Daniel Pipes has a valuable and insightful essay today in the New York Sun, on the importance of language as a political weapon in the ongoing struggle for Israel's right to exist.

In an era when the battle for public opinion has an importance that rivals the clash of soldiers, the Palestinian Arabs' success in framing the issues has won them critical support among politicians, editorial writers, academics, street demonstrators, and NGO activists. In the aggregate, these many auxiliaries keep the Palestinian Arab effort alive.

Especially in a long—standing dispute with a static situation on the ground, public opinion has great significance. That's because words reflect ideas, and ideas motivate people. Weapons in themselves are inert; today, ideas inspire people to pick up arms or sacrifice their lives. Software drives hardware....

...the Palestinian Arabs' wording dominates English—language usage, helping them win the war for public opinion.

* Collaborator means someone who "co operates treasonably" and brings to mind the French and Norwegian collaborators who betrayed their countries to the Nazis. Yet this term (rather than informant, mole, or agent) universally describes those Palestinian Arabs providing Israel with information.

* Refugee status normally applies to someone who, "owing to a well—founded fear of being persecuted ... is outside the country of his nationality," but not to that person's descendants. In the Palestinian Arab case, however, children, grandchildren, and great—grandchildren of refugees also merit refugee status. One demographer estimates that more than 95% of so—called Palestinian Arab refugees never fled from anywhere. Nonetheless, the term continues to be used, implying that millions of Palestinian Arabs have a right to move to Israel.

* A settlement is defined as a small community or an establishment in a new region. Although some Jewish towns on the West Bank and in Gaza have tens of thousands of residents and have existed for nearly four decades, settlement, with its overtones of colonialism, is their nearly universal name.

* Occupied territories implies that a Palestinian state existed in 1967, when Israel captured the West Bank and Gaza. That was not the case, making these areas legally disputed territories, not occupied ones.

* Cycle of violence, a term President Bush has adopted ("The cycle of violence has got to end in order for the peace process to begin."), implies a moral equivalence between the killing of Israeli civilians and Palestinian Arab terrorists. It confuses the arsonist with the fire department.

* The peace camp in Israel, a term that derives from Lenin's usage, refers to those on the left who believe that appeasing mortal enemies is the only way to end Palestinian aggression. Those in favor of other approaches (such as deterrence) by implication constitute the "war camp." In fact, all Israelis are in the "peace camp" in the sense that all want to be rid of the conflict; none of them aspires to kill Palestinian Arabs, occupy Cairo, or destroy Syria.

Arabs may have fallen behind Israel in per capita income and advanced weaponry, but they lead by far on the semantic battlefield.

Ed Lasky   1 04 05