Robert Scheer: Treat Palestinians Like Jews
[Robert Scheer, a contributing editor to The Nation, is editor of Truthdig.com and author of The Pornography of Power: How Defense Hawks Hijacked 9/11 and Weakened America (Twelve) and Playing President (Akashic Books).]
...The first time I encountered that bewildering criticism of Jews who dare to be morally consistent—despite that being our historical obligation—was when I was an editor at Ramparts and nearly bankrupted the magazine in attempting to cover the Six-Day War, during which Israel grabbed control of Gaza and the West Bank. We had assigned the legendary journalist I.F. Stone to write about the war, thinking it a wise choice, given that he had accompanied the first boats of Jewish displaced persons from World War II traveling to found the state of Israel. Back then he celebrated that quest: “These Jews want the right to live as a people, to build as a people, to make their contribution to the world as a people. Are their national aspirations any less worthy of respect than those of any other oppressed people?”
But then he wrote after the Six-Day War that he felt compelled to deal also with the oppression of the Palestinians and their desire for a home. His report was balanced and fair, which of course was a problem to some of the Ramparts investors who strongly favored honest journalism on every subject except Israel.
I upset them further by traveling to Egypt and Israel at the end of the Six-Day War and visited newly occupied Gaza, where I questioned the assertion of top officials, including Moshe Dayan, that they would bring freedom to the Palestinians there that the previous Egyptian and Jordanian occupiers had denied. It never happened, because the intentions of occupiers to improve the lot of the conquered become moot if the occupiers insist on continuing their reign of power. How easy it is to forget that the Palestinians were not the ones who attacked Israel at the time of the Six-Day War. On the contrary, it was their previous overlords, Egypt and Jordan, with which Israel has long since had relatively good relations. An accommodation of occupiers made above the head of the occupied....
Read entire article at The Nation
...The first time I encountered that bewildering criticism of Jews who dare to be morally consistent—despite that being our historical obligation—was when I was an editor at Ramparts and nearly bankrupted the magazine in attempting to cover the Six-Day War, during which Israel grabbed control of Gaza and the West Bank. We had assigned the legendary journalist I.F. Stone to write about the war, thinking it a wise choice, given that he had accompanied the first boats of Jewish displaced persons from World War II traveling to found the state of Israel. Back then he celebrated that quest: “These Jews want the right to live as a people, to build as a people, to make their contribution to the world as a people. Are their national aspirations any less worthy of respect than those of any other oppressed people?”
But then he wrote after the Six-Day War that he felt compelled to deal also with the oppression of the Palestinians and their desire for a home. His report was balanced and fair, which of course was a problem to some of the Ramparts investors who strongly favored honest journalism on every subject except Israel.
I upset them further by traveling to Egypt and Israel at the end of the Six-Day War and visited newly occupied Gaza, where I questioned the assertion of top officials, including Moshe Dayan, that they would bring freedom to the Palestinians there that the previous Egyptian and Jordanian occupiers had denied. It never happened, because the intentions of occupiers to improve the lot of the conquered become moot if the occupiers insist on continuing their reign of power. How easy it is to forget that the Palestinians were not the ones who attacked Israel at the time of the Six-Day War. On the contrary, it was their previous overlords, Egypt and Jordan, with which Israel has long since had relatively good relations. An accommodation of occupiers made above the head of the occupied....