David Landau, editor of Ha'aretz newspaper, said something to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that is raising eyebrows. After a dinner at the American ambassador's residence on Sep. 10, but only reported today, Landau offered his thoughts on the current situation. According to Gary Rosenblatt in New York's Jewish Week,
Landau, who was seated next to Rice, was said to have referred to Israel as a "failed state" politically, one in need of a U.S.-imposed settlement. He was said to have implored Rice to intervene, asserting that the Israeli government wanted "to be raped" and that it would be like a "wet dream" for him to see this happen.
David Landau, editor of Ha'aretz newspaper.
Asked to confirm this acount, Landau called it "inaccurate" and "a perversion of what I said" because his views had been delivered with "much more sophistication." But he did in fact acknowledge it to be accurate:
I did say that in general, Israel wants to be raped — I did use that word — by the U.S., and I myself have long felt Israel needed more vigorous U.S. intervention in the affairs of the Middle East.
Landau told Rosenblatt that he was pleased with his own statement, adding that he was later congratulated by several professors present who felt he "articulated what many Israelis feel."
Landau's plea for Washington to pressure Jerusalem was coarse and memorable, but it fit into a pattern going back at least a quarter century. Here is a brief account of comparable leftist efforts, culled from my co-authored piece with Mitchell Bard, "How Special is the U.S.-Israel Relationship?"
In 1982, Prime Minister Begin's critics appealed to the U.S. government for cuts in American aid as a means to change his policies on the West Bank. In 1988, four of Israel's best-known writers (Yehuda Amichai, Amos Elon, Amos Oz, and A. B. Yehoshua) published a statement calling on American Jews and "on all friends of Israel in the United States to speak up" about Israeli policies on the West Bank. More remarkably, they argued that "By their very silence, [American Jews] are massively intervening in Israeli politics." A leading Israeli newspaper published an opinion piece in 1992 that called continued pressure on Israel "the most important condition for advancing the entire [peace] process."
Comment: (1) This appeal to an outside agency to pressure their own government is profoundly undemocratic. (2) It is hard to imagine the intellectuals of any other state acting in like fashion. (December 26, 2007)
Dec. 27, 2007 update: Landau has provided a quote of his comment to Rice and some background for it, in speaking with the New York Sun:
"Israel, after 40 years of failing to resolve its problem of occupation," needed a push from America. "Rape it into resolving the problem," he told Ms. Rice. Some of the participants apparently did not like the comment, Mr. Landau said, and relayed it to one of Israel's leading television reporters, Ehud Yaari, who since then has aired the quote on Israeli TV without attribution, although Mr. Landau said he had never asked that his name be concealed. "I don't go back on what I said," he said, adding that he had published similar sentiments for decades. Even as a Jerusalem Post cub reporter in the 1970s, he said, he had pleaded with the then-undersecretary of state, Joseph Cisco, to "squeeze" Israel and the rest of the Middle East's warring parties, so they could achieve peace.
Jan. 9, 2008 update: Benny Elon, the nationalist politician and party leader, comments on the David Landau matter:
The problem in Israel is not that David Landau felt it necessary to betray his country and heritage to a diplomat from a foreign country. The problem is that with the exception of Makor Rishon, not one Hebrew media outlet reported this atrocity. This is a symptom of a greater problem in our country. … The leftist media in Israel continues to reward coverage only to those pushing plans that will ultimately destroy our country.
Mar. 23, 2008 update: Writing in Ha'aretz, Gideon Levy acerbically notes in "With friends like these" that "The amount of support being shown for Israel these days is almost embarrassing. The parade of highly-placed foreign guests and the warm reception received by Israeli statesmen abroad have not been seen for quite some time." This blind friendship, he rues, "enables Israel to do whatever it wants." Fortunately, however, this wave of support, "is an illusion. Public opinion in most of the countries whose leaders are heaping all that praise upon us is not joining in." With relief, Levy announces that "Israel remains a state without approval, sometimes even outcast and despised. … The current bout of official support for us is not genuine."
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