Benefit for the Belgium to Gaza project
When Time Magazine carried an article on “Why Israel Doesn’t Care about Peace“, a whole coterie of American Zionist supporters reacted as if Time had become anti-Semitic.
For any writer to cast the slightest aspersion on Israel’s claim to wish for peace is tantamount to alleging that there never was a Sermon on the Mount.
Author of the Time article, Karl Vick, writes, “Asked in a March poll to name the ‘most urgent problem’ facing Israel, just 8% of Israeli Jews cited the conflict with Palestinians, putting it fifth behind education, crime, national security and poverty.”
Referring to the same poll, Vick adds, “Israeli Arabs placed peace first, but among Jews here, the issue that President Obama calls “critical for the world” just doesn’t seem – critical.”
Time’s cover and story on life in Israel prompted more than 1,000 letters, mostly in protest. Several of those letters allege the usual canard that the article is anti-Semitic.
They berated Vick for lacking reliable support for his claim. However, they ignored a journalist with impeccable credentials who writes for the influential daily journal Ha’aretz.
“The good life in Israel is real, while all the rest is somehow blurred, says Ari Shavit who writes a regular column for Ha’aretz.”
Here are some of the ludicrous, though typical, comments made by readers:
“So Time Magazine is really sucking up to their Arab bosses. Without those petro dollars, Time would have folded years ago. We Jews have a long memory & will get even in the future.”
A typical anti-Arab writer says, “‘Never Again’ only applies to the Jews. Not the Goy vermin. How much are you getting paid to post here, Arab?”
The type of comment by those who believe that Israel can do no wrong goes like this:
“This story and the cover graphic are worthy of a supermarket tabloid. Time has lowered its standards by using provocative and misleading graphics on its cover, and stooped even further by publishing an article better suited to a blog than a news magazine.”
If they find nothing else wrong, they complain about the timing, “This is disgusting! On one of the holiest days of the Jewish calendar Rosh Hashanah, I am greeted by an inexcusable cover story by Time magazine.”
One commentator simply said, without support, “What an unfounded article !!!!”
If a publication doesn’t say what you want it to say, cancel your subscription. You may have to explain how you happened to read the offending article. This one doesn’t:
“Hurrah for all of those who were nauseated by this latest piece of crass and untrue journalism by Time Magazine. I cancelled my subscription long ago and can only recommend that, if you are interested in what is going on in the Middle East, Time is not the place to find out.”
Here’s the gold-medal winner. “Wow! What’s next? An update to the Protocols of the Elders of Zion?”
Calling “the article and its arguments wrong, inappropriate and offensive,” Anti-Defamation League Director Abe Foxman repeated the age-old propaganda line about Israel’s desire for peace:
“Ignored is the decades-long yearning of Israelis for peace and the tremendous efforts successive Israeli governments have made in pursuit of reconciliation.”
Both the Israelis and the American Zionists have been lying and brainwashing others for so long they believe the propaganda themselves.
If there’s any sincerity in the minds of those who say that Israel wants peace, they need to stop believing that Israel can do no wrong.
Israel needs to stop being a propaganda machine refusing to accept criticism and failing to indulge in self-criticism.
* Paul J. Balles is a retired American university professor and freelance writer who has lived in the Middle East for many years. For more information, see http://www.pballes.com.
by Flora Nicoletta
Max Blumenthal presents a disturbing inside look at the largest annual gathering of radical Jewish settlers. A Mondoweiss exclusive with David Jacobus and Jesse Rosenfeld. Mondoweiss is a news website devoted to covering American foreign policy in the Middle East, chiefly from a progressive Jewish perspective.
Sent by Mazin October 20:
After a third trip to Ofer military compound near Ramallah on October 18, 2010, and much expenses in terms of time and money, I am pleased to report that my trial based on manufactured charges by Israeli police was dismissed by the military judge. It was partially observed by Tamar and Aya, Israeli women of conscience who report regularly from the West Bank (see http://www.mahsanmilim.com/ . It was a manufactured “traffic violation” but in reality it was for “driving while being Palestinian” and even though both the policewoman and the prosecutor both lied and tried to twist the facts, the judge was decent enough to see through this. Unfortunately, upon arriving home, I found a delivered registered letter (my mother signed for it) that says that the Israeli police have now “evidence” and have sent a file to the prosecutor to charge me with new “security offenses” based on a military rule enacted in the occupied areas in 1982. They did not specify the offenses in the letter but gave me 30 days to respond to them in writing. The letter was in Hebrew and dated October 3, 2010 but mailed on October 6, 2010 and received October 18, 2010. This gives me and my lawyer little time to find out what the (trumped-up) “security” charges are and respond to them! This is obscene injustice but if the authorities think that this endless harassment helps in anyway to achieve their goals (whatever those may be), then they miscalculated and will sadly be disappointed! We will keep you informed.
Under a most extremist government in Israel’s 62 year history, the extent of the absurdities here have accelerated to become almost unbelievable. From attacking humanitarian ships in International waters, to laws to strip Israelis of their citizenship, to laws to demand loyalty by non-Jews to a Jewish state (imagine if South Africa under apartheid demanded loyalty to the white government), to laws to punish peaceful protesters (Abdullah Abu Rahma sentenced to one year under the charge of “incitement” for merely engaging in nonviolent protests in Bil’in), to laws to allow criminal prosecution of those who call for boycotts, to arresting children hit by a colonial settler car while driving in the children’s neighborhood that the settler is trying to take over*, and the list goes on. My study of history tells me that Israeli governments engaged in such irrational behavior the year before every major uprising in the past 62 years. One is tempted to accept the notion that “what we learn from history is that we (humans) learn nothing from history”. But we must maintain our faith in humanity and that maybe, just maybe, there are still enough rational people of all faiths and persuasions to salvage this (un)Holy Land from total descent into fascism and self-destruction.
band annie's Weblog 