|
CounterPunch
February
22, 2003
The Zev and Ari Show
Time for Full
Disclosure
by WILLIAM HUGHES
Professor Edward Said, a champion of the Palestinian
cause, was roundly condemned by Zev Chafets, a columnist for
the NY Daily News (02/19/03). Thank goodness, Said isn't living
in the West Bank or Gaza. If he were in occupied Palestine, Ariel
Sharon's goon squad would have probably bulldozed his home into
a pile of rumble (and his relatives' homes, too, just for good
measure).
What got Chafets riled up was Said's
brilliant commentary, entitled, "A
Monument to Hypocrisy". It is a marvelous essay that
deals with the pro-Israeli influence over the Bush-Cheney administration.
It tells how wrongdoings similar to those of Saddam Hussein have
actually been the "stock in trade of every Israeli government
since 1948. Ironically, since Chafets complained about the article
so boorishly, more folks will now want to read it for themselves.
Said also wrote, "President Bush
and his advisers are slaves of power perfectly embodied in the
repetitive monotone of their collective spokesman Ari Fleischer
(who I believe is also an Israeli citizen)". Well, Chafets
thought that last line belonged in the conspiracy camp of the
"Neo-Nazi and White Aryan Resistance" movements.
For him, it was bad enough that Said had raised questions about
"the Perles and Wolfowitzs" of this country, leading
America into a war. But, by suggesting Fleischer was "a
citizen of Sharonland," was just too much for him.
The record, however, shows the Washington
Post (02/09/02) covered a lot of the same ground Said did, in
an article by Robert G. Kaiser, entitled, "Bush Moves U.S.
Closer to Sharon on Mideast Policy". It revealed how Israeli
Firsters in the government, (the author labeled them "Likudniks",
"hard-liners", and "hawks"), like Richard
Perle, Elliott Abrams, David Wurmser and Dough J. Feith, have
urged the abandonment of the Oslo Accords and for the U.S. to
focus on removing Saddam Hussein from power. For some reason,
President Bush's Dr. Strangelove, Paul Wolfowitz, Deputy Secretary
of Defense, wasn't mentioned in that piece. Kaiser also said
that Mideast experts regularly refer to this pro-Israel clique,
"as a cabal. "
So, why the touchy reaction to Said's
commentary from Chafets?
Well, Chafets was born in Michigan, but
lived for 33 years in his beloved fatherland, Zionist Israel.
He served in the Israeli military and was also the chief Press
Officer for the late Israeli Prime Minister, the old terrorist
himself, Menachem Begin. Did Said strike a raw nerve with his
Hypocrisy article with Chafets? I'd say so!
Chafets is a classic dual citizen of
the U.S. and Israel. He's also, more importantly, a Zionist.
Since Chafets is a journalist, I think that required disclosure
to his readers on his off-the-wall Said rant. Chafets insisted,
wrongly I think, that Said should have cited an authority for
his belief that Fleischer might have been "an Israel citizen."
Within the context of that essay, it was only a throw-a-way,
speculative line. And anyway, did Chafets cite any authority
for his theological-sounding proposition that a pundit must ask
to be forgiven for not using a footnote?
As for Fleischer, it doesn't bother me
if he is a citizen of Israel. He could have been born on Mars
for all I care. Here's what I want to know: Is Fleischer a Zionist?
This is the crux of the matter.
The American people are entitled to also
know for the sake of our Republic, if Perle, Wolfowitz, Wurmser,
Feith and Abrams are Zionists. They all hold sensitive positions
in the federal government that require national security clearance.
If they are Zionists, then, the next question is: Do they have
a conflict of interest or even an appearance of a conflict of
interest in carrying out the responsibilities of their office?
Answers to these questions are imperative.
Zionism is a political, alien-based ideology,
global in scope, racially restricted, and with its spiritual
headquarters in Tel Aviv, and not Washington, D.C. Zionists aspire
to a land-grabbing Greater Israel.
On Aug. 23, 2002, I demanded that Sen.
Joseph I. Lieberman (D-CT), come clean with U.S. Senate about
all his Zionist connections. For all the reasons that I gave
in that article, and in this one too, Fleischer, and the cited
Likudniks should come clean with the American people. Full disclosure
of any and all Zionist links by them are long overdue.
As for Chafets, thanks for blowing your
top, pal! Now, see what you've done? You're forcing your fellow
Zionists out into the light of day, where the lovers of our Republic,
like the Sons of Liberty of old, can confront them about their
warmongering agendas.
Yesterday's
Features
Jeffrey St. Clair
In
a Land Where Justice is a Game: Killing Amos King
Anne Gwynne
Raid
on Nablus: a Hero in the Midst of Horror
Nelson P. Valdés
Why Americans Can't Travel to Cuba
Jason Leopold
Martin Peretz to Bush: Bomb Iraq
Alan Maass
"A Revolutionary Spirit in a Hostile World":
The Real Martin Luther King, Jr
Jack McCarthy
Hitchens and Booze
Sonia Ebron
Why
Black Americans Should Oppose Bush's War
Russell Mokiber and Robert
Weissman
12
Reasons to Oppose Bush's War on Iraq
Abu Spinoza
Chomsky's Power and Terror
Website of the Day
Bush
AWOL
Keep CounterPunch Alive:
Make
a Tax-Deductible Donation Today Online!
home / subscribe
/ about us / books
/ archives / search
/ links /
CounterPunch Available Exclusively
to Subscribers:
- CounterPunch Special:
The Persecution of Gershon Legman by Susan Davis: Smut, the Post Office, Commies
and the FBI;
- Reeling Democrats: Is Pelosi the Answer?
- Gandhi v. Hitler: the Secret Race for the Nobel
Prize;
- Sullying Mario Savio's
Memory;
- Lynching Then and Now;
- Earn While You Learn: Chris Whittle and Child Labor;
The Case of the Pompous
Professor;
- The Class Struggle in
Boston: All that
Effort, But What Did They Get?
Remember, the CounterPunch website is
supported exclusively by subscribers to our newsletter. Our worldwide
web audience is soaring , with about seven million hits a month
now. This is inspiring, but the work involved also compels us
to remind you more urgently than ever to subscribe and/or make
a (tax deductible) donation if you can afford it. If you find our site useful please: Subscribe
Now!
Or Call Toll Free 1 800 840 3683
home / subscribe
/ about us
/ books
/ archives
/ search
/ links
/
|
February 15
/ 16, 2003
Alexander
Cockburn
Colin
Powell and the Great "Intelligence Fraud"
Rep. Dennis
Kucinich
The Whole World is Watching
Edward Said
A Monumental Hypocrisy
Wouter Hijink
Report from Amsterdam
"War: Do Not Feed!"
Linda Heard
At Last! Proud to be British
Lawrence Ferlinghetti
Taking a Stand on Iraq
Robert Fisk
The Case Against War
Lev Grinberg
Lessons from Israel
A War Without Legitimacy
Chris Floyd
Cold Fronts:
Bush War Profits
Ahmad Faruqui
Stepping Back from the Brink of War
Norman Madarasz
French Kisses from the Citizens of France
Adam Lebowitz
Scott Ritter in Tokyo
Kurt Nimmo
Bring Us the Head of Osama bin Laden
Forrest Hylton
The Revolt in Bolivia
Col. Dan Smith
Irrelevance and Credibility:
Bush, NATO and the UN
Wayne Madsen
The Lies of Tom Lantos
Ranjit Hoskote
The Invisible Modernities of the Islamic World
Emily Zitter-Smith
Who's Safe Now?
An American in Cairo
Rich Procter
Anybody Remember the Powell Doctrine?
Poets Basement:
Eliot
Katz, Scott Handleman, and Bruce Tomczak
Website of the Weekend
Anti-War
Posters
Read
Whiteout and Find Out
How the CIA's Backing of the Mujahideen Created the World's Most
Robust Heroin Market and Helped to Finance the Rise of the Taliban
and Osama bin Laden
Whiteout:
CIA, Drugs & the
Press
by Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
|