Rael Jean Isaac

A REVERSE DOMINO EFFECT

The "domino theory" is back. In the Vietnam years it referred to the fear that if one country fell to Communism, others in the region would soon keel over. Now the Bush administration uses it in a positive sense: a democratic Iraq is supposedly the domino leading neighboring autocracies to collapse.

In the enthusiasm, it has gone unnoticed that Israel has experienced a domino-in-reverse effect: the government of the only existing democracy in the Middle East has become increasingly autocratic and intolerant of dissent. Implementing a policy of retreat and uprooting of Jewish settlements that splits the public and carries many obvious strategic dangers, Sharon's government rides roughshod over the civil rights of those who oppose its policies. The most draconian punishments are promised for dissenters. Case in point: Attorney General Meni Mazus warned that anti-disengagement protesters who disrupt traffic will face up to 20 years in jail. (At the same time thousands of Arab actual and foiled-murderers of Jews are being released from Israeli prisons in yet another "good-will gesture.")

THE WRONG DOTS

Journalist Arnaud de Borchgrave sounds a badly needed warning note. He begins his article "Connecting the Wrong Dots" (Washington Times, March 21): "Talk of a democratic surge sweeping the Middle East is yet another case of mistaking wishes for reality." De Borchgrave points out that the large counter-demonstrations in Lebanon expose the deep sectarian divide in that country, carrying the seeds of potential revival of civil war. As for Syria, it is more likely to be vulnerable to coups (it experienced 21 between 1945 and 1970 when Hafez Assad seized power) than democracy.

Writes de Borchgrave: "It is tempting to connect the dots between the Iraqi elections, Palestinian elections and Lebanon and describe the overall picture as the inexorable march to democracy. But the strengthening of Hamas, another terrorist organization, in the Palestinian municipal elections, a harbinger of how it will do in next July's legislative elections, and Hezbollah's unchallenged position in Lebanon, should remind the White House these two organizations, along with Islamic Jihad, are now part of al Qaeda's support group….Even in Iraq, the elections have produced a less secular country now more influenced by Iran than the United States. In Egypt the winner of a truly democratic election could easily be the Muslim Brotherhood, the founder of all modern-day Islamist extremist organizations."

In conclusion de Borchgrave reminds us that "Turkey elected a democratic government democratically -- and an Islamist party won and now governs. Its first important act was to deny transit rights across Turkey for the U.S. 4th Infantry Division in Operation Iraqi Freedom."

DISTORTED REPORTING FROM NEW YORK'S JEWISH WEEK

Liel Leibovitz has been reporting for the Jewish Week in a manner biased against the Columbia students who have complained about being humiliated and intimidated by anti-Israel faculty members. Given Leibovitz's background, this is no surprise.

Leibovitz is an Israeli leftist who recently obtained a degree from Columbia's School of Journalism. In an article he wrote for Columbia Journalism Review (May/June 2003) he makes no secret of his identification with the pro-Palestinian politically correct denizens of that school. He describes his "double life" as journalism student at Columbia (pursuing "fairness and balance") and press officer for the Consul General of Israel, in which capacity (to his shame) he was forced to defend Israel, experiencing "my own personal blue-and-white Scarlet Letter burning my skin."

Despite his moral sensitivity, Leibovitz seems to have had no qualms about deceiving his superiors. He describes, for example, going with his boss to Columbia where, as his boss spoke, he saw the faces of his classmates, smiling disdainfully. "I wanted so much to be like them," writes Leibovitz. He says it must have shown on his face because his boss, on the way out, asked "What's the matter? Those liberals disgust you too much?"

Defending a government he found indefensible, Leibovitz writes "I became detached, reading the news from Israel as if it were some nation in Asia that I knew nothing of and cared little for."

It all shows in his coverage of the Columbia story -- and it is scandalous that Jewish Week editor Gary Rosenblatt assigned him to cover it.

CHRISTIANS IN THE NEW IRAQ

The large, vibrant, thousands of years old Jewish community of Iraq is gone. And in the euphoria over the Iraqi elections what has gone unnoticed, as English journalist Anthony Browne points out in the Spectator, is that “Iraq may still be occupied by Christian foreign powers, but the Islamist plan to ethnically cleanse Iraq of its nearly 2,000 year old Assyrian and Armenian Christian communities is reaching fruition.”

Similarly, Dr. Nimrod Raphaeli provides a sobering assessment of the plight of Iraq’s Christians, roughly 3% of its 26 million people. Christians have been specially targeted by Islamists, both as "infidels" and for collaborating with the "invading crusading army." The bombing of churches has been widely reported, but less attention has been paid to how many Christians have lost their livelihoods. Islamist groups have driven them out of the liquor business. Barber shops run by Christians have been targeted because Islamists object to haircuts and shaving. Christian students have been harassed to the point that at the University of Mosul, Iraq’s second largest university, 1,500 Christian students decided to suspend their studies. Not surprisingly, large numbers of Christians are emigrating Will Iraq soon be as empty of Christians as it is of Jews?

THANK YOU TOM DE LAY

Carolyn Glick pays a well-deserved tribute to long time stalwart supporter of Israel, Congressman Tom DeLay. Courageously, because he confronts not only the Bush administration but the Israeli embassy and AIPAC, DeLay has forced Washington to hold off, if only temporarily, in transferring $200 million to the PA and to ask: What does the PA do with the money it gets?

Glick points out that the Palestinian Legislative Council just decided its priority is new luxury cars, at $76,000 each, for each PA minister while mere legislators are to get cars costing $45,000 each. Then of course there is the budget for chauffeurs for these cars as well as gas and insurance. Then there are all the senior PA officials, also in line for tens of millions of dollars worth of cars and drivers and gas.

Glick notes that "the cars are just one tiny example of the waste, graft and purloining of PA funds by its politicians, militia commanders and bureaucrats, which have rendered the Palestinians one of the poorest Arab societies in the world today" -- this in a decade when they received more international donor aid per capita than has ever been transferred to any group. And of course there is all the aid money that went directly to terrorists. As Glick notes: "Even today Fatah terrorists are paid salaries from the PA. Abbas now wants to extend the terrorist support program by putting Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists on the PA payroll as part of his much-vaunted 'reform' program."

As Glick sums up, "It is reassuring to know that in this period during which Israeli policy has become near-schizophrenic and the Bush administration appears convinced -- in spite of all evidence -- that Abbas is a man who can be trusted, at least one powerful man in Washington is not buying into the current peace charade. Thank you for your courage.