Nationally syndicated radio talk show host Michael Medved spoke at Temple Emanu-El this week about what he contends are "big lies" perpetuated by the media and critics of Israel’s attempts at negotiating peace with Arab countries.
The theme echoes that presented in his recent books, "The 10 Big Lies About America" and "The Five Big Lies About American Business."
During the event, which drew a crowd of about 150 to the temple Sunday, Medved spoke about what he calls the "top four big lies about Israel" that opponents have used to "criminalize and dehumanize Israel."
The political commentator, author of 11 books and movie critic said, "Lie No. 1 is that the Israeli-Palestinian dispute is the most serious and consequential dispute in the world and that we will only make progress against Islamo-fascist terror once (the dispute) is solved, particularly when the so-called Jewish settlement communities on the West Bank are dismantled."
The notion that terrorism in the Middle East, where U.S.-led peace talks are underway, is caused by Israel’s "refusal to make peace with the Palestinians and to give back territory … is a fiction," Medved said. "It has zero reality to it."
To embrace such a notion, Medved said, would be to ignore the emergence of al-Qaida in East Africa and elsewhere as well as the violence that erupted when Israel withdrew from Sinai in 1979, southern Lebanon in 2000 and Gaza in 2005.
Crediting Harvard professor Alan Dershowitz, Medved said: "The core reality of the dispute is this: … If the Palestinians put down their weapons, there would be peace tomorrow. … If the Israelis put down their weapons, there would be genocide tomorrow."
Last month the United Nations Human Rights Council released a report that said Israel’s overall settlement policy since 1967 violates Palestinians’ rights under the Fourth Geneva Convention and called for Israel to stop construction, though the council’s directive is not legally binding.
Israel annexed East Jerusalem, with its Palestinian population, after capturing the territory from Jordan in 1967 and has built housing developments for Jews there, but the annexation has not been recognized internationally. Israeli officials maintain that the U.N. council’s view is skewed by a long-standing bias.
"Lie No. 2 is that Israel stole and dismantled a flourishing age-old Palestinian state and that what the Palestinians want is a return (of their state)," Medved said.
"Palestine never existed as a sovereign nation," he said, but only as a region to which immigrants from many countries came. Israel insists that its "right to exist" as a sovereign nation supersedes any Palestinian claim by centuries and peace agreements.
The third lie perpetuated by critics, Medved said, is that Israel was given sovereignty by "a guilty world as compensation for the horrors of the Holocaust" during World War II — a concept he called too "stupid" to spend much time refuting.
Finally, he said, "Lie No. 4 is that the only reason the U.S. supports Israel is politics and power, the vaulted Israeli lobby and the tremendous wealth and influence of the American Jews."
Historically, Medved said, support for Israel in the United States "has nothing to do with Jewish political power and everything to do with Christian political power" and the common passions within "the soul of the two countries," including deep spiritual ties between them.
Cliff Halevi, president of Temple Emanu-El’s board, said most of its membership consists of liberal Democrats who hold views consistent with the Union for Reform Judaism movement. Even so, Halevi said he agrees with the conservative commentator on some matters.
For example, he said, the United Nations has singled out Israel for condemnation repeatedly when worse atrocities committed by other nations are not given attention. Israeli citizens face an onslaught of missile bombings by Palestinian terrorists every day, yet the U.N. has "never passed resolutions commanding the bombings to stop," Halevi said.
