European Document/Who Shall Judge Israel?
Welch, Colin
"European Document/Who Shall Judge Israel?" by Colin Welch Every day poor Israel seems to foreit a little bit more of the sympathy of the guilt-ridden West. The process surely began with...
...In such !circumstances it may be unwise of Mr...
...If so, by what r i g h t do we become so censorious...
...Another analogy incidentally may reveal not so much a n o t h e r flaw in the simple theft-restitution view as a further complication...
...legitimate interests of Palestinians...
...WHO SHALL JUDGE ISRAEL...
...A new antiSemitism, or perhaps the old one in a new and more r e s p e c t a b l e guise, became socially and intellectually acceptable--though of course Palestinians are Semites too...
...If we were in the I s r a e l i s ' position, should we not surely behave more or less as they do, a little bi~ b e t t e r or a l i t t l e bit worse, or go under...
...but he need not do it with any great enthusiasm...
...Their traditional role was to suffer, t h e i r t r a d i t i o n a l reward the innutritious tears of their sympathizers...
...Incidentally, along with editing The American Spectator, R. Emmett Tyrrell, J r . , now writes a nationally syndicated column for King Features...
...A NOTE TO OUR READERS As in years past, the Continuing Crisis appears only once in the three summer months...
...Admittedly Israel now had some new f r i e n d s , of that sort which admired dash, s e l f - r e l i a n c e , resolution and military prowess...
...To return to the f i r s t analogy, we in the West have every right to ask the Israelis to give back whatever may be given back without danger to t h e i r security or even survival, but nothing more...
...by C o l i n Welch Every day poor I s r a e l seems to f o r f e i t a little bit more of the sympathy of the guilt-ridden West...
...Sadat...
...Wherever p r o p e r t y laws actually work against this basic purpose, wherever they favor waste, squandering and ruin, they really cannot be defended with tremendous vigor, if at all...
...And since what is necessary to I s r a e l ' s survival and what is not are matters legitimately debatable, we should without rancor expect Israelis to be much more careful about what they give back than we would like them to be...
...But such people are not typical of those now in power in the West, who are on the whole more likely to be embarrassed by the shameless display of such qualities...
...His a p p a r e n t l y sordid chafferings and grabbings have about them a remaining whiff a garlic and the ghetto, especially by cont r a s t with the a p p a r e n t l y Parsifallike openness of Mr...
...In our zeal to r e d r e s s injustices once inflicted on J e w s , we in the West may once have overlooked the Colin Welch is Deputy Editor of London's Daily Telegraph, where this essay originally appeared...
...But suppose t h a t the judge is credibly informed that my neighbor has never shown any obvious intention of using the gun for legitimate sporting p u r p o s e s , but has on the contrary r e p e a t e d l y threatened and tried to blow me to smithereens with it...
...He sues me for its r e t u r n . The judge may in s t r i c t law be forced to r e t u r n some or all of it to him...
...Next month it will return...
...If you are a newspaper editor or publisher and want further information on Tyrrell's column write or call: Dick 'Fales, National Sales Director, King Features, 235 E. 45th St., New York, N.Y...
...Israel's a r r o g a n t and i n t r u s i v e behavior in her new territories reminds some of South Africa...
...Former friends draw away as if someonc weren't using Amplex, though it is rats which I think I smell...
...The Arab-Israel m a t t e r is often looked at and discussed as though it were a simple matter of restoring stolen p r o p e r t y . I s r a e l has stolen this or t h a t from the P a l e s t i n i a n s ; it is thus her clear duty or even in her i n t e r e s t to give it (or the like) back...
...Nor is there anything to be proud of anyway in r e d r e s s i n g injustices at other people's expense...
...Suppose then that by a mixture of f a i r means and foul I encroach on his e s t a t e , r e s t o r i n g and making f r u i t f u l all the land which I control and making others prosperous as well as myself...
...Well, then, surely the judge should take a different course...
...10017...
...B e g i n ' s bloody past has not won him f r i e n d s , nor does his tactless intransigence influence people...
...They know full well that, while the Arabs may with relative impunity lose war after war, the Israelis can afford to lose only one which, lost, would be for them curtains...
...212) 682-5600...
...The process surely began with the spectacular success of her wars...
...Like South Africa she has not even any oil...
...It is certainly not unwise for him to be cautious or even g r a s p i n g in his stewardship of whatever Israel has got...
...It seemed like a r e v e r s a l of nature when the underdog suddenly and r e p e a t e d l y leapt up and fought back, scattering other dogs, even more under, in all directions...
...Hearts which had bled for Jews s t a r t e d to bleed for P a l e s t i n i a n s as the victims of I s r a e l ' s aggression and injustice...
...2 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR SEPTEMBER 1980...
...One of the main purposes of the laws governing property, after all, is to ensure that precious and scarce assets are in private hands preserved, cherished, developed, enhanced, and put to the b e s t use...
...Suppose that my neighbor has for years neglected his vast e s t a t e , ruining the soil and impoverishing himself and others...
...The judge's duty is superficially clear: to punish me and to r e s t o r e the gun to its owner...
...Suppose I have stolen a gun from my neighbor...
...Our blind eye is now t u r n e d in the opposite direction...
...Begin to be provocative, as he is...
...In our zeal to r e d r e s s P a l e s t i n i a n injustices we may overlook the legitimate interests of Jews...
...Jews had long been pitied as underdogs...
...If there is a flaw in this very simple view, an analogy may help to reveal it...
Vol. 13 • September 1980 • No. 9
