I need to say more about the fact that the New York Times Op-Ed page yesterday ran Robert Bernstein’s attack on Human Rights Watch, the org he once chaired, and his attempted nullification of the Goldstone report too, saying that you can’t trust witnesses to atrocities to report them honestly.
Do you remember the Haditha massacre in Iraq? In 2005, 24 Iraqi civilians were killed in Haditha by American soldiers. Several American soldiers were charged. The episode was investigated by the U.S. military. I guess many of the charges have been dropped, too, and there are allegations of coverup.
But imagine for one second that the Times Op-Ed page ran a piece justifying the killings. A piece about the killings being a just response to roadside bombings.
It would never happen. It just would never happen. But in Gaza there were many many massacres, and the Times runs a piece defending them.
And this is my central point about the U.S. and Israel: We American liberals hold ourselves to a higher standard in countless ways when you compare our conduct to Israels, and then we throw our own experience out the window! We–and I mean the NYT and its community–got rid of Jim Crow here; we support it there. We work for gay marriage here; we support a country that won’t let Palestinians and Israelis marry one another. We helped build a government in Iraq composed in part of former "terrorists" and funders of suicide terrorism because we recognized that suicide terrorism was an element of a sectarian dispute over territory and power. And we have condemned attacks on civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan/Pakistan too.
And then we set aside all these lessons when it comes to Israel/Palestine.
Imagine for one moment that the U.S. in attacks on Pakistani "targets" killed 300 children. Would the Times be running Op-Eds supporting that? Never. This is the strength of the Israel lobby in American culture.
P.S. The Times still tells most Jews how to think. Yesterday a family member of mine said to me on the phone, Did you see the Times Op-Ed page today? As if what I saw in Gaza meant nothing, and this man’s claims hold water because they’re in the Times.
