Novak Criticized by Friend and Fellow Columnist
Last month, CAMERA exposed numerous errors in Robert Novak’s column attacking Israel and its security barrier. (A follow up column by Novak was similarly inaccurate. See here.)
It is commendable, then, that Novak’s friend, columnist Jack Kemp, took the journalist to task for some of those errors.
Kemp wrote:
It’s not fun taking on Bob Novak, as he’s been a family friend since I first went to Congress ….
[But] Bob’s claim that Israel seeks to deprive Palestinian Christians of their water sources is a canard. In the specific case he mentioned, the reservoir serving the village of Aboud, was in fact built by Israel and will remain outside the security barrier, thereby ensuring free access of the villagers to the area’s water source. …Contrary to the thrust of the Novak column, Isreal’s Christian population has in fact prospered and quadrupeled over the last half-century, in sharp contrast to the dwindling Christian communities in other countries in the Middle East. …
I have personally traveled into the West Bank in February to get a first-hand look at the “security wall” and have come to the conclusion it’s absolutely necessary for the physical protection of everyone. …
Confroned with dilemmas faced by no other Western democracy, Israel had to strike a delicate balance between overriding security needs and pressing humanitarian concerns in constructing the barrier. Under the guidance of Isreal’s High Court, the government immediately made changes at the cost of rerouting large sections of the barrier, a process of self-scrutiny that continues today. Israels are the first to acknowledge the implications of the barrier for communities on both sides of the fence, yet its necessity is beyond dispute. …
Read the whole thing here or in the April 27 Washington Times.
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