Opinion: Fighting false accusations against Israel

In My View

By Elizabeth Berney, Esq.

Issue of Feb. 27, 2009 / 3 Adar 5769

Words can be very powerful and can be very destructive. History has shown us the incredible damage that a false accusation can cause.

When I was a child, my father often spoke of his experience growing up in Germany in the 1930s. In the newspapers, the schools, and everywhere one went, citizens were bombarded with vicious accusations against Jews and characterizations of Jews as dirty and deceitful. Delegitimizing those of the Jewish faith with such accusations was the first step which led to the physical destruction of a whole people.

Like many people, I was horrified and outraged this week when Congressman Gary Ackerman falsely accused Israelis of “intransigence” and perpetrating “pogroms” against Palestinians at his Congressional hearing on the Mideast.

Israel uprooted its own citizens to give away vast amounts of territory, in return for broken promises to stop terrorism. That’s hardly “intransigence.” And the accusation that Israelis committed such atrocities is completely untrue.

The incident which Ackerman apparently referred to (even though he used the word “pogroms” in the plural) involved Arabs throwing rocks at Israelis and grabbing an Israeli teenager in Hebron, and the Israelis throwing the rocks back to rescue the teenager. This is not a “pogrom” by any stretch of the imagination. Rather, Ackerman’s statement is the type of blood libel which has been spouted all too frequently in recent years, and used to instigate attacks on Jews (and Westerners) around the world.

The “pogrom” accusation is similar to the false accusations in 2000 that Israelis killed a Palestinian boy, al Dura (proven to be false in a trial in France), which were the pretext for extremist Muslim riots and physical attacks on Jews in France after the libel was broadcast there. Those attacks have continued to this day, stoked by further false accusations.

The Paris police department is now reporting 10 to 12 anti-Jewish incidents per day, including numerous beatings. Synagogues and Jewish Centers in Saint Denis (near Paris), Montpellier, Strasbourg and Marseilles were recently firebombed. The recent libel that Israeli settlers perpetrated pogroms is also reminiscent of the false accusations of a “massacre” in Jenin which never occurred, which has also been used as a pretext for attacking Israelis and Israel’s supporters.

Ackerman’s comments this week are especially damaging because they came from the Jewish head of the House Mideast sub-committee who sometimes professes to care about Israel, which gives his untruths the appearance of credibility. His accusations that Israelis perpetrated “pogroms” are already being quoted on the Internet by those who want to destroy Israel.

The always vocal Leonard Feins of this world, who live for the purpose of inventing new, insidious ways to condemn Israel, are labeling Ackerman’s blatant falsehoods as “honest criticism.” (To Mr. Fein, anyone who really tells the truth is an “apologist for Israel.”)

The leftist “Peace Now”-type organizations are praising Ackerman for helping Obama pressure Israel into making concessions, and sending out mass e-mails urging their members to do the same. Alas, anyone with sense knows that such concessions will only lead to more launching pads for violence against Israel.

We have enough problems here already without Ackerman adding fuel to the fire. In the last months, we saw demonstrations in Ft. Lauderdale and other American cities, in which Muslim extremists screamed “death to the Jews” and “Jews to the ovens” (videos of which are available on the Internet).

Some of the reasons why I ran against Ackerman in 2008 included Ackerman’s promotion of sending our U.S. tax dollars to the Palestinian Authority, despite the fact that the P.A. gives 40 percent of the funds it receives from international donors to Hamas (which led to $600 million of our U.S. tax dollars being sent to the PA last year); his accusations against Israel in previous Congressional hearings (such as accusing Israel of having “illegal outposts” in March 2008); his exertion of pressure on Israel to make dangerous concessions; and the hypocrisy of his claims to care about Israel when he campaigns in the district.

Still, this latest statement shocked me to the core, and has alarmed many in our community. Ackerman should immediately retract his false statements and issue a public apology to Israel and all the people in our district who are outraged at his comments, before these words cause even more damage.

Elizabeth Berney is a securities fraud and consumer safety attorney, writer and violinist, residing in Great Neck. She was the Republican candidate for Congress who ran against Gary Ackerman in 2008. She is currently considering running again in 2010.