I Must Be Mistaken
Prof. Paul Eidelberg
I must be mistaken! Surely it can’t be that the word “evil” has disappeared from political discourse or commentary?
How can the word “evil” vanish when Arab and Islamic terrorism punctuates the news media? Has the word “evil” been forgotten censored even in Israel, whose prophets often used this word to describe the behavior of Israel’s enemies and even some of Israel’s own kings?
How is it possible, whether hearing or reading the daily news, say of Syrian leaders using chemical weapons against their own people; or of Hamas using Arab women as human shields; or of Hezbollah storing weapons in hospitals and schools and mosques in Lebanon to be used against Israel? And what say you of Palestinians using their own children as human bombs?
How is it possible that despite all this inhumanity and bloodshed, the word “evil” is inconspicuous if not absent from the media, whether from the reports of journalists or of academic think tanks—nay, even from the language of Israeli prime ministers and American diplomats and presidents—all humanists?
I must be mistaken. But I wonder: Has Benjamin Netanyahu ever used the word “evil” to describe the leaders of the Palestinian Authority, either Yasser Arafat or his successor, Mahmoud Abbas with whom Bibi is so anxious to engage in “peace” negotiations? I must be mistaken, for how can Bibi use such derogatory language when he so much wants to negotiate with these Arab gentlemen?
Come to think of it, in the final analysis, is the non-use of such language by Israeli prime ministers leaders the reason why one American Secretary of State after another, from 1967 to the present—has come to Israel for the purpose of facilitating negotiations between Israel’s leaders and the leaders of the Palestinian Authority?
Wouldn’t it be absurd if any of those Secretaries of State to flew to Israel to promote peace between Israel and the Palestinian Authority if any prominent official in the Executive Branch of American government used the word “evil” to describe Palestinian terror attacks against Israel, or to indicate that the leaders of the Palestinians are responsible for such attacks?
Conversely, by refraining from using the word “evil” to describe the Palestinian Authority, whose charter, by the way, calls for Israel’s annihilation, haven’t Israeli prime ministers sanitized the PA and thereby promoted, albeit unwittingly—but not without culpability—the murder of many Jews?
But perhaps I am mistaken. Perhaps age has limited my visual and audible range as well as my memory? Perhaps Israeli prime ministers, including Mr. Netanyahu, have indeed used the word “evil” to describe the Palestinians or those they have ether elected or accepted as their leaders?
Alternatively, in this non-judgmental age of moral relativism, perhaps an Israeli prime minister would be accused of Jewish “tribalism” or “extremism” to color the Arab leaders of the Palestinians black, which would also offend their American paymasters?
After all, a Jewish prime minister must not offend the “goyim”—the Hebrew word for “nations.” This applies especially to a Jew like Netanyahu, the author of a book entitled “A Place among the Nations.”☼
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