THEY SWARM LIKE KILLER BEES

In a recent article, I referred to an interview of Ariel Sharon that was reportedly conducted by Amos Oz saying that Sharon wanted to foment global anti-Semitism to con Jews into leaving the Diaspora and moving to Israel.

Following publication of the article I received a friendly email query from New Zealand asking whether I could comment on the authenticity of the quotation attributed to Oz. Though the inquirer didn’t say so, I surmised that he might have seen the one source on the Internet debunking the interview and attacking Holger Jensen, the writer/editor who quoted it in the Denver Rocky Mountain News.

In my response, I noted that judging from what's available on the Internet, Jensen had been cheated out of a career at which he excelled.

The Interview of Oz with Ariel Sharon was reportedly published in the Israeli daily Davar, Dec.17, 1982 and reported by the Independent Media Centre, the Islamic Association for Palestine, The Voices of Palestine and several other sites.

The only denial of the article's authenticity came from Ricki Hollander in Camera long after Davar stopped publication.

Hollander claimed that the interview came from Oz's book In the Land of Israel. Hollander wrote, "Amos Oz never met nor interviewed Sharon. In fact, the so-called “interview” was a literary device taken from Oz's book In the Land of Israel. In the English version, the interviewee's identity is not revealed, and is referred to as Z (Flamingo/Fontana 1983)."

Notice how Hollander tried to deny it was an "interview" and called it a "literary device"; yet she referred to "the interviewee's identity" in the next sentence. Hollander attempted to claim that Z did not fit Sharon, adding "at one point Z refers to Sharon, Begin and General Eitan" without pointing out that Sharon (Z) could easily refer to himself in the context of the other two.

Holger Jensen, who Camera faulted, had actually got the quote from Palestinian sources, and when Camera called him on it, he immediately retracted (according to Camera) his use of the quote rather than sticking by his belief in the authenticity of the story as he received it until Camera provided definite proof of its falsity.

Camera went on a campaign to vilify Jensen, writing "Holger Jensen’s distortions and misrepresentations require swift and forthright correction! Act now!" To accommodate that, they added:

"Contact John Temple, the Editor and Vice President of the Rocky Mountain News. Politely urge that Holger Jensen be held to the usual journalistic standards that require accuracy, balance and accountability. Politely demand that the paper ensure Jensen’s false charges and malicious distortions are corrected and that they do not recur. Write John Temple at:..."

The result: Jensen resigned as editor of the Rocky Mountain News under great pressure from these thugs who use Mafioso tactics to break the bones of anyone who doesn’t subscribe to their extortionist services.

As it turned out, Camera attributed the statements to "another unnamed Israeli soldier who died 11 years ago...” How convenient! "Another unnamed Israel soldier"! Camera had the audacity to challenge sources of information and statements made, while they relied on "unnamed" soldiers to fit their biased preconceptions.

In other words Hollander didn't deny the statements were made to Oz, but simply denied Sharon made them! There are few organizations in America as rabid in their protection of Sharon or as vicious in their vengeance of Israeli critics as Camera. The only reason that several reliable Palestinian news sources seem to have lost out in this instance to a Zionist news mafia in America is because of the power that the Zionists wield there.

In another version of the story, the interviewee is identified not as Z but as C, but the story is the same. What Camera doesn't say is that the interview from the book appeared in the daily Davar. It's inconceivable that the Palestinians reporting the interview would have read the book. However, there was never any question that the passage appeared in the book.

Z (or C) says, "I don't care if I am like Ghadafi." Is that something that an ordinary soldier would say (as Camera asserts)? Oz refers to his interviewee as about 50 years old. At the time of the interview, Sharon was 54 years old. Later he says "I personally don't want to be any better than Khomeini or Brezhnev or Ghadafi or Assad or Mrs. Thatcher, or even Harry Truman who killed half a million Japanese with two fine bombs." Is this just any soldier speaking or the leader of the pack comparing himself with other leaders?

And further on, Z (or C) says "Maybe the world will then at last begin to fear me instead of feeling sorry for me." Why would "the world" feel anything for an insignificant soldier as Camera attempts to portray the character? Could Z (or C) be anyone else when Oz writes "he was said to have never shouted under stress, even during the famous operations his name is associated with"?

Another Palestinian source reports that "Amos Oz reproduced this interview, with others, in his book in Hebrew, 1982: Amos Oz: Poh va-sham be-Erets-Yisra'el bi-setav, 1982, republished by Am Oved, Tel-Aviv, 1986. The interview is on pages 70-82. Amos Oz does not mention the name of Sharon, but uses the abbreviation Z. The facts given by Amos Oz indicate that the person interviewed is Ariel Sharon."

The fact that the story was translated into several languages accounts for the different references to Z and C (and even T in another translation).

There's an unfortunate "mea culpa" presumably written by Holger Jensen   indicating that he talked with Amos Oz after the flare up by Camera and that Oz said he had never interviewed Sharon. Holger also said some had believed that Oz could well have been saying that "now covering his ass."

Jensen also noted that he "received a sympathetic e-mail from Israel Shamir, another prominent Russian-Israeli journalist and author, saying dozens of Israeli journalists had attributed those quotes to Sharon in the past." As Jensen has said elsewhere, "American journalists who cover the Middle East are accustomed to attacks by hate web sites such as CAMERA and Honest Reporting, which bombard their editors with demands they be fired for 'pro-Arab' or 'anti-Israel' views."

Camera and other similar groups hate writers like Jensen because they represent a voice for even-handedness in the Middle East; and the Zionist controlled media will not allow any news organization, editor or writer the right to balanced judgment. A March 2002 article reveals the kind of fair reporting Jensen was doing 

I must say that I was disappointed that Jensen caved in so easily. The sadistic Zionists at Camera couldn't resist rubbing his face in the mud once they got him down.

Websites like Camera (or ADL, etc.) are worse than contemptible for their derision of any critic of Israel or Zionism. Their despicable use of pressure and lobbying to ruin the career of any non-compliant follower of Zionism is nothing but cheap, self-serving sleaze and fake bravado. They swarm like killer bees to destroy any opposition.

The question of authenticity of the Oz report depends on who you believe. I tend to believe the underdog trying to report what he sees as fairly and accurately as he perceives it rather than reprehensible thugs who not only engage in character assassination but who would destroy anyone who doesn't yield to their pressure and intimidation. The intimidators also make a mockery of "freedom of speech."