the killing - not the "settlements".

Now, to get the Media workers, like you, Mr. Lewis. To do that job - well, inaccuracy and hostility towards Jews must be the conditions of getting and holding that job. Perhaps that's why you and Tom Friedman, CNN and the BBC, NPR and the rest do the bidding of the State Department's "style book".

After a while of following their incitements and enticements, like favored interviews and trips on Air Force One, you are theirs. You absorb the line. Now, they have world wide networks which, like PRAVDA or AL AHRAM and the NE W YORK TIMES which carries the message of the U.S. State Department. The State Department runs America's foreign policy, completely subverting the President (no matter who he is) and the American Congress.

Of course, you followed up your May 12th article "Danger to Israel: the Menace of the Settlements" with June 2, "The Price of Occupation: How 'the dynamic of occupation' corrupts Israel". (3)

You use a leftist Professor Saul Friedlander whom you call "Cassandra". He tells you his prophecy wherein the Jews should give the land away that the Arabs lost gambling by war. Friedlander said if the Jews held this land, it would destroy idealistic Zionism. That's a bizarre concept!

You inaccurately quote"International Law" wherein the Arabist U.N. mandates that Jews may not win wars. U.N. resolutions 242 and 338 never called for Israel to give away all the territories liberated in 1967. Are the Jews required to return what they gained in the wars foisted upon them by Arabs who would have kept everything if they had won. No nation in the world has ever done so.

Strangely, the Jews did return land to Egypt which brought Israel nothing but a snarl.

You say the Jews should not be indifferent to the suffering of another people. Are you talking about the Arabs who now pack Israel's hospitals for free treatment? Are you talking about the Arabs who travel on the roads the Jews built or drink the clean water the Jews pipe into their houses. Or are you talking about the Arabs who shoot and stone women and children in drive-by shootings on those roads? Are you talking about the Arabs polluting the clean water with their untreated sewage? Are you talking about the Arabs who teach their children to kill and hate Jews for as long as Israel exists?

You, Mr. Lewis, are a liar and a swindler of peoples' thoughts. You slyly shave the truth with a Big Lie, coated with a very thin veneer of truth. You say the PLO accepted the existence of the State of Israel but that was never ratified by the Arab Council who still follow their Palestinian Covenant calling for the destruction of the State of Israel.

That you are a distorter of information is not in question but, you are also a lousy researcher. Then again, you belong to a non-exclusive club of craven journalists who make their money by toadying to their editors and publishers along the line fed by a pro-Arab State Dept. The Jewish people are well aware of inspired propagandists who lead the public as did Herr Goebbels. We are too experienced in such matters to be mistaken, particularly when the writers are so consistent in their attack. Consider the end product of the Nuremberg Trials which mandated that you take responsibility for the casualties caused by the pieces you write. One day, Mr. Lewis, you may have to face your Nuremberg.

1. "Danger to Israel: the menace of the Settlements" by Anthony Lewis NEW YORK TIMES May 12, 2001

2. "From Time Immemorial: The Origins of the Arab-Jewish Conflict Over Palestine" by Joan Peters Harper & Rowe, NY 1984

3. "The Price of Occupation: How 'the dynamic of occupation' corrupts Israel" by Anthony Lewis NEW YORK TIMES June 2, 2001

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