For years, the columnist dubbed the Prince of Darkness, who passed away earlier this week , was known as a harsh critic of Washington’s close ties with Israel. But what made this Jewish-born convert to Catholicism such a staunch opponent of the Jewish State? James Kirchick of the Tablet Magazine believes he has answers.
In an interview for the online media outlet, Kirchick quotes John Barnes, a former colleague of Novak’s, as saying the late journalist’s animosity towards the Jewish State may have begun with the strafing of his longtime writing partner Rowland Evans by an Israeli aircraft while reporting from the Jordanian side of the border just after the 1967 Six-Day War.
"Two days after a ceasefire took effect, Evans found himself on the Jordanian side of the Jordan River with an Arab army regiment, when an Israeli fighter jet “’appeared out of nowhere and strafed them,’” Barnes recalls Novak telling him in a conversation they had in 1986. "According to Barnes, Novak said that the ‘relationship between Rowley and Israel was downhill ever since.’”
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