Elul 28, 5767, 9/11/2007
You Too, Mr. Smerconish? -- Jack Engelhard
by Jack Engelhard
Someone just sent me that piece you wrote for the Philadelphia Inquirer titled "Anti-Semitic Label Curbs Talk about Israel."
Your thesis, taken from Mearsheimer and Walt and their denunciation of the ("powerful") Jewish Lobby is that such labeling "stifles conversation" about Israel.
I was so disappointed and angry at you that here's what I did: I sat down and wrote this response. I imagine you'll be getting it from other Jews as well.
What you won't be getting is a fatwa, as did Salman Rushdie when he was critical upon some aspects of Islam. Rushdie had to go into hiding.
Hirsi Ali is also in hiding. Even here in the U.S. she travels with bodyguards. She managed to escape Amsterdam after her film "Submission" offended Islam. Her partner in the project, Theo Van Gogh, was not so lucky. He got killed. That's what I call "labeling." That really "curbs conversation," wouldn't you say, Mr. Smerconish?
Interesting that, while your regular column appears in the Philadelphia Daily News, this essay of yours got published in the Philadelphia Inquirer. This is editorial cartoonist Tony Auth's place of business and has been so for many years. Auth sometimes featured Israelis as Nazis and there was never (thank goodness) a threat on his life. In fact, Auth won a Pulitzer for all that.
We "powerful Jews" wrote letters to the editor and some of us got REALLY violent - we boycotted the paper.
You may recall what happened when a certain European newspaper published those cartoons offensive to Mohammed. Thousands went on a rampage.
Stifles conversation? Yes, those two professors, Mearshiemer and Walt, have been dis-invited from some speaking engagements, but their book is being published, along with such fanfare that it will surely rise to the top of the best-seller lists. That is not the case with a book written by scholars Robert O. Collins and J. Millard Burr, titled "Alms for Jihad." Cambridge University Press literally stopped the presses and halted publication when a certain billionaire accused the writers of "defamation."
Dr. Rachel Ehrenfeld is likewise all tangled up in lawsuits for her appraisals of jihad.
You will recall those Muslim riots, Mr. Smerconish, when the (false) rumor spread about the Koran being flushed down the toilet at Gitmo.
Yet there were no Jewish riots when the movie 'Meet The Fockers" presented a scene in which a dog names "Moses" was flushed down the toilet.
You seem to feel, Mr. Smerconish, that there is not enough debate about Israel, and yet no nation is debated as often as Israel within the United Nations and along the campuses, where Middle East studies usually feature such professors as Edward Said. This late academic, by the way, was often cited as anti-Semitic, and yet he never lacked for speaking engagements and, as far as I know, walked about free and safe.
Professor Said was once caught throwing stones at Israelis. When asked why, he explained that he did what everybody does.
Are some of us touchy when Israel is singled out for criticism? Well, maybe this time around we choose to defend ourselves, We failed to do so for some 2,000 years. Yes, Mearshiemer and Walt are nothing new under the sun, and neither are you, Mr. Smerconish. This is very old business. We have grown somewhat tired of being your patsy.
Some of us have learned that words can be as harmful as sticks and stones.
We certainly did not speak up (loudly enough) when six million of our brothers and sisters went up in smoke throughout Europe.
We vowed - Never Again. So this time around we're speaking up.
Yes, the Holocaust taught us to answer charge for charge. I don't think you will ever understand this, Mr. Smerconish. Guess you had to be there.
Jack Engelhard is the author of the international bestselling novel "Indecent Proposal" that was translated into more than 22 languages and later turned into a Paramount motion picture starring Robert Redford and Demi Moore. His latest novel, "The Bathsheba Deadline," has been running as a serial on Amazon.com and will be coming out shortly in print form.
