|
I
got in trouble this week. Some American
Jewish leaders became upset with me
because I have been widely quoted
referring to their pro-Israel advertising
campaign as "racist."
Their campaign, the first time that major
Jewish organizations have used national
television advertising to promote
Israel
,
was prompted by polling data, which shows
that
Israel
's
image in the
U.
S.
has been hurt by the behavior of the
Sharon
government and the continued violence in
the
West
Bank
and
Gaza
.
In an effort to rebuild that image, the
groups, again relying on polling data have
designed ads that project a message
claiming that the
U.
S.
and
Israel
"share common values.”
My complaint? First and foremost it is, of
course, troubling that Israeli supporters
would list “democracy, freedom, peace
and security" as values exclusively
promoted in the
Middle
East
by
Israel
,
specifically when it is
Israel
's
occupation of Palestinian land that denies
these very values to the Palestinian
people.
It is also troubling because this is, in
fact, an old theme, which has long been
used to describe the Arab-Israeli
conflict. Though subtle, it is racist,
because, at its core, the message it
projects to Americans is that, “We are
like you, they (the Arabs) are not."
It was first used in the 1930's, during
the 1936-1939 Great Revolt. At that time,
one of the early leaders of the Zionist
movement sent a message to
America
in which he described the conflict in
Palestine
as “an age old” conflict. "On the
one side," he said, "are the
forces of civilization, on the other are
the forces of the desert." The theme
was later crystallized in the popular
film, "The Exodus" which
caricatured the Arab-Israeli conflict as a
Middle Eastern version of cowboys versus
Indians.
The very idea that Arabs do not share the
same values as Americans or any other
people, for that matter, is demeaning and
hurtful and, yes, even racist.
My first concern with this advertising
campaign is that it obfuscates and in no
way contributes to a resolution of a real
problem that must be solved. After
spending huge amounts of money on image
building, Israel's favorable ratings may
improve and some Americans may forget, for
a time, that government's brutal behavior
in the occupied lands. But, at the end of
the day, the occupation will still be in
place. And so will the resistance to that
occupation and so too will the repression.
The pro-Israel campaign appears,
therefore, it is to be a statement of
acceptance of this situation and a desire
to maintain Israel's image in the context
of a permanent occupation and a continuing
conflict.
The distortion in people's understanding
that results from such efforts only
prolongs and, to some degree, even
intensifies the conflict.
For example, during the last month, scores
of Palestinians have been killed and
hundreds were wounded by a combination of
actions by the Israeli military and
terrorist settler violence.
Most of these casualties were innocents.
For the most part the U.S. media virtually
ignored them. A Palestinian terrorist
attack last week, however, killed five
Israeli innocents, and U.S. television
responded with special news coverage on
the "Crisis in the Middle East."
To make matters worse the Israelis renewed
assault on Arafat's already near
demolished Ramallah compound was greeted
by official silence in Washington.
All of this combined, can only foster
deeper anger and bitterness on the
Palestinian side, while emboldening the
Israelis to continue.
I
have long argued that in addition the
asymmetry of power that characterizes the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict, there are
two other asymmetries that exacerbate the
conflict: asymmetries of compassion and
pressure. The U.S. gives compassion to the
Israelis and gives pressure to the
Palestinians.
Projecting the inherently biased notion
that only Israel and the U.S. "share
common values" only reinforces the
asymmetries creating a mindset that says,
"Israelis are people like us,
Palestinians are not."
So, of course, I am furious at the ad
campaign. Instead of finding a way to get
both Israelis and Palestinians out of the
mud, the ads try to cover over the mud and
in the end, serve no purpose but to keep
the conflict going.
This discussion would not be complete
without a consideration of what should now
be done. After a century of conflict and
50 years of dispossession, Arabs have
failed to grasp the importance of telling
their story in the West in universal
language that can be understood. It is not
too
late and it is, in fact, more
important now than ever. But to succeed,
to be relevant, and to make a
contribution, an Arab effort should not
mimic the Israeli campaign.
The Palestinian story needs to be told. A
human face needs to be put on the
long-suffering Palestinian people, but not
in a way that seeks to dehumanize the
other side to this conflict. Rather, an
effort must be made to project the reality
of the tragedy and that is to tell the
story of a conflict that has cost too many
lives, shattered too many dreams and
hopes, and denied shared values sought by
both peoples.
A way must be found
out of the mud into which we are all in
danger of sinking even further.
|
