OTHER VIEWS
Who's Winning The Mideast Conflict?
Philadelphia
ecretary of State Colin
Powell recently observed
that the Palestinians "need
to understand that [terror-
ism] leads nowhere," and on this
basis he urged them to stop their
violence against Israelis.
While wholeheartedly agreeing
with the secretary's policy advice,
this observer dissents from his
analysis that the Palestinian use of
violence "leads nowhere." Actually,
the violence has an ambitious strate-
gic purpose, as Hassan Ayoub, direc-
tor of the Palestine Liberation
Organization's executive committee
office in Nablus, explained a few
months ago. "Now, it's a finger-bit-
ing game between the Israelis and
the Palestinians. The first one who
Daniel Pipes is director of the Middle
East Forum. His e-mail address is
Pipes@MEForum.org
says ouch is the one who loses. And
nobody's going to say ouch no mat-
ter how bad it hurts."
In other words, a war of wills is
under way. The Palestinian
Authority, vastly inferior to Israel in
the military realm, hopes to make
Israel "say ouch" by deploying terror-
ism against its civilians. And because
the PA itself cannot sponsor terror, it
delegates this task to Hamas and
Islamic Jihad. PA leader Yasser Arafat
"uses Hamas to bleed Israel, to wear
it down," correctly observes Ephraim
Inbar of Israel's Bar-Ilan University.
If the PA succeeds in bleeding Israel
enough, it will extract larger conces-
sions from it.
Terrorism, in short, is integral to
the PA's negotiating. "The
Palestinian leadership uses terrorism
to 'accelerate' the Oslo process,"
writes the Boston Globe's Jeff Jacoby,
thereby rendering Israelis "so desper-
ate and demoralized that they will
Give up your dream of
make even deeper conces-
destruction. Make a deal
sions, surrender even more
with
us."
land, and struggle even
harder to make peace with
their enemies."
Who Is Winning?
Specifically, the PA seeks
Through the 1990s, Israeli
a total Israeli withdrawal
confusion and illusion per-
from the West Bank and
mitted the Palestinians to
Gaza, Palestinian control
get the upper hand. Since
DANIE L PIPES
over the Temple Mount in
Sharon came to office in
Jerusalem, and massive
Spe cial
March 2001, however,
numbers of Palestinians
Comm entary
Israelis have found their
permitted to live in Israel.
old spirit, their old unity and their
It wants, to be blunt, a start to the
old purpose. The paralyzing divi-
dismantling of the Jewish state.
sions of the 1990s have nearly dis-
Israel has a counterstrategy, one
appeared, as have the self-hating
increasingly evident since Ariel
"post-Zionism" themes (which
Sharon became prime minister in
ridiculed Israeli patriotism) and the
early 2001. It is to show Palestinians
defeatism (which prompted a unilat-
the futility of their dream to destroy
eral withdrawal from Lebanon).
Israel by squeezing them through
The shift is no less dramatic on
the loss of mobility, a steep decline
the Palestinian side. The militant
in living standards, and a collective
Islamic suicide bombings may sug-
malaise. "Look," Israel is in effect
gest robust determination, but they
saying, "this is getting you nowhere.
Ford's Better Holocaust Idea
Washington, D. C.
ord Motor Co. has just
announced the results of a
three-year internal study
of its own Nazi-era and
slave labor history, including the
deep association of its founder,
Henry Ford, with Adolf Hitler,
chancellor of Germany from 1933
to 1945.
The giant automaker has archived
the documents for public inspec-
tion, donated $4 million to
Holocaust and genocide awareness
programs, and apologized to
humanity. In doing so, Ford has set
an example for corporate America's
accountability for extensive involve-
ment in the Holocaust and
Germany's war against the world.
But beyond the headlines, a closer
examination is needed to decipher
exactly what this move is and is not.
Ford's massive examination covers
12/28
2001
26
Edwin Black is the author of "IBM and
the Holocaust" (Crown, 2001). In
another book, "The Transfer Agreement"
(Carroll & Graf 2001), he details
Ford's legacy of anti-Jewish and Nazi
involvement. He can be reached at
edwin @edwinblack. corn
the company's 12 year relationship
with the Third Reich, from the rise
of Hitler in 1933, through the per-
secution years of the thirties, past
the outbreak of World War II in
1939, and the period from late 1941
to 1945 when the United States was
at war with Germany. So extensive
was the probe, it involved a reported
98,000 documents located across
some 30 public and private archival
repositories in the U.S., Germany
and the United Kingdom. The effort
involved some 45 researchers, histo-
rians and translators. It was an
undertaking reminiscent of the
recent investigation of IBM's ties to
the Holocaust, which coordinated
the efforts of some 100 researchers
at 50 archives in seven countries to
assemble the evidence behind the
book IBM and the Holocaust.
Modern Ford's research feat in itself
shows how massive such corporate
investigations need be, well beyond
the resources of even four or five
historians. Moreover, the informa-
tion is scattered, hidden and often
masked.
Ford is the first major American
corporation to undertake such a
self-revelation. It should be corn-
-
made no effort to hinder
mended for what it did.
his years of work, and
The company began the
indeed fully cooperated.
process in 1998, when sev-
This is big. Remember,
eral dozen U.S. corpora-
Ford is in a special catego-
tions, Ford included,
ry. Henry Ford was not
learned they would be tar-
just a businessman out for
geted for lawsuits over their
money. He was arguably
Holocaust activities.
America's
most rabid anti-
Company sources declare
Semite,
Hitler's
idol and a
EDWIN BLACK
their disclosure had noth-
strong
ally
of
the
Nazi
ing to do with a recent
Spe cial
movement
in
the
USA.
So
independent book, Henry
Comm entary
this is more than a case of
Ford and the Jews, by Neil
simple trading with the enemy. The
Baldwin, detailing Henry Ford's
new documents reveal the
involvement with the Hitler regime.
Holocaust-era operations of a com-
Unlike the efforts of some corpo-
pany
that, in the twenties, declared
rate colluders, such as IBM, Ford
that
anti-Semitism
and Jew hatred
did not donate just a few selected
was de facto company policy and
marginal thousand documents from
proved it by corporate distribution
one or two archival files, or claim
of "The International Jew" and the
the documents could not be located.
infamous Protocols of the Elders of
Ford donated many thousands of
Zion.
square feet and a database to go
At the same time, look more
with them. Citing IBM's hostile
closely
at Ford's corporate savvy.
IBM
reaction to the publication of
True,
the
company has published its
a
Ford
spokesmen
and the Holocaust,
own exhaustive summary of its find-
and other company sources made
ings and announced the release of
clear the company would never
98,000 documents. Its announce-
attempt to discredit author Baldwin,
ment came suddenly on,Dec. 6, a
nor obstruct his research. In an
news day when the world was
interview, Baldwin confirmed that
focused on Afghanistan and Israel.
the company and its related archives