Editor's Letter
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CD
Freedom Fighting
G
eorge Washington was a freedom fighter, not a ter-
rorist, though some would have you believe differ-
ently.
At the height of Israel's war against Hezbollah last summer,
in a bid to compare the leader of Hezbollah to the Father of
our Country, some Arab American leaders tried to sell the old
truism that one man's terrorist is another's freedom fighter.
But comparing Hezbollah's Sheikh
Hassan Nasrallah to Revolutionary
War General George Washington is
ludicrous and an insult to the demo-
cratic ideals so admired and fought for
in the Western world.
General Washington led a ragtag
colonial army against better-trained
and better-equipped British Redcoats
who underestimated the American
resolve to create a -representative
democracy in the New World. The
land surveyor-turned-military hero
helped set the stage for a new nation rooted in liberty and
laws, not a monarchy, dictatorship or theocracy driven by
oppressive control like what was established by Nasrallah and
his Iranian-backed Shi'ite Party of God, which the U.S. State
Department has branded a terrorist organization.
While the war raged last summer, Ynetnews.com reported
that Nasrallah declared: "You
Arab and Muslim people
must take a position toward
your future, the future of
your children. The peoples of
the Arab and Islamic world
have a historic opportunity
to score a defeat against the
Zionist enemy ... we are pro-
viding the example'
That fits with the popular
Islamist refrain: "Death to
Israel. Death to the Jews!'
David Hackett Fischer
Hezbollah also received
special mention in President
Bush's State of the Union
address last week. Bush cited the Lebanese terrorist group
for "sowing conflict in the region:' apparently referring to
Hezbollah's kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers and murder
of eight others last July as well as its efforts to topple the
democratically elected Lebanese government. Bush said the
Shi'ite Muslim extremism of Iran, which finds its expression
in Lebanon through Hezbollah, was equal to the threat posed
by Sunni Muslim extremists such as Al Qaida. "We face an
escalating danger from Shia extremists who are just as hostile
to America, and are also determined to dominate the Middle
East:' the president said.
Anger Aroused
To the British, George Washington was a terrorist for leading
the colonist uprising against the ruling Crown. That's no dif-
ferent than how Arab Americans might view Nasrallah, goes
the comparative thinking.
This disturbing equation roused Arthur Horwitz, pub-
lisher of the Detroit Jewish News. It prompted Horwitz,
an American history enthusiast, to seek out David Hackett
Fischer, author of George Washington's Crossing.
Fischer is a nationally known and respected scholar of the
Revolutionary War era and of America's first president.
Fischer's credentials are impeccable; he also authored Paul
Revere's Ride and Liberty and Freedom.
Horwitz sent Fischer a copy of a general news report
depicting the "freedom fighter" equivalency.
Fischer, the Warren Professor of History in the Department
of History at Brandeis University in Waltham, Mass.,
responded to Horwitz's query in an October letter. "George
Washington's 'policy of humanity' was the opposite of the ter-
ror movements that we are fighting today:' Fischer wrote.
In that concise statement, Fischer repudiated the non-
sense being foisted upon Arab Americans by shrewd leaders
eager for an angle to undermine Israel and justify Hezbollah
aggression even if they say they oppke terrorism.
Debunking The Comparison
Horwitz also gave me a copy of a 2005 online magazine
account in which Blogcritics Web writer Tom Donelson wrote:
"Those who kill the innocent in terrorist activities as part of a
deliberate policy are not freedom fighters."
"How could a group of men who fought for a freedom that
stood the test of time be compared to terrorists who would
enslave their own people?" Donelson asked.
Donelson contended that Islamic terrorists show no mercy
for those they conquer, be they Iraqis, Afghans, Lebanese,
"George Washington's 'policy of
humanity' was the opposite of
the terror movements that we are
fighting today."
Palestinians, Westerners or Jews from any land. The conten-
tion is sound: Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl was
abducted by terrorists in Pakistan and beheaded for being a
Jew and an American.
Donelson's conclusion echoed for me: "To equate these ter-
rorist individuals with those soldiers who stood freezing in
1776 insults those who fought for the expansion of the free-
dom in the past and are still doing it today"
Despite continuing Arab American support, the "freedom
fighters" of Hezbollah have wreaked havoc upon the Arabs of
Lebanon as well as the Jews and Arabs of Israel. This terrorist
network, which to the civilized world's chagrin fought Israel
to a draw over the summer, is responsible directly or indi-
rectly for much of the hardship in Arab lands.
Interfaith initiatives in a multicultural community like
Metro Detroit are important. But Jews should not look past
Arab Americans we consider moderate yet who view Middle
East politics through a lens that obscures the hatred propelled
at Israel by so-called freedom fighters. fl
Are you irked by the comparison of
Washington and Nasrallah?
Why does it seem that Hezbollah still
has traction in America?
CD
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Februaryl • 2007
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