Bosnian Muslims are Jews who Deserve Right to Fight

The following article, entitled “Muslims Deserve Right to Fight“, first appeared in Sun Journal on
25 May 1993. Jewish journalist Joanne Jacobs courageously argued against the U.N. imposed
“arms embargo” on the Republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina.

By: Joanne Jacobs

I have a theory about the Bosnian Muslims: The Muslims are Jews. We Jews can recognize other Jews.
It’s the looks, speech, gestures, jokes, attitudes. The context.
The Bosnian Muslims may be the lost tribe, but they’re members of the tribe nonetheless. The tribe of
the exiles. The tribe of the inconvenient. They are pitied extravagantly when dead; alive, everyone
wants them to go away. Defenseless, they are proclaimed moral victors. Armed, they’d lose all their
losers’ charm.
It’s quite true, as everyone agrees, that the United States has no strategic interests in Bosnia. Only as
human beings do we have strategic interests in Bosnia.
Never again, if the Bosnian Muslims are destroyed, will we be able to intone “never again.” Again and
again, the world will see religious and ethnic minorities rounded up, burned out, raped, murdered and
exiled.
Still, I can understand why most Americans don’t want to bomb artillery or oil trucks or bridges in
Bosnia. Vietnam. Beirut.
I can understand why Europeans would rather look the other way, as Serbs kill Croats, Croats kill
Serbs, and everybody kills the Muslims [Bosniaks]. World War I. World War II.
What I can’t understand is why, since the United States and Europe aren’t willing to fight for the
Muslims, we won’t let them fight for themselves. Afghanistan.
Vance-Owen is as dead as a Sarajevo civilian. The Bosnian Serbs have rejected the peace plan
decisively; nobody really thought it would work even if they’d agreed to pretend to agree to it.
The Bosnian Serbs have declared their own vowel-deprived nation, Srpska, but it’s not clear whether
Srpska borders a state run by Bosnian Muslims [Bosniaks], or whether the Srpska border is with
Greater Croatia. Between the Croats and the Serbs, the Muslims’ [Bosniaks'] “safe havens” are likely to
be Germany, France, Britain, the United States, Canada and Australia.
If Bosnian Muslims are smart Jews, they’ll stop begging for bombers and start asking for visas. The
other alternative is Afghanistan.
The Soviets – ah, nostalgia! – invaded, the Afghans resisted, and everybody figured it was just a matter
of time, and not too much time at that. How could a bunch of picturesque geezers with World War I
rifles hold off the Red Army? Kipling is dead, they said. Don’t encourage the poor guys. Don’t widen
the war.
Of course, the Serbs fighting in Bosnia are mostly locals, not invaders from another country. They are
not going away. The Bosnian Muslims aren’t wily tribal warriors like the Afghans.
But why should it be up to Americans, Brits, French or Russians to decide whether Bosnian Muslims
should have weapons with which to defend themselves – if not to regain control over all of Bosnia-
Herzegovina then at least to make it worthwhile for the Serbs and Croats to settle for less than
everything?
Arming the Muslims [Bosniaks] that is, allowing the Saudis to arm the Muslims might lead to a longer
war, since the Muslims wouldn’t be overrun so quickly, or to stalemate and cease-fire.
Those who have to bear the consequences of fighting, fleeing or trusting to U.N. protection should be
the ones to decide whether they prefer a long, bloody struggle or a quick defeat.
Perhaps the Muslims would prove more brutal if better armed. But if the brutality already visited on
Muslim [Bosniak] civilians is none of our business, then prospective brutality isn’t either.
Christopher is preparing Americans for the abandonment of the Muslims with his new “atrocities on all
sides” ploy, downplaying the fact that Serbs have committed most of the atrocities, with Croats second
and Muslims [Bosniaks] a distant third. (If Croats burn Muslims [Bosniaks] in their homes, it may
make the Serbs look better, but it’s not an “all sides” atrocity, is it?)
“It’s been easy to analogize this to the Holocaust, but I never heard of any genocide by the Jews against
the German people,” he said Tuesday.
“The Jewish population… at the Warsaw Ghetto did try to fight back, so that does not take away the
argument that it was genocide,” responded Rep. Edward Royce, R-Calif.
The United States is not obliged to intervene militarily to help the Muslims [Bosniaks], given the
difficulty of helping effectively and at low cost. To prevent the victims of aggression from helping
themselves, by preventing them from receiving arms while their enemies are fully equipped with
deadly force, is unconscionable.
Joanne Jacobs is a member of the San Jose Mercury News editorial board.