Sanctifying a U.S.-Born Israeli Mass-Murderer

By Nathan Jones

Whether they are begun in the Israeli media, in America's Jewish weekly newspapers, or in the columns of nationally syndicated apologists for Israel, the lies, excuses, or tortured rationalizations to justify Israeli land grabs, human rights violations, racism and bigotry soon enter the U.S. mainstream media through unquestioning pack journalism. They become the basis of a mythology that impedes U.S. policy makers from pursuing evenhanded U.S. Middle East policies essential to a final land-for-peace settlement.

One such myth in the making is being circulated to explain, and in some minds justify, the unprovoked massacre by Dr. Baruch Goldstein of 29 men and boys at Friday prayers in the Ibrahimi mosque (Jewish Cave of the Patriarchs) on Feb. 25, 1994.

It postulates a "conspiracy" by Palestinians to massacre Jewish settlers which was being ignored by Israeli authorities. This story, which did not appear in U.S. weekly Jewish newspapers until long after the initial crime, now is given circulation by those who deliberately seek to perpetuate it, and even by those who seem to be deploring Goldstein's action, as illustrated by the following two excerpts from an advertisement and an article in the Jewish Week of Queens, NY:

"A year after the event, there is every reason to honor Goldstein's memory as a Jewish patriot who, only in the last desperate resort available to him, pre-empted a vast blood bath of Jews being prepared for Purim morning, 1994. As a self-sacrificing compassionate doctor his aim was to heal and save lives. He was incapable of an act of murder. Forced by the impending disaster and convinced that the government would not sufficiently protect the Jews against Arab attack, he took their defense into his own hands. We can think of outstanding acts of pre-emptive strikes in our long history ranging from Pinheas and Samson in Biblical days, to incidents during the Crusades, the Warsaw Ghetto uprising of 1943, the uprisings in Nazi death camps, to the pre-emptive attack, under Rabin, in the Six-Day War. They are all remembered with awe and reverence."—From a full-page advertisement signed by Dr. Manfred R. Lehmann in the Jewish Week, Queens, NY, Feb. 24, 1995.

"Let us grant that Dr. Goldstein truly believed that an Arab pogrom against Jews was imminent and the government was not going to act with sufficient alacrity to prevent the loss of Jewish lives. Would that justify the indiscriminate murder and maiming of dozens of individuals who happened to be members of the community from which the terrorist would come?...Are we now to accept the argument that Dr. Goldstein, not knowing who the actual people were who were planning to kill Jews, was justified in simply killing at random other members of their community to punish or deter the potential terrorists?"—From article on "the Purim Massacre of 1994" by Rabbi Saul J. Berman, associate professor of Jewish studies at Stern College and adjunct professor at Columbia University School of Law, in the Jewish Week, Queens, NY, March 10, 1995.

Telling U.S. Christians to Butt Out in Jerusalem

Many American Jewish organizations, both religious and secular, go all-out to attack American Christian leaders who express concern either about Israeli encroachments on Palestinian-owned property in Jerusalem and the West Bank, or about Israeli violations of the human rights of Christian and Muslim Palestinians living under Israeli occupation. Such expressions are equated, implicitly or explicitly, with anti-Semitism in an effort to silence spokespersons for more than one billion concerned Christians. An example from an editorial in an influential Jewish weekly:

"Sheer effrontery. Nothing else describes the March 6 statement, 'Jerusalem: City of Peace; An Appeal to President Clinton from Christian Leaders.' Signed by leading churchmen including Cardinal William H. Keeler, president of the National Council of Catholic Bishops, and the Rev. Herbert W. Chilstrom, bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, it urges the Clinton administration to make Israel stop taking land and constructing Jewish neighborhoods in and around Jerusalem...One question that comes to mind immediately is, who asked them? Where were they and their organizations over the decades and centuries when action by Christian and Muslim Arabs failed to recognize and support Jewish rights and interests in Jerusalem? The American Jewish Committee, in response, called the churchmen's appeal 'seriously flawed, one-sided and incomplete...lacking in any context whatsoever.' It 'does a disservice to the quest for an enduring Arab-Israeli peace.' If the churchmen's appeal has any effect, it will be negative."—Editorial in the Washington Jewish Week, March 9, 1995.

Exonerating Jonathan Jay Pollard

There's more to the campaign to induce President Bill Clinton to pardon former U.S. Navy counter-intelligence specialist Jonathan Jay Pollard, convicted of passing thousands of secret U.S. government documents to Israel, than initially meets the eye. To the casual observer it's little more than an effort by various U.S. and Canadian Jewish organizations to induce Clinton to act favorably when Pollard comes up for possible parole late this year after serving 10 years of his life sentence.

In fact, however, it isn't just parole that some campaigners seek, but a pardon that would, in effect, expunge the case permanently from the record. By implying that Pollard wasn't guilty after all, a pardon would also remove the pressure on Israel being exerted by many Americans unofficially to reciprocate for any clemency to Pollard by granting clemency to Mordechai Vanunu, an Israeli national who converted to Christianity and then revealed the existence of Israel's nuclear weapons program in Dimona, where he had been employed.

One of the key claims is that Pollard was forced to do what he did because the U.S. was not turning over information vital to Israel's survival. The awkwardness of this claim is that Pollard was paid very handsomely for his work, and that after his arrest Israel doubled his monthly salary, which is paid into an account in Pollard's name in a Swiss bank, to induce him to remain silent as to possible accomplices in the U.S. government. Here's an example of the line adopted to get around these problems:

"Accusative fingers are pointing at Pollard for taking money from his Israeli operators. In covert intelligence operations, the first requirement is that an operator put the operative on the payroll. Ironically, accepting money was the price Pollard had to pay to pass on information he knew was vital to an American ally. Having taken payment clouds the true nature of Jonathan Pollard's selfless act. In the noble American tradition exemplified by Abraham Lincoln, can President Bill Clinton find the courage to publicly recognize that Pollard's pardon and applause are long overdue?"—From article by Bruce Brill, described as "a former U.S. government intelligence analyst" who "lives in Israel," Washington Jewish Week, Feb. 9, 1995.