Posted on 07/15/2002 11:15:07 PM PDT by JohnHuang2
No, that headline is not a typographical error, folks.
While some of you know I have put my life on the line as an Arab-American journalist standing up for freedom and against anti-Jewish hatred in the Middle East, the latest assaults on me are, indeed, coming from Jews.
For those of you who don’t know, long before the Sept. 11 terror attacks, I had already filed with the FBI at least 11 written death threats made against me by e-mail from apparent Islamists angry with my “betrayal” of the Arab cause. A day has not gone by in the last two years when I have not faced threats, intimidation, boycotts and insults from the Arab and Muslim world as a result of my outspoken criticism of Yasser Arafat and the Arab world’s potentates.
Of course, that doesn’t surprise me. It comes with the territory. For whatever reason, the Arab and Muslim worlds don’t tolerate dissent.
But the shocker for me came when I began to read scathing criticism of me by Jewish writers.
For instance, here’s what Gershom Gorenberg wrote in his Jerusalem Report column July 1:
Among the underhanded is Joseph Farah’s article “Myths of the Middle East,” again circulating these days, in which the writer identifies himself as Arab-American and proclaims that there’s no Islamic connection to Jerusalem. The implication is that someone has let us in on what “the Arabs” really think. But a quick Web search reveals that Farah, whatever his ancestry, is a Christian fundamentalist and head of the WorldNetDaily site, packed with all the myths of the American ultra-right. As cub reporters learn, it’s worth checking who your source is.
That’s one. Here’s another. This from Rob Eshman, editor-in-chief of the Jewish Journal in Los Angeles:
“There is no editor of cyberspace, and that’s too bad. The latest e-mail craze to spread like the Melissa virus through the cc: box of various e-mails is the report of a man named Joseph Farah. Farah is an Arab-American journalist who has cashed in on some Jewish Americans’ willingness to believe exactly what they want to believe. His report, called “Myths of the Middle East” has [sic] richoted [methinks he means ricocheted] from e-mail to e-mail. It has arrived at our offices dozens of times, usually preceded by the sender’s imploring, “You MUST read this!” or “Bet you don’t have the GUTS to print THIS!”
Like Gorenberg, whom Eshman quotes in his own diatribe, Eshman doesn’t actually question a single fact from my writings. Neither of them disputes the substance nor the details of anything I have ever written. Instead, they, and others like them, use ad hominem attacks.
“Let’s forget for a minute that no serious Israeli leader believes this hooey,” claims Eshman.
Yes, indeed, let’s forget that pronouncement because there is not an ounce of truth in the statement. Even Ehud Barak, the Labor leader whom I have savaged for his policies as prime minister, has come around to sound much like me.
Eshman then attempts to discredit me as a valid source of information and analysis because of my criticism of President Bill Clinton, Steven Spielberg (this guy must have a script he’s trying to peddle) and my opinion that guns reduce crime. Do you get the picture? I don’t agree with his opinions, so I don’t know what I’m talking about.
Eshman describes me as “a writer for a range of garden-variety outlets of the Christian far right.” That one really got me.
I did a Nexis search on Eshman and could not find a single article outside of the Jewish Journal. Meanwhile, here are a few of my hundreds of writing credits: the Wall Street Journal, TV Guide, the Los Angeles Times, the Boston Globe, the San Francisco Chronicle, the San Francisco Examiner, the Sacramento Bee, the Chicago Sun-Times. I also write a weekly column for that well-known right-wing Christian publication: the Jerusalem Post International Edition.
I just signed a deal with Creators Syndicate to distribute my column nationally and internationally. I have served as editor-in-chief of two daily newspapers and several weeklies. I have run the news departments of major metropolitan newsrooms, including one in Eshman’s own city. I have authored several books and am writing a new one. I founded the Internet’s largest independent newssite.
Interestingly, never in my career have I written a word for any right-wing Christian publication. Never have I been employed by Christian media. My entire career has been spent in the “mainstream” secular newspaper and media world – not that any of that should matter to someone unless he is an anti-Christian bigot.
My guess is that Eshman and Gorenberg would have a great deal of trouble getting published outside of their own small network of left-wing Jewish periodicals. In fact, by writing this column about them, I have probably brought them more fame and more notoriety than either has ever had before and likely would ever have without my humble assistance.
Why do I bother? Because ignorant hate speech and unwarranted personal attacks like this deserve repudiation. Because Jews, too, need to be held responsible for their words and deeds. Because a lie is a lie, whether it is told by an Arab or a Jew. Because cowardly Jews like Gorenberg and Eshman actually put lives like mine in more danger and make it far less likely that other Arabs and Arab-Americans will follow in my footsteps.
Nan Vet
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