Sunday, February 18, 2007

Daniel Pipes, Armchair Warrior


M.J. Rosenberg
, director of the Israel Policy Forum's Washington office, distributes a weekly opinion column via e-mail called "IPF Friday." IPF is one of a handful of peace-oriented pro-Israel organizations active on Capitol Hill, and Rosenberg's pieces are thoughtful, insightful and worth reading.

His Feb. 16 entry, "Kangaroo Congressional Hearing," is noteworthy for its portrait of the difficulties the American Jewish peace camp faces in moving the U.S. foreign-policy apparatus -- Congress and the Executive branch -- to resume the role of honest broker between Israelis and Palestinians.

IPF's board was in Washington during the week of Feb. 12-16 to meet with Senators and House members, and Rosenberg notes that the sessions generally went well from IPF's perspective.

The downer, however occurred when Rosenberg learned that IPF's peace-camp views were not the only ones being circulated on the Hill that week. On the 14th -- Valentine Day, ironically -- the House Committee on Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Middle East held a hearing on "Next Steps in the Israeli-Palestinian Peace Process."

Only witnesses identified with Israel were invited to provide testimony. No Arab American institutions or individuals were invited. "This was a hearing," Rosenberg observes,

about two sides of a conflict where only one side was allowed to speak. It was a throwback to the bad old days when Congress held hearings on racism with only whites invited to testify.
Rosenberg's analogy is apt, given excerpts he provides of testimony offered by Daniel Pipes, director of an outfit called the Middle East Forum.

"Pipes," Rosenberg writes,

...is essentially a crank. He is a prolific writer who repeatedly sounds one note: that the Palestinians are bad people with whom negotiations are impossible. As for Muslims in general, "Western European societies are unprepared for the massive immigration of brown-skinned peoples cooking strange foods and maintaining different standards of hygiene...All immigrants bring exotic customs and attitudes, but Muslim customs are more troublesome than most.
Rosenberg continues:

He [Pipes] doesnt have much use for the Israelis either. In his testimony he trashed the late Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and current Prime Minister Ehud Olmert for "their ennui with fighting." He called Israelis "an exhausted people, confused and without direction."

Let's stop for a moment and consider the armchair warrior Pipes' use of the word "ennui" to describe Israelis eager for peace rather than more are. According to the dictionary, ennui means "listlessness and dissatisfaction resulting from lack of interest, boredom." In other words, Israelis are tired of fighting the way a teenager might be bored by another Saturday at the mall.

Rabin, the greatest military hero in Israel's history, gave up on war because he was feeling listless. What should he have done? What should Olmert do now?

Echoing General MacArthur (but with no military background, of course), Pipes argues for total victory. "Victory consists of imposing one's will on the enemy by compelling him to give up his war goals. Wars usually end when one side gives up its hope of winning, when its will to fight has been crushed."

In other words, Israelis should fight Palestinians until the end of time.

Imagine. This guy spouted this loathsome nonsense at an official hearing of the United States Congress. (He's just lucky that two of the Senators we met with were not in the room. James Webb and Chuck Hagel, two military heroes who hate war as only those who have experienced it can, would have torn him to shreds.)

Still, Rosenberg concludes that Pipes and this particular House committee session look to be an anomaly:

...there is a real sense in Washington that things are changing on Capitol Hill. Senators and House members -- especially the up-and-comers and freshmen -- are determined that America resume its role of leadership in seeking an end to a conflict that does so much damage both to us, to the Palestinians, and to Israel. And they understand that America cannot do any good for anyone in the Middle East if we are seen as hostile to 99% of the people who live in that region.


You can read M.J. Rosenberg's weekly columns at www.ipforum.org. You can also obtain an e-mail subscription by sending an e-mail to: ipfdc@ipforumdc.org.

-- Posted by Adam Simms


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