What Rashid Khalidi Doesn’t Want You to Know

In his opinion piece titled “What You Don’t Know About Gaza” published on January 8, 2009 in the New York Times and in the International Herald Tribune, Rashid Khalidi makes many accusations against Israel that, in fact, are either completely misleading or patently false. In the most egregious case, Mr. Khalidi twists a statement made in 2002 by then Israel’s Defense Forces Chief of Staff, Moshe Ya’alon, into something that is a complete fabrication. Since the original publication of the opinion piece, the New York Times editors and the International Herald Tribune editors have redacted the original article to remove the contrived quote. However, searching on the Internet does not make it hard to find a copy of the original text of the final paragraph:

This war on the people of Gaza isn’t really about rockets. Nor is it about “restoring Israel’s deterrence,” as the Israeli press might have you believe. Far more revealing are the words of Moshe Yaalon, then the Israeli Defense Forces chief of staff, in 2002: “The Palestinians must be made to understand in the deepest recesses of their consciousness that they are a defeated people.” (emphasis added)

(Khalidi, Rashid, “What you don’t know about Gaza“, The New York Times, January 8, 2009, found at Nasir Khan’s Blog)

The quote above attributed to Moshe Yaalon is either a complete fabrication or a significant twist of some other quote which Mr. Khalidi fails to provide a source. And this is not the first time that he has chosen to use this quote without verifying either its source or its veracity. In another opinion piece titled “Road Map or Road Kill” that was published in The Nation, Mr. Khalidi used the same quote and attributed it to Mr. Ya’alon there as well:

Beyond the daily brutality of a foreign army policing and denying the rights of a civilian population while their land is being stolen for the benefit of settlers, force has been used indiscriminately in heavily populated areas to crush Palestinian resistance, as per the words of Lieut. Gen. Moshe Ya’alon, the Israeli army chief of staff: “The Palestinians must be made to understand in the deepest recesses of their consciousness that they are a defeated people.” (emphasis added)

(Khalidi, Rashid, “Road Map or Road Kill?“, The Nation, May 23, 2003)

He also uses the quote in his 2005 book “Resurrecting Empire.” Both the editors of the New York Times and The International Herald Tribune released a statement on January 30th stating

This quotation, while cited widely, does not appear in the Israeli newspaper interview to which it is usually attributed. Its original source has not been found, and thus it should not have appeared in the article.

(Khalidi, Rashid, “What you don’t know about Gaza“, The New York Times, January 8, 2009)

Unfortunately, the editors of The Nation have failed to do so as well. This quotation, while cited widely, does not appear in the Israeli newspaper interview to which it is usually attributed. Its original source has not been found, and thus it should not have appeared in the article. The article has been revised to reflect this correction.

(Khalidi, Rashid, “What you don’t know about Gaza“, The International Heard Tribune, January 8, 2009)

This contrived quote, which has been circling around the Internet for quite some time, may have originated in the 2002 Ha’aretz interview with Moshe Ya’alon where he as asked the question by the interviewer “Do you have a definition of victory? Is it clear to you what Israel’s goal in this war is?” Ya’alon responded:

I defined it from the beginning of the confrontation: the very deep internalization by the Palestinians that terrorism and violence will not defeat us, will not make us fold. If that deep internalization does not exist at the end of the confrontation, we will have a strategic problem with an existential threat to Israel. If that [lesson] is not burned into the Palestinian and Arab consciousness, there will be no end to their demands of us.

…The facts that are being determined in this confrontation – in terms of what will be burned into the Palestinian consciousness – are fateful. If we end the confrontation in a way that makes it clear to every Palestinian that terrorism does not lead to agreements, that will improve our strategic position. On the other hand, if their feeling at the end of the confrontation is that they can defeat us by means of terrorism, our situation will become more and more difficult.

(Maoz, Jason, “What did Moshe Yaalon really say?”, The Jewish Press, January 14, 2009)

In the week following the interview in Ha’aretz, the transcript of a speech Ya’alon gave to a conference of rabbis in Jerusalem was published in Yediot Aharanot where Ya’alon is quoted as saying:

“It is imperative that we win this conflict in such a way that the Palestinian side will burn into its consciousness that there is no chance of achieving goals by means of terror.” (emphasis added)

(Maoz, Jason, “What did Moshe Yaalon really say?”, The Jewish Press, January 14, 2009)

These two quotes provide sufficient evidence to prove that Ya’alon comments were significantly altered and then posted out on the Internet where Arabs, neo-Nazis and other viceral critics of Israel could use it in their long campaign to paint Israel as a dangerous, rogue nation…something that it is clearly not. Mr. Khalidi however, has used this quote, to further the old PLO propaganda that Israel does not want to live in peace with the Palestinians on equal terms. In the late 70s and early 80s he was a spokesman for the PLO, then considered a terrorist organization, and it is becoming apparent that as a Columbia professor he has not changed his spots…although he would be expected to know how to verify a source and to cite appropriately.

When is a terrorist NOT a terrorist?

Apparently when the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the BBC (among others) decides that they’re not. It seems that the Western media has some serious problems with telling things accurately and objectively. In the terror attacks in Mumbai this past week which left hundreds dead these news organizations refused to call these murderers for what they really are — terrorists. Instead they choose to use a more generic term — militants and in doing so they tacitly gave moral equivalence to these attackers as legitimate military forces.

The difference, and this is very significant, is that military forces abide (hopefully) by the 4th Geneva Convention. Today, even true quasi-military organizations like the Congolese rebels are expected to abide by the Geneva Conventions. But terrorist organizations eschew such restrictions and deliberately target civilians in order to effect their primary aim — to instill terror among them. As such they are nothing but murderers and deserve no protection from the Geneva Convention. But to call them militants clouds the distinction between actual military organizations and these murderers. And it seems that the Western media such as the New York Times, The Washington Post, and the BBC (among others) consciously choose to do so in order to inject their subjective viewpoints. In doing so they give an air of legitimacy to these terrorists that their acts of barbarism and murder is justified.

But these news organizations are WRONG. There is absolutely NO justification for deliberately targeting civilians and murdering innocent men, women, AND children. But according to the New York Times, the Washington Post and the BBC there apparently is…and hence they call them militants instead of what they truly are — terrorists.

A Sad Day for Israel

Yesterday the bodies of Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev were returned to Israel in exchange for the remains of 199 Lebanese and Arab guerilla fighters and five others including Samir Qantar. Today, Ehud Goldwasser was buried and the pictures of the weeping widow and family breaks my heart. The Israeli government gave away too much. Now the enemies of Israel will feel that all they need to do is kidnap and kill Israeli soldiers to get what their prisoners released. Prime Minister Olmert has shown terrible judgement in this matter by releasing the murderer Qantar along with the others. Here is a man who murdered a 31-year old father in front of his four year old daughter before smashing her skull against a rock with the butt of his rifle. And now he is being paraded by Hezbollah as a “hero.” And if you doubt the connection between these terrorist murderes and the philosophy of Adolph Hitler…just look at the pictures here. He truly is Adolph Qantar. May his name and his memory be blotted out.