Ahmad Tibi and Michael Oren Duke It Out
Ahmad Tibi, one of the liveliest, not to mention most controversial, lawmakers in the Knesset, is squaring up to Israel’s ambassador to the US, Michael Oren.
Oren penned a piece in Foreign Policy praising Israel’s democratic nature, in which he wrote:
Israel has tolerated acts that would be deemed treasonous in virtually any other democracy. Ahmad Tibi, who once advised PLO Chairman Yasir Arafat and recently praised Palestinian “martyrs” — a well-known euphemism for suicide bombers — serves as a member and deputy speaker of the Knesset.
Tibi has now demanded that Oren retract his comments. “Mr. Oren attacked me, distorted my words, and claims that I support suicide attacks against Israeli citizen, which is the absolute opposite of my position,” he wrote in an official letter of complaint to Israel’s Foreign Ministry.
As Tibi told the Forward back in January, he claims that his comments about “martyrs” were misrepresented by people who wanted to slur him by giving the impression he supports terror.
Here at the Shmooze, we’re disappointed at the way this argument has panned out. Articles in Foreign Policy and letters to the Foreign Ministry? Last time Tibi got offended, he responded with an x-rated poem which he read out in Knesset — Philologos’s excellent column on the subject will refresh your memory. Maybe it’s time for a poetic exchange between Tibi and Oren. And if either of them find it difficult to talk politics via poetry, Günter Grass could always lend a hand.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.
If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.
Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
