“The evil that men do lives after them; The good is oft interred with their bones.”
William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar.
Ireland contributed to humanity in general and the Jewish World in particular with leading individuals through the course of history. The Philosopher Edmund Burke, Robert Boyle known as the father of modern Chemistry. Oscar Wild and Bernard Show were both Irish; Lord Kitichener who in 1914 was the British Secretary of State for War was born in Ireland. The Chief Rabbi of Israel, Rabbi Isaac Herzog, was first the Chief Rabbi of Ireland. His one son, Chaim Herzog who became the President of the State of Israel was born in Dublin, as was his brother Jacob Herzog , who was [amongst many other positions] David Ben Gurion’s closest adviser.
Ireland also produced a shameful
terror organisation, a civil/religious war. A stable democracy, an inspiring
economy, and stunning countryside.
Ireland was home to Robert Fisk
[although born in England], who just died in Ireland on 30th October.
Robert Fisk was a journalist. He
wrote for The Times of London, and The Independent. He also wrote a number of
books. In each article and each book he wrote - as he was accused by many - he
was “making up stories” [such as the one in 2004 where he reported that The
American had secretly spirited Saddam Hussein out of prison in Iraq to an
American base in Qatar]. He has claimed to promote the interests of the
underdogs. In all his articles and books, not one good word about Israel, but
poisonous - and many a time fabricated - criticism. He thought Yasir Arafat
betrayed The Palestinians by making peace with Israel.
Mr. Fisk’s most comprehensive book,
“The Great Wars of Civilizations” concentrates on the Middle East. He begins by
telling a very positive and favourable description of a meeting he held with no
other but Osama Bin Laden [who, on the eve of the 2004 US presidential
elections commanded Mr. Fisk - by name - for his “incisive and ‘neutral’
reporting]. The book – has inflated numbers of historical errors [where was
Jesus born; when did Caliph Ali (Prophet Muhammad’s cousin and son in law)
died; when did Amir Abdallah become king of Transjordan; when was resolution
242 of the United Nation passed; when was President Anwar Sadat murdered; when
was Al Qaida founded; when did Ayatollah Khomeini return to Teheran, are just a
few examples in a book, which is described by one citric “It is difficult to
turn a page …. without encountering some basic error”]. The book is also a
brutal – almost hysterical – attacks on Israel. Through his writings, both in
articles and books you can hardly find one serious condemnation of Arab terror.
He “forgot” that the root of all terror in the last 60 years was Extreme Arabs.
As two biographers of Yasser Arafat put it, “to talk about world terrorism
without mentioning the PLO is like talking about the blood circulation without
talking about the heart”.
All terror groups around the world,
from the 60s to the 90s (such as the German Beidr Meinhopf, the Italian Red
Brigade, the Japanese Liberation Army, the Basques in the north of Spain and
the Irish IRA] all – without exception - exercised in the refugee camps
controlled by PLO in Lebanon. Almost all terror acts in the last years were
originated in extreme [and so distorted] Islam, Every traveller – evidently, but
Mr. Fisk, who goes through security at airports knows that the measures
are to protect travellers against Islamic Terror. There is no other terror
actually threatening the word but extreme Islam. This in contradistinction to Islam
itself. Only an “expert” like Robert Fisk can “forget” that the victims of 9/11
were not Muslims, that the victims in the busses in Israel were not Muslims,
the victims in London were not Muslims, the victims in Bali and Japan were not
Muslims, and thereof ask - as he did - why are Muslims always the victims?
In his “masterpiece” he also
dedicates a long chapter to Iran under the Shah. Literally out of nowhere, in
the middle of a paragraph, The late Mr. Fisk notes that El Al, Israel’s airline, had a direct flight from Tel Aviv to Teheran, once a week. No. He does not
mention BOAC’s [British Airways’ predecessor] six flights a week, or Air
France’s seven flights a week.
One of Mr. Fisk’s [many] critics
wrote in 2006 “…so blatant and thoroughgoing are his ideological prejudices,
that his very name has entered the lexicon of the Internet as a synonym for
systematic bias”.
Another “detailed” book of Mr. Fisk
was “Pity The Nation”, concentrating on Lebanon and – how else – Israel’s
devastating attitude to this nation. Distorting facts, Mr. Fisk notes that
nobody is at fault for Lebanon’s catastrophises but Israel, and its supporters.
Syria’s almost 30 years occupation of so many parts of Lebanon is not
considered by Mr. Fisk as harmful as the conflicts with Israel.
The Economist in an article
about Mr. Fisk in 2005 [and quoted recently by the same magazine] wrote “Mr.
Fisk tries to tell the story of The Middle East, but he does not flinch from
telling the story of Mr. Fisk”.
Mr. Fisk “assumingly,” wrote about
Israel. His “The Politics of AntiSemitism”; his selected essays about the
conflicts in the Arab world in “The Age of The Warrior”; and other books are
far from being accurate reporting.
Robert Fisk was a solder. He was
“sleeping with the enemy”. He had a weapon. It was his pen. He misused it. He
violated the trust of objectivity; He hurt the good. He praised evil. He
was noisy, he was wrong and many a time, intentionally misleading.
Sometimes his poisonous pen was so ill-used, his credibility was tarnished. And
he deserved it. He should be remembered as someone who unwrote history.
