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A Final Reply to Yoram Schweitzer

by Daniel Pipes
Sun, 3 Aug 2008

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Yoram Schweitzer has now responded twice to me, and I think it about time to close down his and my exchange, but not before one final, brief reply on my part.

(To recapitulate, the sequence, all published in The Jerusalem Post, began on July 21 with my article, "Samir Kuntar and the Last Laugh," which criticized the Israel-Hizbullah exchange; he replied July 24 with "Not That Bad a Deal," disagreeing on specifics and castigating me for even opining on the matter; on July 28, in "May an American Comment on Israel?" I justified my right to an opinion; today, he replied in "Obfuscation and Oversimplification.")

Schweitzer has quietly but completely retracted his initial criticism of me. On July 24, he dismissed my views as "patronizing and insulting, overlooking as they do the fact that the government and public have the right to decide for themselves …, and to shoulder the resulting price," then for good measure castigating me for doing so from my "secure haven thousands of miles away." Today, it's all sweetness and light:

The right to voice one's thoughts, irrespective of the degree of one's first-hand knowledge of the issues in question, is a linchpin of academic, and indeed democratic, discourse and is not in dispute. The problem with Pipes' last two offerings doesn't lie with the fact that he isn't an Israeli citizen.

Well, thank you. But then, Schweitzer continues: "Rather, it is that he reduces a complex issue to a sound byte, completely ignores the context of the matter at hand and harshly attacks Israeli officials for their handling of this latest crisis."

Sound byte? Well, first the proper expression is "sound bite." Second, it refers to "A short and easily remembered line, intended by the speaker to be suitable for media repetition." My article on the Israel-Hizbullah exchange may be wrong, but it is certainly not a sound bite. It's even less a sound bite when one notes how it fits into my history of writing against disproportionate Israeli exchanges going back over two decades, including "Kuwait's Terrorism Policy Sets an Example" (1986) and "Hezbollah's Victory, Israel's Decline" (2004). (August 3, 2008)

Related Topics: Arab-Israel conflict & diplomacy, Daniel Pipes autobiographical

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Reader comments on this weblog entry

Title By Date
Israel downhill slide [100 words]Gregory SmithSep 15, 2008 11:29
Who is Schweizer? [77 words]AzrielAug 19, 2008 12:53
To Daniel Pipes and Yoram Schweitzer [122 words]huckAug 6, 2008 07:56
Disagree with you Huck [165 words]YnnatchkahAug 9, 2008 14:53
Ynnatchkah, agree and disagree with you [138 words]huckAug 13, 2008 06:02
Thanks Huck- Deeply Appreciated. [29 words]YnnatchkahAug 13, 2008 14:50
Third Perspective in Yoram's Case. [274 words]YnnatchkahAug 15, 2008 00:36
Interesting thoughts Ynnatchkah [115 words]huckAug 15, 2008 23:14
I liked a lot your commentary, especially the following part: [344 words]YnnatchkahAug 16, 2008 20:02
Sound bite not so bad [56 words]Archimedes2Aug 6, 2008 01:03
Yes. The Sound Byte [47 words]YnnatchkahAug 9, 2008 14:43
good job Daniel Pipes [104 words]Yuval BrandstetterAug 5, 2008 00:25
How can Yoram Schweitzer, someone so shallow, hold such an important position? [313 words]Ken BesigAug 4, 2008 14:04
Ken, are you sure about Yoram Schweitzer? [298 words]YnnatchkahAug 9, 2008 21:07
About sound bites and bytes [134 words]G.VishvasAug 4, 2008 09:24
Same old mistakes [141 words]Rebecca MouldsAug 4, 2008 09:11
Yoram does spell his intentions...In my opinion.... [866 words]YnnatchkahAug 4, 2008 03:41

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