Where I Stand — Brian Greenspun: Pictures don’t lie

Thursday, Oct. 25, 2001 | 8:38 a.m.

A PICTURE IS WORTH a thousand words. Talk about understatement.

In this modern world of fax machines, internets, digitalization and home-styled editing machines, our reliance on pictures as the immutable truth to world events has been somewhat diminished. That is because the ability of ordinary people to do extraordinary things to the pictures we see -- in short, subvert them -- is something that we have yet been able to overcome. So we are left with pictures we once took for granted and with a truth about which we are no longer certain.

Except for the one I saw in the Sunday newspaper.

The picture on page 20A under the headline, "Israelis continue West Bank attacks," is one I and many others have seen for years. It didn't have to be published to become any more real, but it was, and the whole world can now see what many have known for decades.

For those who missed it, let me give you the caption: "A Palestinian from Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement, left, and a man affiliated with the Islamic group Hamas face Israeli forces Saturday in the West Bank town of Bethlehem."

The picture showed the Fatah soldier dressed in traditional garb, aiming an automatic weapon at, presumably, Israelis. Next to him, with his rifle aimed in the same direction, was a man dressed in black, from head to toe, the traditional garb of the Hamas terrorists who characteristically kill innocent men, women and children.

So, what was wrong with that picture? Absolutely nothing if you believe that Yasser Arafat is the embodiment of terrorism -- was, is and always will be. But if you believe what he would like you to believe, and what most of the world chooses to believe, then Arafat is a reformed terrorist who wants to make peace with Israel and live happily ever after as the kind and benevolent leader of his people.

To be fair, I was one of the millions of people in this country who believed for a time that not only did Arafat want peace with Israel, but that he also was fully capable of making it happen. I no longer have any reason to be confident in that opinion. There's another one of those understatements!

The picture was taken after last week's assassination of Israeli Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi by Palestinian militants. It was taken after Arafat condemned the murder and promised to bring the bad guys to justice, or words to that effect. Words we've heard before but which have yet to be followed by appropriate deeds.

What has followed the escalation in the fighting since Zeevi's murder are words from Israel's neighbors that make it appear that Israel is the responsible party. Egypt wants a quick return to the peace table because her neighbor and peace partner's incursions "were creating a dangerous situation." The others followed suit, "blah, blah, blah."

Clearly, there has been an escalation. And Israel is still sitting on its hands -- in deference to the United States' desire to keep its fragile coalition together. But it still has an obligation to its people to stop the violence the best way it can. And, just like America's desire to stop the terrorists where they live before they can get to where we live, so, too, is Israel trying to stop the practically unstoppable. Hence the incursions into the terrorists nests.

So back to the picture and the volumes it says.

Fatah is Arafat's military arm. It works for him, takes orders from him and does his bidding. Hamas is a terrorist group whose sole purpose in life is to destroy everything Israeli. It and its counterparts are supported, trained and sponsored by terrorist states like Iraq, Syria and Iran.

For Yasser Arafat to truly want peace and to do what is necessary to have peace -- stop the terrorist attacks on Israel or, at least, make a gallant effort to do so -- he must show the world more than his men fighting alongside the terrorists.

What was so obviously wrong with that picture last Sunday was that the rifles in Hamas hands and in Fatah hands should have been pointed at each other and not together at Israelis. If Arafat's people want peace they have to do peace and that means stopping those who want more bloodshed.

We know that Hamas lives to spill Israeli blood. We are told that Fatah lives to support Arafat's dream of peace for the Palestinian people. The pictures, however, tell a very different story.

And these pictures don't lie. Can't say as much for Yasser.