by Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n
Private Papers<\/em><\/p>\n The recent assassination of Sheik Saruman raises among some Americans the question\u2014at what point should we reconsider our rather blanket support for the Israelis and show a more even-handed attitude toward the Palestinians? The answer, it seems to me, should be assessed in cultural, economic, political, and social terms.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Well, we should no longer support Israel, when\u2026<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Mr. Sharon suspends all elections and plans a decade of unquestioned rule.<\/span><\/p>\n Mr. Sharon suspends all investigation about fiscal impropriety as his family members spend millions of Israeli aid money in Paris.<\/span><\/p>\n All Israeli television and newspapers are censored by the Likud party.<\/span><\/p>\n Israeli hit teams enter the West Bank with the precise intention of targeting and blowing up Arab women and children.<\/span><\/p>\n Preteen Israeli children are apprehended with bombs under their shirts on their way to the West Bank to murder Palestinian families.<\/span><\/p>\n Israeli crowds rush into the street to dip their hands into the blood of their dead and march en masse chanting mass murder to the Palestinians.<\/span><\/p>\n Rabbis give public sermons in which they characterize Palestinians as the children of pigs and monkeys.<\/span><\/p>\n Israeli school textbooks state that Arabs engage in blood sacrifice and ritual murders.<\/span><\/p>\n Mainstream Israeli politicians, without public rebuke, call for the destruction of Palestinians on the West Bank and the end to Arab society there.<\/span><\/p>\n Likud party members routinely lynch and execute their opponents without trial.<\/span><\/p>\n Jewish fundamentalists execute with impunity women found guilty of adultery on grounds that they are impugning the \u201chonor\u201d of the family.<\/span><\/p>\n Israeli mobs with impunity tear apart Palestinian policemen held in detention.<\/span><\/p>\n Israeli television broadcasts\u2014to the tune of patriotic music\u2014the last taped messages of Jewish suicide bombers who have slaughtered dozens of Arabs.<\/span><\/p>\n Jewish marchers parade in the streets with their children dressed up as suicide bombers, replete with plastic suicide-bombing vests.<\/span><\/p>\n New Yorkers post $25,000 bounties for every Palestinian blown up by Israeli murderers.<\/span><\/p>\n Israeli militants murder a Jew by accident and then apologize on grounds that they though he was an Arab\u2014to the silence of Israeli society.<\/span><\/p>\n Jews enter Arab villages in Israel to machine gun women and children.<\/span><\/p>\n Israeli public figures routinely threaten the United States with terror attacks.<\/span><\/p>\n Bin Laden is a folk hero in Tel Aviv.<\/span><\/p>\n Jewish assassins murder American diplomats and are given de facto sanctuary by Israeli society.<\/span><\/p>\n Israeli citizens celebrate on news that 3,000 Americans have been murdered.<\/span><\/p>\n Israeli citizens express support for Saddam Hussein\u2019s supporters in Iraq in their efforts to kill Americans.<\/span><\/p>\n * * *<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n So until then, I think most Americans can see the moral differences in the present struggle.<\/span><\/p>\n If the Palestinians wish to hold periodic and open elections, establish an independent judiciary, create a free press, arrest murderers, subject their treasury to public scrutiny, eschew suicide murdering, censure religious leaders who call for mass murder, embrace non-violent dissidents, extend equal rights to women, end honor killings, raise funds in the Arab world earmarked only to build water, sewer, transportation, and education infrastructure, and pledge that any Jews who choose to live in the West Bank will enjoy the same rights as Arabs in Israel, then they might find Americans equally divided over questions of land and peace.<\/span><\/p>\n But all that is a lot of ifs. And so for the present, Palestinian leaders shouldn\u2019t be too surprised that Americans increasingly find very little in their society that has much appeal to either our values or sympathy. If they continually assure us publicly that they are furious at Americans, then they should at least pause, reflect, and ask themselves why an overwhelming number of Americans\u2014not Jewish, not residents of New York, not influenced by the media\u2014are growing far more furious with them.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a9 2004 Victor Davis Hanson<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Victor Davis Hanson Private Papers The recent assassination of Sheik Saruman raises among some Americans the question\u2014at what point should we reconsider our rather blanket support for the Israelis and show a more even-handed attitude toward the Palestinians? The answer, it seems to me, should be assessed in cultural, economic, political, and social terms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[804],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-1eI","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4287,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/right-strategy-again\/","url_meta":{"origin":4756,"position":0},"title":"Right Strategy Again","author":"victorhanson","date":"August 29, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Gaza pullout will turn terror morass to conventional standoff. by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services \"Brilliant tactician, lousy strategist.\" So goes the conventional wisdom about the old bulldozer Ariel Sharon. But that assessment is exactly backward. Sharon's strategic insight has always proved more impressive than his messy tactical operations.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "August 2005"","block_context":{"text":"August 2005","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2005\/august-2005\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5078,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/israels-ajax-the-tragedy-of-mr-sharon\/","url_meta":{"origin":4756,"position":1},"title":"Israel’s Ajax: The Tragedy of Mr. Sharon","author":"victorhanson","date":"April 23, 2002","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online Sophocles once wrote a magnificent play about the Greeks' greatest fighter at Troy after Achilles \u2014 Ajax, as irreplaceable in war as he proved expendable in peace. During the struggle for Troy, the Greeks were often saved by the towering, clumsy \"donkey.\" Without\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "April 2002"","block_context":{"text":"April 2002","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2002\/april-2002\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9736,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/9736-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":4756,"position":2},"title":"01\/12\/16 From an Angry Reader:\u2026","author":"victorhanson","date":"January 12, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"01\/12\/16 From an Angry Reader: Dear Mr Hanson: I would like to comment on your Room for Debate in the Daily Southtown regarding treatment of Israel. Where does the Prime Minister of Israel, with a population of 8 million, get off slamming President Obama of the United States with a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Angry Reader"","block_context":{"text":"Angry Reader","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/angry-reader\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5271,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-distorted-view-of-israel\/","url_meta":{"origin":4756,"position":3},"title":"The Distorted View of Israel","author":"victorhanson","date":"February 6, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton Private Papers Joshua Muravchik,\u00a0Covering the Intifada. How the Media Reported the Palestinian Uprising\u00a0(The Washington Institute for Near Eastern Policy). How a beleaguered, tiny Israel has been turned into a pariah state is a fascinating historical question. The answer lies in the many cultural pathologies of the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Reviews"","block_context":{"text":"Reviews","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/opinion\/reviews\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5080,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/its-a-mad-mad-world-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":4756,"position":4},"title":"Its a Mad, Mad World","author":"victorhanson","date":"April 12, 2002","format":false,"excerpt":"Let us count the ways by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online The Palestinian Authority and spokesmen from the Arab world are now advancing a new party line by comparing their own struggle to our American Revolution \u2014 with overt associations between the Founding Fathers and Mr. Arafat and his\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "April 2002"","block_context":{"text":"April 2002","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2002\/april-2002\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5273,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/distortions-feedback-loop\/","url_meta":{"origin":4756,"position":5},"title":"Distortion’s Feedback Loop","author":"victorhanson","date":"February 3, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton Private Papers A review of\u00a0Covering the Intifada: How the Media Reported the Palestinian Uprising, by Joshua Muravchik (Washington Institute for Near Eastern Policy) How a beleaguered, tiny Israel has been turned into a pariah state is a fascinating historical question. The answer lies in the many\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Reviews"","block_context":{"text":"Reviews","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/opinion\/reviews\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4756"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4756"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4756\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4757,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4756\/revisions\/4757"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4756"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}