It is unbelievable, actually bewildering, that an American newspaperman should suggest that one of three options facing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the conflict with Iran is to assassinate the US president. Although he did not mention Barack Obama by name, all those who read the column felt he was the target.
But what is equally appalling is the failure of the American media, by and large, to cover this shocking development that surfaced two weeks ago on a website. It hardly attracted national attention except within the influential American Jewish community and the American Jewish media, since the author of the column was the Jewish publisher and editor of the Atlanta Jewish Times.
An Arab-American who runs a think-tank in Washington, but refused to be identified, wondered, in an email sent to me, what the consequences would have been had the author been an Arab-American. Certainly, the uproar would have been sky-high.
Meanwhile, the New York Times, much to its credit, exclusively reported that a shady feature film titled The Third Jihad was shown to nearly 1,500 police officers as part of training in the New York Police Department.
What the film showed, the Times found out, was “Muslim terrorists shoot Christians in the head, car bombs explode, executed children lie covered by sheets and a doctored photograph shows an Islamic flag flying by the White House”.
The newspaper continued: “News that police trainers showed this film so extensively comes as the department wrestles with its relationship with the city’s large Muslim community.” It added that the police department offers no apology for “aggressively” spying on Muslim groups although civil rights advocates say the department, “in its zeal, has trampled on civil rights, blurred lines between foreign and domestic spying and sown fear among Muslims”.
As for the Jewish editor of the Atlanta paper, Andrew B. Adler, he outlined in his column three options that Israel, unlike the Obama administration, will be facing in the alleged threat posed by Iran: Strike Hezbollah and Hamas, strike Iran, or “order a hit” on Obama.
Adler’s option three reads:
“Give the go-ahead for US-based [Israeli] Mossad agents to take out a president deemed unfriendly to Israel in order for the current vice-president [Joe Biden] to take his place, and forcefully dictate that the US policy includes its helping the Jewish state obliterate its enemies.
“Yes, you read ‘three’ correctly. Order a hit on a president in order to preserve Israel’s existence. Think about it. If I have of this Tom Clancy-type scenario, don’t you think that this almost unfathomable idea has been discussed in Israel’s most inner circles? You have got to believe, like I do, that all options are on the table.”
Adler’s shocking suggestion sparked an outcry within the influential Jewish community, but got minimal attention from two television networks and was met with virtual silence by the country’s major newspapers.
An influential member of one liberal Jewish organisation, who asked not to be identified, pointed his finger at the Republic Jewish Coalition, a political lobbying group which fervently supports Israel and the remaining Republican presidential candidates for the subdued silence elsewhere.
Although the White House has yet to comment on Adler’s loud opinion, probably so as not to agonise the Jewish community, the Secret Service, however, is said to be aware of the column, titled ‘What would you do?’ and “are taking appropriate investigative steps.
What all this means is that Obama has to watch his step, nationally and internationally, in the next few months, a position that may not satisfy either side especially with regards to the various issues now being debated or articulated in the Middle East.
Abraham H. Foxman, the national director of the extremist Anti-Defamation League, dismissed an apology from Adler because in his opinion, it “cannot possibly repair the damage”. He acknowledged that “the ideas expressed in Mr Adler’s column reflect some of the extremist rhetoric that unfortunately exists — even in some segments of our [Jewish] community — that maliciously labels president Obama as an enemy of the Jewish people”.
Adler did apologise for what was described as “incendiary rhetoric” and has this week stepped away from his paper, established in 1925, and which he bought less than three years ago.
On the other hand, Israel’s targeted assassinations of yesteryears are well known in the Arab world going back to the so-called 1954 Lavon Affair, a failed Israeli covert operation that involved planting bombs inside Egyptian, American and British-owned targets in Egypt, and, more recently, its alleged role in the assassinations of Iranian nuclear scientists.
Tangentially, the American media has to examine itself more seriously. It should not remain silent when an American president is threatened.
George S. Hishmeh is a Washington-based columnist. He is a former editor in chief of The Daily Star.
