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Jewish World Review Jan. 4, 2005 / 23 Teves, 5765 Arab Victories in the Language War By Daniel Pipes
Excuse me, but prime minister, according to the Encyclopedia Britannica, means the "head of the executive branch of government in states with a parliamentary system." Despite tens of thousands of references to Abbas as prime minister, he in not a single way fits this description. Oh, and there is also the small matter of there being no country called Palestine. Arab maps routinely show it in place of Israel. The United Nations recognizes its existence. So too do such telephone companies as France's Bouygues Telecom and Bell Canada. Nonetheless, no such place exists. One can dismiss use of these terms as symptoms of the same unrealism that has undermined Palestinian war efforts since 1948. But they also promote the Palestinian cause (a polite way of saying, "the destruction of Israel") in a vital way. In an era when the battle for public opinion has an importance that rivals the clash of soldiers, the Palestinians' success in framing the issues has won them critical support among politicians, editorial writers, academics, street demonstrators, and NGO activists. In the aggregate, these many auxiliaries keep the Palestinian effort alive. Especially in a long-standing dispute with a static situation on the ground, public opinion has great significance. That's because words reflect ideas — and ideas motivate people. Weapons in themselves are inert; today, ideas inspire people to pick up arms or sacrifice their lives. Software drives hardware. Israel is winning on the basic geographic nomenclature. The state is known in English as Israel, not the Zionist entity. Its capital is called Jerusalem, not Al-Quds. Likewise, Temple Mount and Western Wall enjoy far more currency than Al-Haram ash-Sharif or Al-Buraq. The separation barrier is more often called a security fence (that keeps out Palestinian suicide bombers) than a separation wall (that brings divided Berlin to mind). In other ways, however, the Palestinians' wording dominates English-language usage, helping them win the war for public opinion. Arabs may have fallen behind Israel in per capita income and advanced weaponry, but they lead by far on the semantic battlefield. Who, a century back, would have imagined Jews making the better soldiers and Arabs the better publicists?
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JWR contributor Daniel Pipes is director of the Middle East Forum and the author of several books, most recently, "Miniatures: Views of Islamic and Middle Eastern Politics". (Click HERE to purchase. Sales help fund JWR.).
© 2005, Daniel Pipes
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