The Peace FAQ:

Double Standards

Frequently Asked Questions:

• Are Israel and the Arab world judged with different standards?
• Doesn't America give undue favoritism to Israel?
• Is Israel criticized more than other countries who are are conducting themselves in a far less humanitarian ways?
• Is Israel criticized by other countries who would react as harshly or more harshly under similar circumstances?
• Who are the real victims of the 'Double Standard'?
• Are the Palestinian Arabs given special treatment by the international community?
• Aren't the lower standards expected of the Arab world a good way to help them become more progressive societies?

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Are Israel and the Arab world judged with different standards?

• "There is a double standard at work, with Israel expected to act as a democracy while the assumption is that the Arabs are barely a cut above barbarians".

  - Gary Rosenblatt, editor and publisher of The Jewish Week in New York

• For the Jews, the choice is to be landless and rootless or to possess some 8,000 square miles of land which two thousand years ago had been part of their own; moreover, it is land they have purchased. For the Arabs, the choice is between more than 4 million square miles minus these 8,000, and the 4 million intact, reputedly inalienably Arab by right, even if the intact 4 million should leave another people perpetually rootless. Any Jewish presence whatever, for those who favour this latter option, is trespass, even if the Jews are to be found only on land the reclamation of which is entirely the work of Jewish hands...

  - Jacques Givet, "The Anti-Zionist Complex"

 

Doesn't America give undue favoritism to Israel?

• Under Construction

 

Is Israel criticized more than other countries who are are conducting themselves in a far less humanitarian ways?

• While anything Israel does, may do, or does not do reveals that country's depravity, acts of commission or omission by other countries pass unchallenged or are not condemned in the same way, or are treated with indulgence. In no case is anything done by a country other than Israel used as a pretext for questioning the country's existence. The anti-Zionists eschew comparisons.

  - Jacques Givet, "The Anti-Zionist Complex"

 

Is Israel criticized by other countries who would react as harshly or more harshly under similar circumstances?

• See United Nations

 

Who are the real victims of the 'Double Standard'?

• THE DOUBLE STANDARD
  by Emanuel A. Winston
  Middle East analyst & commentator

  The NEW YORK TIMES article by Steven Erlanger (1) carries the complaint that the US bombing threat to Iraq represents a "Double Standard" in favor of Israel. The concept that America holds a "Double Standard" in favor of Israel has been ramped up in recent years and has reached a peak now during this latest confrontation with Iraq. Arabists claim the US has used a "Double Standard" when issues regarding Israel are considered. Let us then examine this "Double Standard" minus the Orwellian Double-Speak.

  Not surprisingly, Jews are the world's experts on "Double Standards" having been victims of such "Double Standards" for ages. To cover in detail centuries of European "Double Standards" through later years of Islam's "Double Standard" requires an encyclopedia so just a few points to quickly bring us up to the present.

  The Christian Church taught its followers that Jews were connected with the devil, were the killers of the Jew Jesus and, therefore, worth hounding or killing, without conscience, if the opportunity arose. "Double Standard" here was merely that Jews were not considered as human, but UNgodly, whereas Christians were entirely human and godly. Therefore Christians were deserving of the Covenant with G-d once the Jews had been either absorbed or eliminated.

  In the 7th century, Mohammed supposedly had a vision which declared him the last and final prophet of G-d (called Allah) and the rightful heir to both Judaism and Christianity. He approached the Jews of Mecca with his prophecy, particularly those of the Quraish tribe and made a peace treaty. Before 2 years he broke the Quraish treaty, returned with his new army and slaughtered all the Jews.

  Yassir Arafat frequently draws an analogy between Oslo and this Quraish treaty, thus telling knowledgeable Arabs of his true intentions - and his Islamic "Double Standard" as stated in the Koran:. "Make a treaty with your enemy when you are weak; but you must break that treaty and defeat your enemy in war when you are strong". The "Double Standard" is that all must view favorably the self-styled claims of Islam while dismissing the Jewish claim to the Land of Israel which dates back 4000 years.

  "Double Standard" in more recent times: The Ottoman Empire held all the vast lands of the Middle East for 400 years. After the Allies won in 1918, they created a Mandate Commission with England and France as administrators. They divided up the Middle East, made new borders and created states where none existed before. Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia were essentially artificial entities, created by England and France as their protectorates for their purposes of political hegemony and financial control of their oil wells and the Suez Canal.

  In gratitude for the part they played in the Great War, in 1918 the Jews were to be given their historic land of Palestine, "to create a homeland for the Jewish people and to settle the land (on both sides of the Jordan River)" This commitment was ratified by the US Congress and League of Nations (precursor to the UN). (2)

  Unfortunately, in 1922 the British gave away 70% of the land promised to the Jews, vast lands East of the Jordan River, to buy off Abdullah who had moved an army north from the Arabian peninsula (now Saudi Arabia) to threaten his brother Faisel's control of Syria. Jewish Palestine was truncated from 45,000 to 8,000 square miles which became Transjordan. In 1946 King Abdullah declared it the independent state of Jordan. Not one country of the world objected to this betrayal of the Jewish homeland. Even then the Jews, desperate for their own land where they would not be hounded by Christian Europe or Islamic Arabs, accepted the worst of a bad bargain. Here the "Double Standard" became the "Double Cross"

  While in control of Palestine, the British consistently followed their usual "Double Standard". They favored the Arabs, imported them from the surrounding Arab countries as laborers and the Arabs came in, drawn by the improved living conditions which Jewish industry, health and sanitation brought. But they weren't native to the land nor had they claims on it "from time immemorial" as did the Jews.(3) The British didn't stop frequent Arab attacks against Jews in rural areas or cities like Hebron and Jerusalem, where Arab pogroms massacred hundreds of men, women and children from the 1920s to 1940s. Again the "Double Standard"

  "Double Standards" applied against the Jews in the 30s and 40s that spawned the Holocaust have been delineated competently in many, many books.(4) It is merely necessary to note that the simple phrase "Double Standard" was the very foundation operative in causing and actuating the Holocaust. This includes the Christian Church, most all of the countries of the world, humanitarian agencies (the Red Cross), the media, the intelligentsia, the leaders, et al. Especially despicable was Britain's blockade of Palestine against Jews fleeing certain death during the Nazi extermination campaign. They also stopped survivors from entering Palestine after WWII. Those who tried to run their blockades were jailed in concentration camps on Cyprus.

  In 1947, Britain withdrew from Palestine because they tired of Arab attacks against Jews which they (the British) did little to control. Before they left, they stripped the Jews of any weapons they had managed to collect and gave them to the Arabs, along with the British Taggert forts which controlled strategic points of access in Israel. Again the "Double Standard"

  The Arab States, themselves were relatively new, threatened to "dance on the blood of the Jews" in the coming battle for the newly Independent Jewish State of Israel. Many of the armies of the invading Arab states were trained and armed by the British.(5)

  The Jews, in preparation for a war of annihilation promised by the Arabs, desperately searched the world for weapons. But, the US, Britain and France, among others, declared an arms embargo against the Jews, based on the duplicitous claim that "they could not ship weapons into a potentially hot spot" "Double Standard"?

  This embargo didn't apply to the Arabs. Not only did the Arabs have weapons in abundance, plus those left behind by the British, but could freely purchase modern weapons left over from WWII. Meanwhile, the Jews bought old and almost useless weapons from such countries as Czechoslovakia at double prices of new weapons. "Double Standard"

  The War for Israel's Independence began before the British left, with continual attacks not stopped by the British. May 15, 1948, the day of Israel's declaration of Independence, newborn Israel was attacked by the 7 well-armed and trained armies of Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Lebanon and Yemen.

  Miraculously, the 600,000 Jews of new Israel, many straight from the Nazi death camps or British internment camps on Cyprus, fought the 7 Arab armies to a standstill. The world still didn't give a damn until it was clear the Arabs were losing. Then and only then, did America step in to snatch success in battle from the Jews. In the 6 defensive wars against the Arabs who threatened to throw the Jews into the sea by Jihad (Holy War), the Arabs lost. But, America and the West were consistent. They interceded to deny the Jews their victory over aggressor nations, again and again and again. "Double Standard"

  Remember Camp David where Israel was badgered by the anti-Semitic State Dept and Jimmy Carter to give up Sinai to Egypt - even after the 1973 War when Egypt and Syria attacked Israel on Yom Kippur? Menachem Begin paid the price for this peace treaty: $17 Billion dollars, Israel is still paying off the loans needed to fund the Camp David withdrawal and re-equipment after the Yom Kippur War. All Israel got was a cold peace, no normalization, no trade - only vituperative hostility from the government controlled Egyptian press and leaders. Jimmy Carter never said a word when Egypt brought SAM (Surface-to-Air) missile batteries into the Sinai which was supposed to be demilitarized according the Camp David Accords. "Double Standard"

  Let us advance to Oslo and the handshake on the White House lawn. It is no secret that Arafat has broken every single line of the agreement with no objections from the US. (Note! Except for some State Dept. double-talk on how, regrettably, this killing or suicide bombing had affected the non-existent peace process.)

  Since Olso 274 Jews have been killed by Palestinian terrorists, thousands wounded, many maimed for life. No matter how egregious the act of horror, somehow it was always defined as Israel's fault for being there. If only Israel had given away more, sooner, the poor Palestinians wouldn't have been so frustrated and used suicide bombers to make their point. But, still the State Dept. and White House continue to whitewash the bloody Arafat and say he is fulfilling his commitments. They especially lie when they claim he has abrogated the Palestinian Covenant calling for Israel's destruction.(6)

  These lies enable the State Dept to continue funding Arafat's Palestinian Authority with $500 million US taxpayers' dollars. This money has gone into Arafat's pockets to buy up land in Jerusalem, build him palaces with huge underground storage bunkers, to his supporters' personal luxuries, to buy arms that are illegal according to Oslo, to fund a "Police Force" which is really a standing army of over 50,000, plus 9 Secret Services - more than twice the number allowed by Oslo. Arafat says he "will liberate all of Israel for his new State of "Palestine" with Jerusalem as the capital of that State and Only that State - And anyone who doesn't like it can go drink Gaza sea water." He has proclaimed this since Oslo until today.

  In 1990 Iraq invaded Kuwait with operational assistance of Yassir Arafat and King Hussein of Jordan. The Gulf War was imminent. Bush issued a waiver (pre-pardon) to his Cabinet for whatever financial connections they may have had with Saddam Hussein's buildup of his deadly arsenal. Bush/Baker used $5 billion American taxpayers' dollars through BCCI,hidden in appropriations for the Dept. of Agriculture,to fund Saddam's war machine, in order to counter Iran.(7)

  Saddam announced he "will burn half of Israel" and "is fighting to free Jerusalem from the Jews" Somehow, the Jews are at fault because he was caught in a vise of his own making. He threw 39 SCUD missiles at Israel. Palestinians danced on their rooftops cheering Saddam, burning American and Israeli flags (then and now).

  Bush refused to allow Israel to retaliate in self-defense. Israel was denied IFF (Identify Friend & Foe) codes to enable her attack on SCUD missile batteries targeting Israel. Bush lied that he would take them out. "Double Cross". But, when one SCUD hit a barracks of American soldiers, Bush quickly ended Desert Storm, leaving Saddam, his elite Army and his Weapons of Mass Destruction intact.

  If Israel had been permitted to hit the SCUD batteries, perhaps those Americans would be alive today and the NBC, Nuclear, Biological and Chemical weapons Saddam has in hidden stockpiles would not exist. Saddam was beaten by the American led coalition in 1991. He surrendered to terms of oil embargo and UN inspection searches for his hidden weapons. Both lies. He continued to ship oil through other nations and easily deceived the UN inspectors, continuing to build and hide his stockpile of NBC.

  Now the war posturing has begun again, only we hear shouts of unfair "Double Standard" "Why attack Iraq for hiding WMD, Weapons of Mass Destruction when Israel must also have them?"Israel upholds the same ethics that America, France and England. None of these nations would use such weapons,except in a worst-case scenario whereas Saddam has used his and would use them again as his weapon of first choice.

  Today Palestinians are demonstrating for Saddam with signs encouraging him to send chemical and biological missiles against US troops and Israel. These often violent rallies are being organized directly by Yasir Arafat. Polls show that 80% of Palestinians support Saddam bombing Tel Aviv. (8)

  According to Moscow's PRAVDA, Aleksey Yablokov, member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, said: "The PLO has twice said that it has nuclear weapons allegedly purchased illegally from Russia."(9)

  Did the teenagers who wrapped themselves in the American flag and shouted down Sec. of State Albright understand that long range missiles and artillery shells loaded with poison are not merely constructed for deterrence but they can be used in America? Saddam means to use his - now or later. Who primed the chanting bubble-heads to think that Saddam was only doing this because Israel had denied one of his co-conspirators (Arafat) the right to make Israel "Judenrein" (free of Jews). Then the panting and chanting grew louder, as they repeated the mantra of "Double Standard, Double Standard"

  As always the media, masters of "Double Standard" picked up the cry (or initiated it) and there you have it. Clearly, if Israel did not exist, Saddam wouldn't have invaded Kuwait. Iran would not be building nuclear weapons (10) nor would Syria have one of the most advanced chemical arsenals in the Mideast.(11)

  Jews understand the "Double Standard" very well, having been its victims for centuries. As the Arabs and fellow liberals scream about "Double Standards" remember that Carl Jung said: "Aggressors generally first blame their intended victims for what they (the aggressors) wish to do. By blaming the victim, you can then attack, pretending justification."

  Watch for the ramping up of the Orwellian cry of "Double Standard" when or if America attacks Iraq. Somehow, the world, with Clinton at its point, will demand that Israel satisfy the blood lust of the Arabs by further withdrawals from her tiny land as compensation for America attacking Iraq.

  "Double Standard/Double Cross" They're just a word apart.

  1. "Arabs See Double Standard in US Backing for Israel" by Steven Erlanger NEW YORK TIMES 2/21/98
  2. "Jews, G-d & History" by Max Dimont Simon & Schuster NY 1962
  3. "From Time Immemorial: Origins of the Arab-Jewish Conflict Over Palestine" by Joan Peters Harper & Row NY 1984
  4. "Secret War Against the Jews: How Western Espionage Betrayed the Jewish People: 1922-92" by John Loftus & Mark Aarons St. Martin's Press NY 1994
  "Beyond Belief: The American Press & the Coming of the Holocaust: 1933-45" by Dr. Deborah Lipstadt Free Press/Macmillan NY 1986
  "Splendid Blond Beast: Money, Law & Genocide in 20th Century" 1993 & "Blowback: American's Recruitment of Nazis" by Christopher Simpson Grove Press NY
  "Hitler's Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans & the Holocaust" by Daniel Jonah Goldhagen Borzoi/Knopf NY 1996
  5. "Elusive Victory: The Arab-Israeli Wars 1947-1974" by Trevor N. Dupuy Harper & Row NY 1978
  6. "Peace Process in the Mideast: a Briefing" by Dennis Ross at the Council of Jewish Federations GA Indianapolis 11/18/97
  7. "Spider's Web: Secret History of How the White House Illegally Armed Iraq" by Alan Friedman Bantam Books NY 1993
  8. IBA Israel Broadcasting by Michael Widlansky 6:15 PM 2/22/98
  9. "Academician Yablokov Sits on Nuclear 'Keg'" Moscow PRAVDA 11/12/97 as reported in Israeli & Global News edited by Murray Kahl
  10."Iran Developing Missile with Range of 1300 KM" by Eitan Rabin HA'ARETZ 7/13/97
  11."Israel: Syria Prepares Missiles" Associated Press 7/24/97

 

Are the Palestinian Arabs given special treatment by the international community?

• ...it is not just at the expense of the Israelis that the PLO, as we have seen, has been granted priority over other movements, for such priority is prejudicial to all such movements as do not happen to enjoy Arab-African "recognition". By virtue of what criteria should a Palestinian prisoner or casualty enjoy medical care and legal protection refused to a Naga, a Kurd, or a Timorese? This is not in any way to question the immense value of the work done by the International Red Cross, but rather to impugn the maneuvers which would pervert the principles of humanity and equity whereby Red Cross representatives in the field are guided.

  - Jacques Givet, "The Anti-Zionist Complex"

 

Aren't the lower standards expected of the Arab world a good way to help them become more progressive societies?

• While Hebron burns
  Editorial: The Jerusalem Post
  July 4, 1997

  If nothing else, the clashes in Hebron and the Gaza Strip are certainly documented in gruesome detail. The moment in which IDF soldier Lior Cohen was seriously wounded by a pipe bomb in Hebron was captured by TV news cameras, as was the last act of Palestinian stone-thrower Mahed Etzer, 17, killed in a clash with the IDF in the Gaza Strip.

  The conventional wisdom holds that the violence is born of the political stalemate, and the bizarre provocation of a leaflet depicting Mohammed as a pig circulated by a Jewish woman now under arrest in Israel. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, President Ezer Weizman, and even the Jewish community of Hebron, quickly and strongly condemned the leaflet, and stated their respect for the Islamic religion.

  The unrest, however, is not "caused" by the freezing of talks or by leaflets, however condemnable, unless one considers Palestinian violence to be inevitable. But nowhere is it written that when Palestinians are unhappy, they must be violent. In fact, it is just the opposite that is written and signed into solemn agreements.

  When asked why the Palestinian Authority is taking no action to prevent Palestinians from attacking Israeli forces, Palestinian Preventive Security chief Jibril Rajoub responded, "We are not responsible for defending Israelis from the policies of the Netanyahu government". Actually, Rajoub is required by the Hebron agreement to "... prevent any provocation or friction that may affect the normal life in the city". Though Israeli security officials point out that Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat is under pressure from radical elements, there is little doubt that his multiple security services have the power to quell the violence at the moment it is no longer in his interest for it to continue.

  Behind Arafat's belief that the current violence is indeed in his interest is the widely prevalent automatic defense of Palestinian violence, neatly expressed by Rajoub - Palestinians cannot be blamed, Israeli policies made them do it.

  This logic, though it may have tactical advantages for Arafat, is demeaning to Palestinians and deadly for the peace process. It means that every Palestinian commitment to combat violence is followed by an invisible asterisk, and fine print stating "only so long as Israel not only implements Oslo, but fulfills our demands, which go beyond any requirement in the agreement". In the meantime, Palestinians reserve the right to issue forth a constant stream of incitement to violence and lies about the Jewish people, religion, and history. On official Palestinian Authority broadcasts, via television and Internet, one can hear that the Western Wall has no historic connection to Jews, that it was created as a shrine in order to undermine the foundations of Al- Aksa Mosque, that there is no evidence of a Jewish connection to Israel, and that the stories in the Torah took place primarily in Yemen.

  Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo was quoted recently in a Palestinian newspaper stating, "We are prepared for all the wars, and to sacrifice ourselves, in defending our motherland". The director-general of the Palestinian Health Ministry in Hebron, Mahmoud Batarna, claimed that Israelis had distributed 200 tons of hormone-soaked chewing gum in order to turn Palestinian women into prostitutes.

  Palestinian officials, far from apologizing for spreading such rabid and dangerous propaganda, are at the center of its dissemination. A violent Israeli response to such outrages is, rightly, unthinkable. Yet a violent Palestinian response to such provocations, no matter how marginal, is considered inevitable.

  Among the most central Palestinian demands in the peace process is that they be treated as equals, with respect. There is no denying that Israeli forces, in their daily contact with Palestinians over the past 30 years, could have done a better job of meeting Israel's security needs without causing unnecessary humiliation and hatred. There is much Israeli sympathy with the Palestinian desire to run their own lives, and even to make their own mistakes.

  But mutual respect and understanding cannot be built on a foundation of violence and vicious falsehoods. There are some who would say that it is naive to expect more from the Palestinians. The alternative, however, is to believe that the Palestinians who want real democracy and who are sincerely willing to live peacefully together with Israel in the same land will never hold sway among their people.

  Ultimately, most Israelis will shrug off the hateful rhetoric aimed at them; but Palestinians will have to live under the dictatorship whose disrespect for their human rights is part and parcel of its vitriolic hatred of Israel. The lesson should not be lost that reliance upon hatred of an external enemy is the hallmark of dictatorships generally, and particularly in the Middle East.

  The Netanyahu government is rightly criticized for dickering over cabinet seats while Hebron burns. But, supporters of the peace process are doing the Palestinian people no favors by not holding their leadership to higher standards of restraint, adherence to agreements, and refraining from offensive denials of Jewish history.

 

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• RELATED SECTIONS:

  United Nations, Antisemitism, Racism, "the Occupied Territories", the Left Wing, the Stockholm Syndrome, Arabists, Jonathan Pollard, Incitement, Expansionism, Har Homa, "Land for Peace", Media Bias, Ethical Relativism

• WWW RESOURCES:

• BOOKS & PRINTED MATERIAL:
  • Dictatorships and Double Standards: Rationalism and Reason in Politics, by Jeane J. Kirkpatrick [VIEW BOOK HERE]

  • Rethinking the Middle East, by Efraim Karsh [VIEW BOOK HERE]

  • The Case For Democracy: The Power of Freedom to Overcome Tyranny and Terror, by Natan Sharansky, Ron Dermer, Anatoly Shcharansky [VIEW BOOK HERE]

  • The Case for Israel, by Alan Dershowitz [VIEW BOOK HERE]

  • Israel: Life in the Shadow of Terror, by Nechemia Coopersmith [VIEW BOOK HERE]

  • From Time Immemorial: The Origins of the Arab-Jewish Conflict over Palestine, by Joan Peters [VIEW BOOK HERE]

  • The complete idiot's guide to Middle East conflict, by Mitchell G. Bard [VIEW BOOK HERE]

  • Myths and Facts: A Guide to the Arab-Israel Conflict, Second Edition, by Mitchell Geoffrey Bard [VIEW BOOK HERE]

  • The Siege: The Saga of Israel and Zionism, by Conor Cruise O'Brien [VIEW BOOK HERE]

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