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Siegman's works and opinions received a widespread recognition in the media. [[Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty|Radio Free Europe]] calls him "a leading U.S. expert on the Middle East."<ref>[http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/news/2004/03/mil-040323-rferl01.htm Middle East: Will Israel's Killing Of Hamas Leader Affect U.S. Policy?] by Jeffrey Donovan, [[Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty|Radio Free Europe]], March 23, 2004.</ref>
Siegman's works and opinions received a widespread recognition in the media. [[Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty|Radio Free Europe]] calls him "a leading U.S. expert on the Middle East."<ref>[http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/news/2004/03/mil-040323-rferl01.htm Middle East: Will Israel's Killing Of Hamas Leader Affect U.S. Policy?] by Jeffrey Donovan, [[Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty|Radio Free Europe]], March 23, 2004.</ref>
Jewish daily ''[[The Forward]]'' credits him for publicizing the "[[Arab Peace Initiative|Saudi plan]]".<ref>[http://www.forward.com/articles/saudis-push-bush-team-on-peace-plan/ Saudis Push Bush Team On Peace Plan] by Nathan Guttman, ''[[The Forward]]'', January 19, 2007.</ref> Journalist [[David Rieff]] calls him "the most perceptive American observer-participant in the last two decades of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations."<ref>[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C03E7DE143AF936A15757C0A9629C8B63 Arafat Among the Ruins] by [[David Rieff]], ''The New York Times'', April 25, 2004.</ref>
Jewish daily ''[[The Forward]]'' credits him for publicizing the "[[Arab Peace Initiative|Saudi plan]]".<ref>[http://www.forward.com/articles/saudis-push-bush-team-on-peace-plan/ Saudis Push Bush Team On Peace Plan] by Nathan Guttman, ''[[The Forward]]'', January 19, 2007.</ref> Journalist [[David Rieff]] calls him "the most perceptive American observer-participant in the last two decades of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations."<ref>[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C03E7DE143AF936A15757C0A9629C8B63 Arafat Among the Ruins] by [[David Rieff]], ''The New York Times'', April 25, 2004.</ref>


==Criticism==

Siegman's views and writings have been criticized by [[Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America|CAMERA]].<ref>[http://www.camera.org/index.asp?x_context=8&x_nameinnews=164&x_article=1197 Henry Siegman’s Expertise: Bashing Israel at Every Turn], by CAMERA.</ref>, the [[Middle East Quarterly]]<ref>[http://www.meforum.org/article/751 The Council on Foreign Relations Does the Middle East], by [[Daniel Mandel]] and [[Asaf Romirowsky]]</ref> and other publications.<ref>[http://www.jewishpress.com/displayContent_new.cfm?mode=a&sectionid=60&contentid=19535 The View From Henry Siegman's Knees] by Jason Maoz, ''The Jewish Press'', September 27, 2006.</ref> [[The New York Sun]] in its editorial writes that "his writings over the past few years are hard to distinguish from the hard-line propaganda of the Arab tyrannies."<ref>[http://www.nysun.com/editorials/mystery-solved/19031/ Mystery Solved], Editorial of ''The New York Sun'', [[August 23]], [[2005]].</ref> According to ''[[The Jewish Press]]'',

:''An examination of his body of work [..] reveals it to be little more than thinly veiled propaganda promoting the Palestinian perspective on the conflict with Israel. Siegman's commentary echoes the most extreme themes of the Palestinian narrative, with the writer heaping shrill criticism on Israel while excusing Palestinian rejectionism – even when this requires repeatedly ignoring, fabricating and misrepresenting facts and routinely contradicting earlier assertions.''<ref>[http://www.jewishpress.com/displayContent_new.cfm?mode=a&sectionid=61&contentid=19532&contentName=Henry%20Siegman,%20Pro-Palestinian%20Propagandist Henry Siegman, Pro-Palestinian Propagandist], by [[Gilead Ini]] in ''[[The Jewish Press]]'', September 27, 2006</ref>

In his book ''Chutzpah'', [[Alan Dershowitz]] criticized Siegman for meeting with [[Cardinal (Catholicism)|Cardinal]] [[Józef Glemp]] who previously expressed [[Antisemitism|anti-semitic]] sentiments. Dershowitz called Siegman "sycophantic" and referred to the meeting as "toadying up to an anti-Semite."<ref>[http://www.newsweek.com/id/128373/output/print A Role Model In His Own Mind] by David A. Kaplan and Bob Cohn, ''[[Newsweek]]'', July 29, 1991.</ref>



==References==
==References==

Revision as of 17:42, 5 February 2009

Henry Siegman
OccupationWriter and journalist
NationalityAmerican
Website
http://www.cfr.org/bios/bio.html?id=122

Henry Siegman is a German-born American nonfiction writer and a journalist specializing in the Middle East policy towards Israel, and a visiting professor at the University of London.[1] He is a former Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.[2] Prior to that, he was the Executive Director of the American Jewish Congress (1978-1994). He frequently appeared on Charlie Rose to comment on Israel related topics and contributed to the International Herald Tribune, the Financial Times, the Los Angeles Times, The New York Review of Books, The New York Times and other publications.

Early life and education

Siegman was born in 1930 in Frankfurt, Germany[3] which he fled with his family in 1933 to Antwerp, Belgium, and then to the United States. In America, he studied at Yeshiva College (BA Math) and New School for Social Research. He was ordained as an Orthodox Rabbi by Yeshiva University. He served as a chaplain in the Korean War, where he was awarded a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart.[4]

Siegman's opinions

Siegman is a frequent critic of the Israeli policies in the West Bank.[5] Former Israel ambassador to the United States Itamar Rabinovich identified his views as similar to that of Meretz's left wing.[6] Siegman supports the two-state solution and the moral equivalence in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.[7] He advocates engagement with Hamas[8][9] and recently visited Khaled Mashal, Hamas leader exiled in Syria.[10] He says that Yasser Arafat made a "disastrous mistake" in rejecting the peace offer, but claims that "based on my 14 years of dealings with Arafat, I reject the notion that he was bent on Israel's destruction."[11] Siegman is sharply critical of Ariel Sharon, about whom he wrote: "The war Sharon is waging is not aimed at the defeat of Palestinian terrorism but at the defeat of the Palestinian people and their aspirations for national self-determination."[12] He strongly defended former president Jimmy Carter's book Palestine Peace Not Apartheid.[13] He also sharply criticized the ongoing peace efforts by Ehud Olmert and George W. Bush.[14] Siegman has described the process as a “scam” because of a “consensus reached long ago by Israel’s decision-making elites that Israel will never allow the emergence of a Palestinian state”.[15] Writing in the London Review of Books, Siegman states:

The Middle East peace process may well be the most spectacular deception in modern diplomatic history. Since the failed Camp David summit of 2000, and actually well before it, Israel’s interest in a peace process – other than for the purpose of obtaining Palestinian and international acceptance of the status quo – has been a fiction that has served primarily to provide cover for its systematic confiscation of Palestinian land and an occupation whose goal, according to the former IDF chief of staff Moshe Ya’alon, is ‘to sear deep into the consciousness of Palestinians that they are a defeated people’. [15]

Siegman's works and opinions received a widespread recognition in the media. Radio Free Europe calls him "a leading U.S. expert on the Middle East."[16] Jewish daily The Forward credits him for publicizing the "Saudi plan".[17] Journalist David Rieff calls him "the most perceptive American observer-participant in the last two decades of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations."[18]


Criticism

Siegman's views and writings have been criticized by CAMERA.[19], the Middle East Quarterly[20] and other publications.[21] The New York Sun in its editorial writes that "his writings over the past few years are hard to distinguish from the hard-line propaganda of the Arab tyrannies."[22] According to The Jewish Press,

An examination of his body of work [..] reveals it to be little more than thinly veiled propaganda promoting the Palestinian perspective on the conflict with Israel. Siegman's commentary echoes the most extreme themes of the Palestinian narrative, with the writer heaping shrill criticism on Israel while excusing Palestinian rejectionism – even when this requires repeatedly ignoring, fabricating and misrepresenting facts and routinely contradicting earlier assertions.[23]

In his book Chutzpah, Alan Dershowitz criticized Siegman for meeting with Cardinal Józef Glemp who previously expressed anti-semitic sentiments. Dershowitz called Siegman "sycophantic" and referred to the meeting as "toadying up to an anti-Semite."[24]


References

  1. ^ Brief biography at The International Herald Tribune website.
  2. ^ Henry Siegman's biography, on the Council on Foreign Relations website.
  3. ^ Brief biography at the Euro|topics magazine.
  4. ^ Separating Spiritual and Political, He Pays a Price, by Chris Hedges, The New York Times, June 13, 2002.
  5. ^ New Jewish Lobby Counters Neocons, by Ralph Seliger.
  6. ^ What will happen after Bush? by Itamar Rabinovich, Haaretz, October 29, 2007.
  7. ^ Is 'moral equivalency' really so wrong? by Henry Siegman, Los Angeles Times, June 18, 2006 (from CFR website)
  8. ^ Hamas: The Last Chance for Peace? by Henry Siegman, The New York Review of Books, April 27, 2006.
  9. ^ The Hamas factor by Robert Malley and Henry Siegman, The International Herald Tribune, December 27, 2006.
  10. ^ Hamas and Gaza Emerge Reshaped After Takeover by Ethan Bronner, June 15, 2008.
  11. ^ Yasir Arafat, Father and Leader of Palestinian Nationalism, Dies at 75 by Judith Miller, The New York Times, November 11, 2004.
  12. ^ Sharon's Phony War by Henry Siegman, The New York Review of Books, December 18, 2003.
  13. ^ Hurricane Carter by Henry Siegman, The Nation, January 4, 2007.
  14. ^ The Great Middle East Peace Process Scam by Henry Siegman, The London Review of Books, 16 August 2007.
  15. ^ a b The Great Middle East Peace Process Scam Henry Siegman, London Review of Books, 16 August 2007
  16. ^ Middle East: Will Israel's Killing Of Hamas Leader Affect U.S. Policy? by Jeffrey Donovan, Radio Free Europe, March 23, 2004.
  17. ^ Saudis Push Bush Team On Peace Plan by Nathan Guttman, The Forward, January 19, 2007.
  18. ^ Arafat Among the Ruins by David Rieff, The New York Times, April 25, 2004.
  19. ^ Henry Siegman’s Expertise: Bashing Israel at Every Turn, by CAMERA.
  20. ^ The Council on Foreign Relations Does the Middle East, by Daniel Mandel and Asaf Romirowsky
  21. ^ The View From Henry Siegman's Knees by Jason Maoz, The Jewish Press, September 27, 2006.
  22. ^ Mystery Solved, Editorial of The New York Sun, August 23, 2005.
  23. ^ Henry Siegman, Pro-Palestinian Propagandist, by Gilead Ini in The Jewish Press, September 27, 2006
  24. ^ A Role Model In His Own Mind by David A. Kaplan and Bob Cohn, Newsweek, July 29, 1991.


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