Washington — Looking back on 2001, it is hard to find many winners, but there’s no shortage of losers.
Sure, the Sept. 11 terror attacks created a new pantheon of heroes — firefighters, police, the thousands of volunteers who pitched in to help rescue workers here and in New York, and Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who was transformed by the tragedy from divisive partisan to unifier.
But sadly, the year’s news was dominated by those who offered something else: bitterness, bloodshed and division. Here is a modest sampling:
1. Al-Qaida leaders Osama bin Laden and Mullah Omar, who exhorted their followers to fight to the death — and then ran away.
2. Palestinian Authority leader Yasser Arafat, who went on television to call for an end to suicide bombings and barely 48 hours later was threatening more attacks, offering to match Israel “70 of our martyrs for every one of their martyrs.” The clueless Arafat can’t understand why so many people don’t believe him; this week he demonstrated it once again.
3. Palestinian bombers, who experienced what the Israelis euphemistically refer to as “work-related incidents” when their bombs went off prematurely. Special mention goes to the klutz who was assembling his bomb in his backyard as his two children played nearby; local officials vowed revenge against Israel for the three deaths.
4. The Associated Press, Reuters and other news organizations, which describe these would-be mass murderers as “activists” or “militants.” That’s like describing an al-Qaida hijacker as “an aviation enthusiast.”
5. Ahmed Abdel Rahman, Arafat’s cabinet secretary, who blamed the deaths of clumsy bomb makers on Israel and declared their deaths show how Israel wants to “destroy any hope for peace.”
6. A delegation of American Jewish peace activists who made a pilgrimage to Ramallah to meet with Arafat in mid-December, but first lay down in front of Israeli tanks to protest Israeli policy. Afterward they issued a press release lauding Arafat’s “commitment” to peace with Israel — on the same day that he gave his speech offering more martyrs. These activists earlier picketed the White House with pro-Palestinian slogans, such as “Israel kills kids,” to mark “the Palestinian Catastrophe,” the term Arabs use for the creation of the State of Israel.
They call themselves Jewish Unity for a Just Peace and Jews for Peace in Palestine and Israel. Truth in advertising would require a name change: Jews Against the Jewish State.
7. The French ambassador to Britain, Daniel Bernard, who called Israel “that sh—y little country,” and said through his spokesman, “He has no intention of apologizing.”
Closer to home we have our own selection.
8. National Public Radio listeners, who phoned in after Sept. 11 to say if we’d just sit down and talk with bin Laden, we could work out our differences. They probably would have recommended weekend retreats with Adolf Hitler, too.
9. Jewish leaders, who hire public relations firms to shop them around the media so they can provide their wisdom on news events.
10. Those same leaders, who can’t wait to be called so they rush out of off-the-record briefings with top government officials, even the president, drawing out their cellphones to call favored journalists with their version of what happened. “Don’t quote me, just say something nice about me somewhere else in the story.”
11. Candidate George W. Bush, who pledged that on his first day as president he would begin the process of moving the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. Instead, he recently ordered his second six-month postponement, and it’s a no-brainer that it won’t be the last. Those same Jewish groups which attacked Bill Clinton for signing a waiver didn’t make a peep this time. Oh well, next year in Jerusalem. Maybe.
12. The White House talent scout, who is soliciting candidates for appointment to the United States Holocaust Memorial Council. Topping the list of qualifications is “fundraising background,” followed by “governance experience,” “big picture thinkers” and “good business background.” No mention of knowledge of the Holocaust.
13. Televangelists Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, who put “a lot of blame” for the Sept. 11 attacks on the American Civil Liberties Union, the federal courts, abortion rights supporters, pagans, feminists, gays, lesbians, People for the American Way, opponents of prayer in school, liberals and America’s “secular and anti-Christian environment.”
14. Rep. John Cooksy (R-Louisiana), who said anyone with “a diaper on his head and a fan belt” wrapped around it “needs to be pulled over and checked.” Not as much as he does. The good news is he won’t be in the House next year; the bad news is he’s running for the Senate and could win.
15. Attorney General John Ashcroft, who may not be the most dangerous man in America, as some have charged, but can be downright scary. He sanctimoniously wraps himself in the flag and challenges the loyalty of those with the temerity to question his policies. Ashcroft told senators who criticized measures he considered anti-terrorist, “Your tactics only aid terrorists, for they erode our national unity and…give ammunition to America’s enemies.”
Ashcroft believes in loyalty — especially to the gun lobby. He’d rather prohibit the FBI from examining gun purchase records of terrorism suspects than offend the NRA. Bring on bin Laden, but pretty please, not Charlton Heston.
That’s the kind of year it was.
Douglas M. Bloomfield is a Washington, D.C.-based syndicated columnist and a former chief lobbyist for AIPAC.
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