I overheard an impassioned argument about Israel/Lebanon the other day. The person on the left argued that Israel’s assault was “no different” than the terror practiced by Osama bin Laden.
It’s odd — I was less than half a mile from ground zero on 9/11 and I don’t recall seeing any leaflets dropped from the sky, warning us of the coming attack. I was a bit late to the scene; maybe I missed it.
The mere fact of leafletting does not let Israel off the hook, not by any stretch. What I am arguing is that we have criteria by which to judge Israel’s actions as a sovereign state, and that there is no insight to be gained by comparing the current assault to 9/11. It’s just crude propaganda. The Human Rights Watch guidelines, for instance, contain language about the propriety of leafletting before an air raid. They do not contain language about the propriety of hijacking airplanes filled with passengers and slamming them into crowded buildings. In the course of two hours, the 9/11 attacks killed nearly 3,000 people in a highly concentrated area. Israel’s bombardment is far more diffuse and sustained, and yet the death toll is many times lower.
The Lebanese death toll is nonetheless a disgrace, and it is growing. We must also factor in the enormous numbers of displaced people, plus the horrifying economic (and ultimately political) damage to Lebanese society. I continue to view the Israeli campaign as appallingly arrogant and callous, not to mention grievously short-sighted. But to equate it with bin Ladenism is pure far-left sophistry.
Speaking of which, I was interested to learn that my fellow jazz critic Tom Hull is quite the anti-zionist agitator. One of the authors Hull recommends is Gabriel Ash, who once told me that he refused to condemn Palestinian suicide bombing on the grounds that “WE are the perpetrators,” and that “perpetrators have no standing to lecture their victims about the ethics of resistance.” But that’s nothing. Here is one of the most bizarre cyber-artifacts I’ve come across in a while: Ash’s open letter to Ayatollah Ali Khameini of Iran. In fairness, by the end of the letter Ash is critical of Iran’s clerical establishment. But he begins with this:
The White House is giving you grief lately. Let me assure you that you are not alone. The White House is giving grief to the great majority of the human race (and quite a few other species). Hang in there!
If Ash is this condescending toward a ruthless, dictatorial holy man, just imagine what he’s like at a party.
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