Exodus versus the Whitey Tape

No Problem with Stereotyping Arabs

by Joachim Martillo (ThorsProvoni@aol.com)

 

In Lucius Battle, Robert Kaplan, Arabists I mentioned that "Barak Obama recently sought a "Zionist hekhsher" from Atlantic Monthly staff writer Jeffrey Goldberg.

 

In his blog entry, Goldberg wrote:

And, speaking in a kind of code Jews readily understand, Obama also made sure to mention that he was fond of the writer Leon Uris, the author of Exodus.

Later in the piece Barak Obama adds:

BO: I always joke that my intellectual formation was through Jewish scholars and writers, even though I didn't know it at the time. Whether it was theologians or Philip Roth who helped shape my sensibility, or some of the more popular writers like Leon Uris. So when I became more politically conscious, my starting point when I think about the Middle East is this enormous emotional attachment and sympathy for Israel, mindful of its history, mindful of the hardship and pain and suffering that the Jewish people have undergone, but also mindful of the incredible opportunity that is presented when people finally return to a land and are able to try to excavate their best traditions and their best selves. And obviously it's something that has great resonance with the African-American experience.

One of the things that is frustrating about the recent conversations on Israel is the loss of what I think is the natural affinity between the African-American community and the Jewish community, one that was deeply understood by Jewish and black leaders in the early civil-rights movement but has been estranged for a whole host of reasons that you and I don't need to elaborate.

While many American Jews opposed discrimination against African Americans on ethical grounds, the majority either held racist attitudes toward blacks or backed equal civil rights out of political or social opportunism. (See Obama and the Freedom Riders.)

In Eastern Europe, ethnic Ashkenazim were at least as bigoted as everyone else, and the popularity among Jews of Uris' Zionist trilogy consisting of Exodus and the sequel volumes The Haj and Mitla Pass shows that Jews have no objection to racism per se because these books contain practically every Jewish Zionist negative anti-Arab and anti-Muslim stereotype as well as a lot of generically anti-Christian or specifically anti-Polish, anti-Ukrainian and anti-Russian prejudice.

Here are just a few of the multitude of anti-Palestinian, anti-Arab, and anti-Muslims passages that Uris included in his texts.

Exodus, p. 228: Without water the Arab world disintegrated into filth; unspeakable disease, illiteracy, and poverty were universal. There was little song or laughter or joy in Arab life. It was a constant struggle to survive.

In this atmosphere cunning, treachery, murder, feuds, and jealousies became a way of life. The cruel realities that had gone into forming the Arab character puzzled others.

Cruelty from brother to brother was common. In parts of the Arab world thousands of slaves were kept, and punishment for a thief was amputation of a hand, for a prostitute amputation of ears and nose. There was little compassion from Arab to Arab. The fellaheen lived in abysmal filth and the Bedouin whose survival was a day-to-day miracle turned to the one means of alleviating their misery. They became Moslem fanatics as elements of the Jews had become fanatics in their hour of distress.

Exodus, p. 229: He was confounded by the fantastic reasoning that condoned every crime short of murder. He thought the position of women intolerable; they were held in absolute bondage, never seen, never heard, never consulted. Women often sought quick and vicious revenge by dagger or poison. Greed and lust, hatred and cunning, shrewdness and violence, friendliness and warmth were all part of that fantastic brew that made the Arab character such an enormous mystery to an outsider.

Exodus, p. 253: There was another reason why he wanted to be Mufti. The Palestinian fellaheen were ninety-nine percent illiterate. The only means of mass communication was the pulpit. The tendency of the fellaheen to become hysterical at the slightest provocation might become a political weapon.

Exodus, p. 334: Nazareth was much as Jesus must have found it in His youth.

Ari parked in the center of town. He brushed of a group of Arab urchins, but one child persisted.

"Guide?"

"No."

"Souvenirs? I got wood from the cross, cloth from the robe."

"Get lost."

"Dirty Pictures?"

Ari tried to pass the boy but he clung on and grabbed Ari by the pants leg. "Maybe you like my sister? She is a virgin."

Ari flipped the boy a coin. "Guard the car with your life."

Nazareth stank. The streets were littered with dung and blind beggars made wretched noises and barefoot, ragged, filthy children were underfoot. Flies were everywhere. Kitty held Ari's arm tightly as they wound through the bazaar and to a place alleged to be Mary's kitchen and Joseph's carpenter shop.

Kitty was baffled as they drove from Nazareth: it was a dreadful place.

"At least the Arabs are friendly," Ari said. They are Christians.

"They are Christians who need a bath."

Exodus, p. 435: "All Druse villages are built very high places. We are small minority and need high places to defend against Moslem attacks," Mussa said; "we will be in Daliyat in few minutes."

Kitty pulled herself together quickly as they approached the outskirts and slowed in the narrow streets.

Daliyat el Karmil seemed to sit on the roof of the world.

It was sparkling white and clean in comparison to the filth and decay of most Arab villages. Most of the men wore mustaches and many wore western clothing. Their headdresses were somewhat different from those of other Arabs, but the most dramatic difference was the carriage of dignity and outward pride and the look which suggested that they could be fierce fighters.

The women were exceedingly handsome and the children were bright-eyed and sturdy. The women wore dresses in wild colors with white cloths over their heads.

Because Uris is such a poor writer, I doubt that Obama ever read the trilogy, but if he really likes this stuff, a fondness for such racist material should be a much more critical issue than the possibility that Michelle Obama might have used the term whitey -- except that the Jewish-dominated media and far too many Jewish journalists refuse to address or to criticize bigotries that characterize a large number of Jews.

 

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