OTHER VIEWS
A Tough Reality Check
Philadel hia
ou may think you know
what happened on Jan. 3,
when Israeli Navy Seals seized
the Karine A, a cargo ship
carrying 50 tons of contraband Katyusha
rockets, anti-tank missiles, mortars,
mines, explosives and sniper rifles.
You may think the ship's captain
acknowledged on television that he is a
Palestinian Authority (PA) employee act-
ing under military orders and that he was
dispatched to the Iranian shoreline to load
the arms onto his ship. You may think he
was heading to the waters off Gaza to
release the arms in watertight cases for a
pickup by small Palestinian boats. If
you thought this, you would be in good
company. "Unequivocal" was how
Israel's chief of staff called the evidence
of this being a PA smuggling operation.
Condoleezza Rice, the U.S. national
security advisor, said her government
"seriously suspects" PA Chairman Yasser
Arafat himself knew about the ship-
ment. And Arafat, while denying per-
sonal culpability, acknowledged that his
officers were implicated in the scheme.
But the Middle East media knows bet-
Daniel Pipes is director of the Middle
East Forum. His-email address is
pipes@MEForum.org
ter. "The story of the arms ship is but a
licensed fabrication by Israel," announces
the editor-in-chief of the Egyptian gov-
ernment's daily, Al-Akhbar. Saudi media
agree that the episode was a hoax, with
the Arab News calling it "an elaborate
trap" and Ar-Riyadh alleging that it "was
necessary to fabricate the ship story" to
implicate other Arab and Muslim coun-
tries as sponsors of terrorism.
"A fairy tale" was how a letter in the
Jordan Times dismissed the episode.
Qatar's Ash-Sharq interpreted it as an
Israeli "pretext for more oppression and
terrorism against the Palestinians" and a
story that "no sane person can believe."
In other words, Middle Eastern media
engaged in a bald, flat-out, and blatant
denial of reality. This fits into a well-
established and important pattern. The
home video showing Osama bin Laden,
the exiled Saudi radical and suspected
mastermind of the Sept. 11 terrorist
attacks in America, smirking as he
described the devastation at the World
Trade Center in New York City struck
many Muslims as a fake.
"I think this recording is forged ... I
don't believe this tape is authentic,"
announced Muhammad Salih, a Saudi
religious figure. The head of Jordan's
Islamic Action Front, Abd al-Latif
Arabiyat, agreed: "Do the Americans real-
Understanding Jewish Tradition
New York City
uch puzzlement — and
even more merriment —
greeted the story, reported
by the Associated Press
and others, of some observant Jews'
reluctance to fly El Al planes from Tel
Aviv to New York City because their
flight path at takeoff passes directly
over a cemetery in the town of Holon.
What engendered the concern of
observant kohanim, or descendants of
Moses' brother Aaron, about boarding
the flights was the halachic (Jewish law)
stricture forbidding them from certain
contact with, including passing above,
dead bodies. Such contact, according to
Jewish religious law deriving from a
number of verses in Leviticus, confers a
spiritual contamination of sorts.
A respected Reform rabbi and
scholar with whom I was friendly,
William Braude, once even suggested
that the word "contaminate" may
itself be sourced in the Hebrew word
111
Rabbi Avi Shafran is director of public
affairs for Agudath Israel of America,
a national Orthodox organization. His
e-mail address is shafi-an@amechaelcom
for that effect, tumah.
While enclosures of various sorts can
"insulate" a kohen from such contami-
nation, whether the alloys that corn-
prise the body of a modern aircraft
might do so is a complex halachic issue.
At least one major halachic authority
ruled that they cannot, and so some
kohanim opted not to fly on El Al.
Others, much to the amusement of
some in the media, requested to be per-
mined to enclose themselves on the
plane in various ways, including, report-
edly, in body bags — which, sadly, are
well-stocked in Israel these days.
It has been reported that Ephraim
Sneh, Israel's transportation minister
has made efforts to reroute El Al's
planes to accommodate its observant
passengers. If that, indeed, proves to
be the case, the problem for observant
travelers will have been solved.
The media snickering, though, over
the image of rational human beings so
concerned with something impercepti-
ble that they would go so far to wrap
themselves in insulation made me think
about a very similar scene that unfolded
recently in a number of venues.
There, too, otherwise reasonable
ly think the world is that stupid
claimed victory over Israel in
to think that it would believe
the October War of 1973 —
that this tape is evidence?"
and even built a museum dedi-
Hani Siba'i of the Egyptian
cated to this fantasy. One
Islamic Jihad accused the
Egyptian diplomat acknowl-
Pentagon of using technology
edges, "I never knew we lost
to simulate bin Laden's laugh.
the war until I was 26."
"It's a fake," he told Al Jazeera.
As his experience suggests,
"The Americans fabricated it."
these lies are so often repeated
DANIEL
PIPES
Muhammad Rizieq of the radi-
that they become widely
Special
cal Indonesian Defenders Front
believed.
Comm entary
called the tape "U.S. propagan-
This pattern of avoiding
da to cover up their war crimes
unpleasant facts offers an
in Afghanistan."
insight into the problems of Muslim
Likewise, the Muslim world refused
society. Turning defeat into victory, evi-
responsibility for the attacks on Sept.
dence into forgery, and terrorism into an
11: General Hameed Gul, former head
"inside job" creates an alternate and more
of Pakistani intelligence deemed Israeli
hospitable world. But this denial avoids
and American agents "the obvious cul-
problems rather than dealing with them.
prits ... This was clearly an inside job."
Not acknowledging who carried out
The father of Mohammed Arta, the
the 9-11 atrocities, for example, means
alleged ringleader of the 9-11 attacks,
ignoring its many causes, from a radical-
completely refused to acknowledge his
ized school curriculum to the use of
son's complicity, calling the evidence "a
Islamic "charities" for money launder-
farce ... a forgery, a fabrication."
ing. Part of the U.S. war on terrorism,
Such willful denial is not new Just
therefore, has to be working with
last year, Iraq's Defense Minister Lt.
Muslim governments and pressing them
Gen. Sultan Hashim Ahmed declared
to face reality. This will not be easy, but
that because the U.S. government did
so long as they remain in denial, the
not accomplish its goals in the 1991
stage is set for fresh disasters. ri
Kuwait war, it had "lost the war," a sen-
— Jonathan Schanzer, a research
timent shared by many in the region.
associate at the Middle East Forum,
Likewise, the Egyptian government
contributed to this report.
men had encased themselves
What is more, Judaism,
in body bags (they called them
while it lives and breathes in
"suits") ro protect themselves
the "real" world of our physi-
against an entirely invisible
cal existence, is steeped in the
danger, in places like the Hart
idea that what we think and
Senate Office Building and a
say and do makes a difference
number of post office facilities
not only in the familiar world
in cities such as Washington,
but also — and perhaps most
New York and elsewhere.
of all — in a spiritual realm
RABB I AVI
Now, needless to say,
largely imperceptible to us.
SHAF RAN
anthrax germs, while invisible
When we perform a mitz-
Spe cial
to the human eye, are still
vah, we affect that spiritual
Comm entary
physical entities and
realm, as well as the spiritual
detectable in other ways. And they are
within us. We may have done nothing
capable of causing very apparent dis-
more than heard a shofar's cry on
ease and death. Tumah, by contrast, is
Rosh Hashanah or taken an etrog and
invisible to even the most powerful
lulav on Sukkot; nothing more than
microscope, and has no evident physi-
circumcised a Jewish baby or made a
cal effects. But that does not make it
blessing on a food; nothing more than
unreal, and therein lies important
refrained from eating a forbidden
food for Jewish thought.
food or from speaking ill of others.
The Jewish people might best be
But we have created a powerful effect,
described, from a historical perspective,
even if it is one not readily noticeable.
as the vehicle for teaching the world
There is much else in the rich realm
about the invisible. Our ancestors faced
of the invisible, including puzzling
a world filled with idols of every sub-
things like tumah. But Jews sensitive
stance and worshippers of stars, and
to Jewish tradition do not seek to
forced it to confront a new and outra-
ridicule or dismiss them, but rather to
geous idea: that the true God tran-
endeavor, through study of Jewish
scends all His creations and is unseen.
sources, to better understand them.
And there were other invisibles that our
Because they realize that, whether in
forbears introduced, too — ideals such as
the realm of sickness or of spirit, some-
justice, education, empathy and peace.
times what is invisible matters. 111