Media Critics Wrong to Invoke Gandhi as Example for Israel

 
by Michael Goldblatt, Ph.D. 
Chairman of the Board,  
Zionist Organization of America - Greater Philadelphia District 
 
	Columnists in two leading Philadelphia newspapers recently 
tried to draw a parallel between the latest Arab-Israeli troubles and 
Mahatma Gandhi's non-violent struggle for Indian independence.  It 
was another example of how some pundits simplistically try to apply 
inappropriate analogies to the unique circumstances that Israel faces 
in the Middle East.  
 
	Writing in the Philadelphia Inquirer on October 1, Amy 
Wilentz (a reporter for The New Yorker magazine) accused the 
Israelis of using too much force against Palestinian Arab rioters.  
"There are no Gandhian philosophers in the Israel Defense Forces, 
no cheek turners," she wrote.  "Whip out the Cobras, 
and send in the tanks--that is how they strategize."  Meanwhile, the 
weekly Philadelphia Forum published a lengthy essay on October 10 
headlined "Gandhi to the Rescue: In Israel and Elsewhere, Violence 
is Real; So is the Antidote."  The author was Ram L. Bhutani, a 
retired Indian ambassador who now lives in Society Hill. 
 
	"Oppressed peoples either fall into pits of depression and 
inertia or take to violence, which breeds more violence," Bhutani 
wrote.  "Gandhi provided a positive antidote; he pointed to a new 
direction to fight evil," that is, to use civil disobedience.  "Stand up 
to evil deeds without rancor for the evil-doer," Bhutani urged, 
evidently referring to the "oppressed" Palestinian Arabs.  "Win the 
evil doer's heart and shame him into doing what is right." 
 
	Those who are familiar with Gandhi's struggle --even those 
who only know about it from the stirring film, "Gandhi"-- cannot 
help but admire his courage and determination, risking his life for 
freedom while steadfastly refusing to harm those he was battling.  
But to cast Yasir Arafat and his followers in the role of Gandhi, and 
Israel in the role of the British occupiers of India, is utterly wrong. 
 
	To begin with, if the Palestinian Arabs are "oppressed" 
today, they are being oppressed by the PLO, not Israel.  The 
territories that the PLO rules contain the majority of the Arab 
population of Judea, Samaria and Gaza.  The PLO's many human 
rights violations in those areas --including the suppression of 
opposition newspapers, the arrest of political dissidents, and the 
torture of prisoners (7 of whom have been tortured to death by PLO 
interrogators during the past two years)-- have been amply 
documented by Amnesty International and others.  Perhaps 
Ambassador Bhutani should encourage the Palestinian Arabs to 
direct Gandhian protests at their real oppressors. 
 
	Bhutani's implication that Israel is the "evil-doer" and that its 
policies are "evil deeds" is outrageous.  Israel is a tiny democratic 
oasis in a sea of belligerent dictatorships.  It has always reached out 
its hand in peace to its neighbors, only to be subjected to military 
invasions, economic boycotts and constant terrorism.  The "evil-
doers," as Bhutani calls them, are the bigots who cannot tolerate the 
existence of a Jewish State next door; the "evil deeds" are the 
planting of bombs on buses and the hurling of deadly rocks and 
firebombs at Israelis. 
 
	That's why "there are no Gandhian philosophers in the Israel 
Defense Forces," as Amy Wilentz put it.  Not because Israelis love 
"Cobras [attack helicopters] and tanks," as Wilentz suggests, but 
because Israel must defend itself against people who are bent on 
murder.  When PLO policemen joined the anti-Israel rioters last 
month and shot 15 Israelis to death, "Gandhian philosophy" was not 
the antidote. 
 
	What makes the invoking of Gandhi's name particularly 
ironic is that Gandhi himself was hostile to the idea of creating the 
State of Israel in the first place.  He charged that the use of Jewish 
force (even though it was in self-defense) in the struggle to establish 
Israel had "vulgarized" and "debased" the  Zionist ideal.  "Zionism 
meaning reoccupation of Palestine has no attraction for me," he 
declared.  Even after the Kristallnacht pogroms in Nazi 
Germany, Gandhi wrote (in a letter to Martin Buber) that German 
Jews were morally obligated to remain in Germany and practice 
"satyagraha" (non-violent protests) rather than move to Palestine.  In 
an interview with the author Louis Fischer (in 1938), quoted in 
Fischer's book Gandhi and Stalin, Gandhi proposed 
that the Jews in Germany commit collective suicide in order to 
"arouse the world and the people of Germany to Hitler's violence." 
 
	Instead of heaping blame on Israel, Gandhi's admirers, Amy 
Wilentz and Ram Bhutani included, should be using the pages of the 
Philadelphia Inquirer and the Philadelphia Forum to condemn the 
immorality of Palestinian Arab violence against Israel, to urge Yasir 
Arafat to preach peace instead of war, and to call for the use of 
Gandhian tactics against the oppressive PLO regime in the 
territories.  That would be a fitting way to honor Gandhi's memory.   
 

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