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Go Home The Lost Art

WASHINGTON DIARIST APRIL 20, 2012

The Lost Art

BY LEON WIESELTIER

By the standards of contemporary atrocity, Lieutenant Colonel Shalom Eisner’s striking Andreas Ias in the face with the butt of his M-16 was a trifle. Eisner was the deputy commander of the Jordan Valley Brigade of the Israeli army, and Ias was a Dane on a bicycle who supported the Palestinians. The video of the incident depicts Eisner screaming in Hebrew to a group that does not understand Hebrew to go home, and holding his rifle horizontally, like an instrument of crowd control. Suddenly there is a pause in the confusion and he finds himself face to face with Ias, and without any provocation, and without a word of warning, he slaps the man with the weapon. The white kippah on his head did not make his outburst of violence any prettier. Neither did the assurance by a rabbinical friend of the colonel’s that his action was (as The New York Times reported) “instinctive, not intentional.” The instinct is precisely the problem. Eisner was dismissed from his post. Prime Minister Netanyahu was said to be shocked. I wonder why. For many years he has been schooling his compatriots in contempt for the world, and treating pro-Palestinian sentiment as an anti-Semitic hallucination with no basis in any of Israel’s actions. I do not mean to say that pro-Palestinian activists are all sterling peace-loving souls who dream only of two states living idyllically between the river and the sea. In Europe especially, the criticism of Israel’s policies toward the Palestinians has spilled over into a poisonous denial of the Jewish state’s legitimacy. (And not only among Europeans in Europe, as proven by William Pfaff’s revolting comment on the blog of The New York Review of Books in the wake of the murder of Jewish children in Toulouse by an anti-Zionist maniac that Jews “invite international terrorist attention so long as the Palestinian rights issue is unresolved.”) But Israel calls itself a democracy—most recently in a sardonic letter to the pro-Palestinian activists who made it to Israel despite the Israeli government’s idiotic attempt to bar them from the country, in which the prime minister rightly observed that “you could have chosen to protest the Syrian regime’s daily savagery against its own people [or] the Iranian regime’s brutal crackdown on dissent. Instead you chose to protest against Israel, the Middle East’s sole democracy.” A democracy does not fear, or close its borders to, dissent, or paint dissenters as “provocateurs,” or require visitors to sign an “Obligation Form” that reads: “I undertake that I can’t be a member of any pro-Palestinian Organizations and not be in contact with any other Members of any pro-Palestinian organizations, as well I will not participate in any pro-Palestinian activities.” The intention is as coarse as the diction. Banning Günter Grass from Israel over his contemptible and widely excoriated “poem” reflected a similar misunderstanding of the liberal dispensation. A ban is not an argument. An open society should be an open society. There is a Putinist strain to Netanyahu’s rule. It is unworthy of his country.

 

BUT I DO NOT COME, like some others, to speak prophetically to my people. My own bitterness at certain trends in Israeli politics, and at the Israeli government’s refusal to press relentlessly and imaginatively for an answer to the most difficult question—Netanyahu’s supporters exult in his success at driving the Palestinian question from the agenda: an achievement!—my own bitterness is not all that I need to know. More precisely, it is not occasioned only by Israel’s part in the thwarting of peace. Intellectual honesty always requires that one be unhappy for many reasons. Mahmoud Abbas, too, is leading his own people nowhere, and using Benjamin Netanyahu as his excuse. His immobility, and his search for every remedy but a negotiated one, will perpetuate Palestinian statelessness and hasten an explosion. I hear that there is a new conversation taking place within Hamas, but it is somewhat vitiated by the rain of rockets from Gaza. The historical agency of Palestinians is as consequential for the future of Israel and Palestine as the historical agency of Israelis. The threats to Israel from others are as real as the threats to Israel from itself. I dislike the contextless castigation of Israel, because it is not serious about a solution. Introspection is a solemn duty, but it has limits as a political analysis, because it avails only against one’s own culpabilities, and others are also culpable. “When violence answers violence in a growing frenzy that makes the simple language of reason impossible, the role of intellectuals cannot be ... to excuse from a distance one of the violences and condemn the other.” Don Draper wrote those sage words in 1958. (Readers of The New Yorker will know that I mean Albert Camus, whom Adam Gopnik recently hailed as “the Don Draper of existentialism,” imperishably explaining that “looks matter to the mind”; but I digress.) In the same essay Camus unfashionably observed that “it is good for a nation to be strong enough in tradition and honor to have the courage to point out its own mistakes. But it must not forget whatever reasons it still has for self-esteem.”

 

SO ISRAEL MUST be defended and Israel must be criticized. Almost nobody any longer practices the lost art of doing both at the same time, with similar emphasis, out of equally intense convictions, in a single breath. Instead there is the party of security and the party of justice, as if the country, any country, can endure without both. The debate is a stale contest in cursing between gangs, a tiresome exchange of to-be-sure sentences, uttered by people with anxieties about credibility, or worse, with no such anxieties at all. To be sure, the settlements are a terrible blunder, but centrifuges are spinning in Iran. To be sure, centrifuges are spinning in Iran, but the settlements are a terrible blunder. When I studied the history of Zionism as a young man, I was impressed by Ben-Gurion’s remark, about Britain’s restrictions upon Jewish immigration to Palestine even as Hitler was conquering Europe, that he would fight the White Paper as if there were no war and the war as if there were no White Paper. It seemed almost impossible and altogether correct. There is never only a lone danger or a lone ideal. We should fight the centrifuges in Iran as if there are no settlements and the settlements as if there are no centrifuges in Iran. Welcome to the gang of no gang.

Leon Wieseltier is the literary editor of The New Republic. This article appeared in the May 10, 2012 issue of the magazine.

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66 comments

Yes, politics is an art and most of the time a lost one. The art comes while trying to see the good and the bad on both sides of a dispute. But how do you do that when people are being killed?

- magboy47.

April 20, 2012 at 2:31am

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"SO ISRAEL MUST be defended and Israel must be criticized." Which is it to be, Leon? What's the moral bottom line for Israel and its enemies respectively? Whether officer Eisner acted professionally under the circumstances is up to his superiors, not the international news media. Andreas Ias of Denmark was a useful fool and provocateur sent to create incidents like this.

- amidut

April 20, 2012 at 8:33am

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Yes, Ben-Gurion. What would Ben-Gurion and the others do? It's doubtful they would have a place in Israeli politics today. Is that because the challenges have changed or Israel has changed? This reminds me of the recent contribution to TNR concerning Reagan and Thatcher, and the observation how differently they viewed the long stand-off with the Soviet Union, one that it was an existential threat that could not be tolerated and the other that it was a long period of peace in Europe.

- rayward

April 20, 2012 at 9:17am

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I started to read this but faded out, too much on mind at the moment to work through the endless convolution of the endless paragraphs. I want to read it and will when a cleared head lets me. But geez I wish the guy would take a few more breaths and make his paragraphs a tad more digestible.

- basman

April 20, 2012 at 11:08am

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I am with basman. Very appropriate criticism.

- rmakover@swbell.net-OLD

April 20, 2012 at 11:15am

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I've always thought that no matter his strengths as a thinker, Wieseltier is really a terrible writer. It seems he missed the lesson that the most important quality of good writing is clarity. I thought this piece was good, but I would quibble with his thesis. I know of some great simultaneous critics and lovers of Israel. They comment on almost every piece he writes, which he would know if he would ever deign to read them.

- bunthorne

April 20, 2012 at 12:33pm

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I third what basman said. Either the Arabs, Jews, Iranians, Turks, and everyone else crammed into that caldron of religious frenzy figure out a way to get all their gods to talk to each other and play nicely, or they will kill each other here in this only world that really exists and is all we have for too brief a time even when we are not trying to kill each other prematurely.

- skahn

April 20, 2012 at 12:37pm

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Ditto on Leon's writing. His condensed style forces him to juxtapose too many thoughts. But maybe it's the topic. When he wrote a nostalgic goodbye to record stores recently, he was completely digestible. The Middle East is a mess. It's hard to write something about it that flows (cf. Marty). I sure am glad Leon is still with TNR. Sharp mind.

- magboy47.

April 20, 2012 at 2:55pm

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It's not an entirely lost art. In the "Crisis of Zionism," Peter Beinart criticizes Israel by the standards of its own ideals. Such a critique defends Israel against both the vicious slanders of its enemies and the corrosive effects of some of its own policies.

- markgoodman

April 20, 2012 at 3:08pm

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I liked the essay, somewhat. It's the title of the piece that I can't stand. what lost art is he talking about? Who decided that "critical love " whatever he thinks it means is "a lost art?" What kind of art is it anyway?

- arnon1

April 20, 2012 at 3:35pm

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Great article, very well written and very thoughtful, which is something becoming quite rare when reading an article about Israel.

- Jeshan

April 20, 2012 at 6:33pm

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I had no problem with the substance of the article. My problem is with the use of the term "art" as in "SO ISRAEL MUST be defended and Israel must be criticized. Almost nobody any longer practices the lost art of doing both at the same time, with similar emphasis, out of equally intense convictions, in a single breath." Nobody covers a lot of somebodies as well as nobodies.

- arnon1

April 20, 2012 at 6:45pm

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I judge the seriousness and thoughtfulness of the piece by the relevance and felicity of this statement: "Don Draper wrote those sage words in 1958. (Readers of The New Yorker will know that I mean Albert Camus, whom Adam Gopnik recently hailed as “the Don Draper of existentialism,” imperishably explaining that “looks matter to the mind”;...)" __________ "I do not mean to say that pro-Palestinian activists are all sterling peace-loving souls who dream only of two states living idyllically between the river and the sea." You do not even begin to acknowledge the depth of the depravity of this movement. ISM is not about peace. It is a movement that walks in lock step with Palestinian terrorists: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/1451730/The-peace-group-that-embraces-violence.html "The International Solidarity Movement is often described as a peace group but its founders back the Palestinian right to wage an "armed struggle". Launched in 2001, the ISM says it uses "non-violent direct action" in the style of Gandhi, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Dr Martin Luther King. A closer look reveals that the leadership sees volunteers not as pacifists but as combatants on the Palestinian side. In a 2002 article, the movement's co-founders, Adam Shapiro, a New York Jew, and Huwaida Arraf, a Palestinian Christian, urged: "The Palestinian resistance must take on a variety of characteristics, both non-violent and violent." Mr Shapiro and Miss Arraf predicted that "yes, people will get killed and injured" and suggested that the casualties "would be considered shaheed", using the Arabic term for martyrs applied to suicide bombers."

- noga1

April 20, 2012 at 10:05pm

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From Ben Dror Yemini's article about the incident: http://www.nrg.co.il/app/index.php?do=blog&encr_id=f2b4c1b55be76d1e6d7b777256ea0370&id=3606 מה הקשר? שאלו אותי מגיבים שאני מוקיר את דעתם. וכי בגלל הדעות הפוליטיות שלהם מותר לנהוג בהם באלימות? טענה נכונה. אלא שבשום מקום לא טענתי שדמם או גופם מותר, רק משום דעותיהם. טענתי שהתמונה המלאה חשובה. הקונטקסט חשוב. ואם מדובר בקבוצה שמכוונת את חבריה לעסוק בפרובוקציות, מותר לחשוד שגם שם הייתה פרובוקציה. הסיכוי שחבורה כזו פעלה באלימות, שגררה אלימות, הוא מאוד גבוה Translation: "So where's the connection? I was asked by respondents whose opinions I cherish. Should they be treated with violence because of their political opinions? This is an appropriate argument. And nowhere have I claimed that these people [ISM activists] deserve to be treated violently or be put in peril because of their political opinions. What I pointed out was that it is important to keep in mind the whole picture. The context is important. If the movement involved directs its members to deal in provocations, it is only proper to suspect that provocation took place. The odds that such a group acted in a violent manner, thereby instigating a violent response, are indeed very high."

- noga1

April 20, 2012 at 10:18pm

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"ISM is not about peace." ISM is about their idea of peace meaning, it's about one State or the the elimination of the Jewish State. In this sense ISM is anti-Jewish. Still, this doesn't mean that hitting one of their protesters in the face with a rifle was the right thing to do. It wasn't. Shaming them by asking why they didn't go to demonstrate in Damascus was the right thing to do. Till then Israel had the upper hand, after the beating it didn't. Israelis need to stop taking that one step which makes it seem as if they are in the wrong; banning Grass, hitting an unarmed protester plays into the hand to those who want to de-legitimate the Jewish State. Under the circumstances The action taken against the officer was appropriate.

- arnon1

April 20, 2012 at 10:52pm

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04/20/2012 - 10:52pm EDT | arnon1 Sane post to say the least.

- basman

April 21, 2012 at 8:26am

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I agree with Wieselthier's term "art". Unfortunately, criticism of Israel became an "art" and we have now such "artists" galore. I also agree that the action against the officer was appropriate. Being the highest ranking officer in the field he should have exercised self restrain. Ben Yemini article is correctly pointing to the fact that a minor incident has allowed the regular "artists" to engage in their "artistic" activity with passion. . I just can't wait to read roid's next "artistic" endevor. By the way, This was also included in Yeminis piece. It's 10 years anniversary of Passover massacre and the famous Jenin libel. And that paragon of "thinking people" the Guardian of London still did issue a correction. http://hurryupharry.org/2012/04/14/ten-years-since-something-that-never-happened-a-learning-moment-for-the-guardian/

- rmakover@swbell.net-OLD

April 21, 2012 at 9:20am

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Should be: And that paragon of "thinking people" the Guardian of London still did NOT issue a correction.

- rmakover@swbell.net-OLD

April 21, 2012 at 9:33am

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makover "I agree with Wieselthier's term "art". Unfortunately, criticism of Israel became an "art" and we have now such "artists" galore." Wieseltier uses the term "art" in a positive sense, Makover. I assume that when you say that " criticism of Israel became an "art" and we have now such "artists" galore" you don't mean it in the same sense. Am I missing something?

- arnon1

April 21, 2012 at 4:57pm

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LW bemoans the absence of context and / or understanding of the complexities of the Israeli-Arab conflict when criticizing Israel (Peter Beinart exemplifies this absence best, but I digress) and so let me suggest that LW start by looking in the mirror, with his retelling of the Eisner incident as Exhibit A. First of all, he is basing his conclusions on a very short video that circulated on the web (for the record, most of this criticism also applies to most of the Israeli media which committed the same sins). The "demonstration" at which this took place lasted about 1.5-2 hours. The video was a minute or two max. Ergo, you have no idea what preceded the video. You also don't know what was going on outside the field of the lens or the frame of the video. Even if the entire video was made available by the Pal videographer (reportedly he will provide it to any Israeli investigations of the incident) the entire length the unedited (ostensibly; see the Mohammed al Dura story for Palestinian editing practices) video is ~0.5 hour, i.e., it covers a fraction of the demonstration and only where the videographer was pointing his camera at that. The videographer says it's short because he was turning the camera on & off to shoot selectively. Another important piece of context missing here. Two of Eisner's fingers were broken earlier by a demonstrator who hit him in the hand with a pole or something. One of his arm bones were cracked at the same time. Ergo, these were not peaceful demonstrators. These were ISMers (more on them later). Indeed Eisner was more severely injured than that not so great Dane. The latter supposedly needed 2 stitches to close his wound (although a subsequent picture of the bloke did not reveal such a wound nor (I believe) was there evidence of bleeding in the video). Eisner had broken bones. Eisner was examined & treated at Shaarei Zedek Hospital in J'lem for the broken bones. Perhaps LW could dust off is Yeshiva of Flatbush trained Hebrew & contact the hospital to get copies of the X-rays and display them on the TNR web site to provide a context... but that would ruin a good narrative, so maybe not. And so how would LW react to a demonstrator approaching him after having his finger bones broken? Would he engage him in dialogue? And some words on the demonstrators: They were all members of the "International Solidarity Movement" who (like its sister organization, "Palestinian Solidarity Movement") are not merely "pro-Palestinian" or even "anti-Israel". When they say they oppose the "occupation" they are referring to 1967 or even 1948, but rather 1947 and all that preceded. They want Israel to cease to exist. Furthermore, they openly advocate "all necessary means" to end this "occupation", which in the Palestinian lexicon includes terrorism. Indeed both ISM & PSM were founded around the start of the Oslo Accords War under the aegis of Arafat who presciently saw the organizations as useful tools for recruiting and persuading useful idiots. The "demonstration" was meant to block traffic by mass bike riding on route 90, the major North-South road in the eastern part of the country. If you tried block a major thoroughfare in the USA or Denmark or France or Egypt or Syria or Russia (reset and all) or Britain, do you think that the local police would engage you in discussion and bring in the translators to make sure that you understand what you are being told? BTW, the ISMers claim that Pals cannot drive on that road. That is a lie. I've driven there many times (as recently as last week) and there are many cars with P.A. license plates on the road. Before ISMers & PSMers travel to Israel & the P.A. they undergo training sessions on how to lie to Israeli border control, where to stay in the P.A., how to support Pal "operations", and how to provoke soldiers & police, and most of all how to lie to the useful idiots in the media, "human rights" NGOs, lefty politicians etc etc. You see, once you accept the premise that "all necessary means" are kosher, manipulating truth & facts to serve your ends are included. I should note that there were problems on the Israeli side. It would have been better if instead of soldiers, riot control police with the proper crowd control equipment & training were sent to clear the road. Eisner & his soldiers are from the armored corps & should not have been sent to do this. And in the end Eisner did lose it and as a senior officer, he should not have. But as LW criticizes others, there is a context here which needs to be factored in. Physician, heal thyself. Also when similar events take place against right wing demonstrators, nary a peep of criticism to be heard. By way of example one of the louder critics was Genl. Eliezer Stern (res.). However during the destruction and evacuation of Gush Katif, Stern was seen hitting a demonstrator in the groin with his rifle butt and nobody said a word. Isn't hypocrisy great? שבוע טוב - A good week to all Hershel Ginsburg Efrata / J'lem

- ginzy

April 21, 2012 at 6:04pm

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"I just can't wait to read roid's next "artistic" endeavor." Yes, the "art" of quoting the Fourth Geneva Convention, the opinion of the Israeli ICJ justice on the illegality of the settlements, and such. Very artistic. The defenses on the other hand display remarkable "creativity." Israels' violations of international law as regards illegal colonization of the West Bank are not lapses, errors, inadequacies, or failures of control or of its legal system. They are a systematic state policy of defiance of human rights law. Period. It is not that the government of Israel is trying to comply but finds itself unable unable fully to do so and thence subject to criticism. It simply refuse to comply. As for Mr. Ginsburg's contextual defenses, the identity of the protesters and their particular view on how the conflict should be resolved are of no relevance. If they were breaking the law, they should have been arrested by competent police authorities trained to use, and in fact using, no more force that reasonably necessary to enforce the law. There really is no excuse for Eisner. He was surrounded by other armed troops and the guy he hit in the face was not threatening him. The troops are just standing there looking. No one gives the slightest appearance of being threatened. Leaving aside the legalities, the smart thing to do would have been to provide the cyclists with a police escort, control traffic to prevent obstructions and conflicts, and demonstrate to the world Israel's tolerance for peaceful protest even by those whose ideas it detests. Chance that Netanyahu's government would do anything other than the stupid thing? Nil. See, e.g., banning Günter Grass and vastly enhancing his credibility. Likewise, demeaning the state by giving would-be protesters nasty-grams telling them to go protest Syria, as if the government of Israel is nothing more than a blogger or opinion writer rather than a fully-constituted government with an army and a police force. As for hypocrisy, Israel most of the time does not even attempt to enforce its own laws against settler lawbreakers. Yes, hypocrisy is grand.

- roidubouloi

April 21, 2012 at 8:57pm

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"Stern was seen hitting a demonstrator in the groin with his rifle butt and nobody said a word. Isn't hypocrisy great? " Ben Dror Yemini talks about the same double standard in the article I linked to above. אבל נישאר עם הטענה הנכונה על כך שדעות פוליטיות אינן מצדיקות תגובה אלימה. והיא הנותנת. משום שהתגובה התקשורתית ההיסטרית נבעה מהטיה פוליטית, ולא מתוך רגישות תמימה לזכויות אדם. לו היה מדובר באלימות נגד פרובוקציה של מישהו מנוער הגבעות, התגובה התקשורתית הייתה, אם בכלל, הרבה יותר רגועה. למעשה, אין צורך להמתין. זה כבר קרה. צריך להביט בצילומי הווידיאו מפינוי עמונה. התמונות הרבה יותר מצמררות מהקטע הקצר ששודר השבוע. צריך להיזכר גם בדברים שאמר מי שהיה אז תנ"צ ניסו שחם. הוא לא הסתפק ב"שיישרפו" המתנחלים, אלא העניק היתר להכות בהם. אין לי שום דבר חיובי לומר על מתבצרי עמונה, ששייכים לאותה מחלקה אידיאולוגית, מימין ומשמאל, שמובילה אותנו למציאות דו-לאומית. זה לא מצדיק את האלימות נגדם. ובדיוק לפי אותו היגיון, הדעות הפוליטיות המתועבות של פעילי ISM אינן מצדיקות אלימות נגדם. ולמען הסר ספקות, האלימות של אייזנר, לפי השניות הבודדות ששודרו שוב ושוב ושוב - ראויה לגינוי. ניסו שחם לא הודח. הוא קודם. אף אחד מלובשי המדים שפינו את עמונה, באלימות מצולמת, שחלקה אף שודר, לא זכה לאלפית מהלינץ' התקשורתי שעבר השבוע על אייזנר. כך שהטפת המוסר היא עניין ראוי. ובתנאי שלא מדובר במוסר כפול. Translation: Let's stay with the correct argument that political opinions do not justify violent response. That's what matters, because the hysterical media response derived from political bias and not from genuine sensitivity to human rights. Had the provocation come from a member of the Hilltop Youth, the media would have reacted, if at all, with much greater calm restraint. In factt here is no need to wait. It already happened. All we need is to watch the videoclips from the Amona evacuation. Scenes took place which were much more shocking than what had transpired in the few seconds of the video circulated this week. Let's recall what Nisso Shaham, then senior officer in charge of the operation. He did not contain himself with the exclamation: "Let them burn!" but gave permission to beat them up. I have nothing positive to say about the Amona residents who belong to the same ideological department from the Left and the Right that leads us into a bi-national reality. Their political affiliation however does not justify acting with violence against t hem. And by exactly the same logical principle, the obscene political opinions of the ISM activists. In view of the few seconds of video which were repeatedly shown on TV, Eisner's violence deserves to be condemned. Nisoo Shaham was not reprimanded. He was promoted. None of the uniformed personnel who evacuated Amona with videotaped violence- part of it broadcast- got even a fraction of a fraction of the media lynching that Eisner has been subjected to this week. So, preaching about human rights and proper principles are indeed proper and ethical, as long as we are talking about principles universally applied and not two measures for two weights.

- noga1

April 21, 2012 at 9:19pm

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The continuous advancement of Judea and Samaria providing jobs to Palestinian construction workers paid 1.4 billion and collected taxes of 100 million USD transferred to the Palestinian authority needed for their surv

- JAIMECHUCH

April 21, 2012 at 9:34pm

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It is interesting to note how roiduschmuck recapitulates what Ginzy himself said in his assessment of Eisner's behaviour: ginzy: "I should note that there were problems on the Israeli side. It would have been better if instead of soldiers, riot control police with the proper crowd control equipment & training were sent to clear the road. Eisner & his soldiers are from the armored corps & should not have been sent to do this. And in the end Eisner did lose it and as a senior officer, he should not have. But as LW criticizes others, there is a context here which needs to be factored in. Physician, heal thyself." roischmuck: "If they were breaking the law, they should have been arrested by competent police authorities trained to use, and in fact using, no more force that reasonably necessary to enforce the law" But somehow the tone is belligerent and adversarial. Typical roi.

- noga1

April 21, 2012 at 9:37pm

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BYt he way, let the record show that I called roidubouloi schmuck first. From now on things will unroll in the usual manner.

- noga1

April 21, 2012 at 9:41pm

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The continuous advancement of Judea and Samaria providing jobs to Palestinian construction workers paid 1.4 billion and collected taxes of 100 million USD transferred to the Palestinian authority needed for their survival. Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria were liberated in 1967 when Israel defended itself from attacking armies of Egypt, Jordan, Syria that violated UNSC resolutions. Arabs have always violated UNSC resolutions and always violated Geneva accords. thus the Galicianer dishonest self hatred Jew continues his lies. That is why he is a mediocre failure. The legality of the liberated territories by Israel is universally accepted and the roi..dent, hemor..roid is a discredited clown with his discredited obsessive repetitious fallacies. Geneva accords and UNSC resolutions my foot. That is why a parrot is a parrot, repetitive idiocies. But when you cover it's cage it goes to sleep.

- JAIMECHUCH

April 21, 2012 at 9:51pm

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It did work.  And roiduschmuck was wrong again. Always a mediocre looser. http://www.jewishpress.com/discussions/forum-scoops/deterrence-does-works-against-the-ism/#p804

- JAIMECHUCH

April 21, 2012 at 10:04pm

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Well LW goes all loose on his lynching pad before knowing all the facts. The Israeli officer was attacked by the Norwegian ultraleftists with their bicycles. The video was edited by the ultraleftists, just as they have done it in the past, Jenin et all. If the army would have been Syrians instead, the ultraleftists would have been blown to pieces, and there would be no videos to show anyhow. I am surprised at LW lack of honesty. The new owners of TNR should take action and insist in honesty.

- JAIMECHUCH

April 21, 2012 at 10:38pm

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BTW the ultra-leftists were guided by Arabs that spoke Hebrew, that is why the Israelis were speaking Hebrew. This is an additional point that LW misses.

- JAIMECHUCH

April 21, 2012 at 10:45pm

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Of course, noga, you immediately resort to invective and name-calling. You are incompetent and can do nothing else. It is always thus. And if I should respond in kind, you will shortly be whining that I resort to your own behavior in dealing with you. If indeed you want everything to unfold "in the usual way," as you usually do since this is how you usually, indeed invariably, behave, we can expect you soon to up the ante. But I shall take a pass for now. Let's see if you are capable of self-restraint. My bet is not, but let's see. My comment did not reiterate ginsburg's. He was carrying on about the identity of the demonstrators as if this were relevant. It isn't, except for Israelis for whom the political views of Arabs or their sympathizers are always justification for wrongful behavior toward them, the "context" as ginsburg would have it. It is really much simpler than that, which was my point, not ginsburg's: If people are breaking the law, you enforce the law, using people trained to enforce law deploying the minimum force necessary. You do this with respect to right-wing settlers (against whom the law is barely enforced at all). You do it against religious wackos rioting about the public dress of women who are not orthodox enough for their taste (against whom the law was also little enforced as, according to news reports, two or three were arrested out of hundreds), you do it against demonstrators riding bicycles, and you do the same against Arab demonstrators. If you are dealing with armed terrorists, different measures are called for. It is not complicated, the political views of the demonstrators are not the "context" for what occurs, and it only sounds belligerent to you because even stating these ideas about the rule of law and human rights sounds belligerent to you. You don't believe in them and hence anyone who calls attention to them is an enemy.

- roidubouloi

April 22, 2012 at 4:19am

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Well roiduschmuck is hysterical again. Can not stand defeat by a woman.

- JAIMECHUCH

April 22, 2012 at 6:57am

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This is again for LW information. As far as roiduschmuck he is a lost case. It did work.  And roidischmock was wrong again. Always a mediocre looser. http://www.jewishpress.com/discussions/forum-scoops/deterrence-does-works-against-the-ism/#p804 The Left released more of the Eisner video, and of course it's heavily edited, but it does reveal some very important points.     1:35 The Palestinian in Charge tells the ISMs to start 1:40 This entire segment involving the ISM violence is now heavily cut and edited.  1:43 You see part of a physical attack by an ISM on the soldiers with a bicycle, as the ISMs try to break the line. You'll note the entire segment is edited, so you see parts of what the ISMers are doing. You then see Eisner in the background hitting the ISMers clearly trying to break the line.   At 4:08 you see something incredibly important. An IDF soldier (not Eisner) merely walks towards the ISMers and they scramble to get away from him. At 4:19 You can see the sheer fear on one ISMer's face.   The lesson is, that Eisner's method does work against the ISM, and if the IDF command had stood behind their soldiers they would have learned that the ISM first used violence and force to try to break the line, and that using minimal physical force back has a very strong deterrent effect against the ISM.

- JAIMECHUCH

April 22, 2012 at 7:12am

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Arnon: My statement was ironic. Although I agree with Ginzy that we have seen only a portion of the film, what was shown was enough. By the way, I seen portion of video that show Eisner hitting other demonstrators, pulling hair etc. The incident was minor, nobody was seriously hurt but the fact is that a colonel in IDF hit an unarmed demonstrator in the face with a rifle. In my past, during miluim I did crowd control duties in Gaza of all places. When demonstrators are in your face, when they insult you and throw rocks and garbage at you it's very difficult to be calm. Many times I wanted to whup somebody upside the head. But I didn't and my buddies didn't because it is necessary to be in control, particularly when one is in command. Deviations from this rule, gives all the "artists" mentioned above new material. That said, I think Yemini is absolutely right, the media made a mountain out of molehill. But since when did anybody think otherwise? Sgan Aluf Eisner gave them the material. The demonstrators of ISM are enemies of Israel and enemies of the Jews. Their leaders are antisemitic slime but when we fight them we have the duties to fight smart, to show them for what they really are, a despicable group of antisemites supporters of terror and provocateurs. Enough already with the sanctimonious quoting of "Fourth Geneva Convention". Is that the only argument you have? There is an old saying: "When all you have is a hammer, every problems looks like a nail". Tzahal has sterling record on the battlefield and Israel has a sterling record as an occupying power. Have our enemies obey at least the Ghingis Khan conventions and then come back and preach your venom to us again.

- rmakover@swbell.net-OLD

April 22, 2012 at 8:33am

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Israelis believe Eisner dismissal unjustified http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/154980#.T5QlmqN5mSM

- JAIMECHUCH

April 22, 2012 at 11:39am

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I never understood why the Israelis don't respond in kind to Palestinian aggression. If the Palestinians throw rocks at you then Israelis should throw rock as at the Palestinian aggressors. Palestinian terrorists fire thousands rockets at Israeli civilians, then Israelis should fire back thousands of rockets at Palestinian terrorists. Actually these approaches are cheaper, than present Israeli defensive retaliation. Even repetitive parrot roiduschmuck would agree. The Geneva fourth convention obsessive non passive always aggressor ,grr grr grr grr legal liberated territories, more development paying handsomely Palestinian construction workers. To rethink the new name should be roiduschlemiel, he does not deserve promotion to roiduschmuck nor roiduschlimazel. The schlemiel is the one constantly spilling the soup on the schlimazel. Now schmuck , btw roiduschlemiel are you circumcised ?

- JAIMECHUCH

April 22, 2012 at 12:04pm

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Reposting. News Nisan 30, 5772, 22/04/12 04:48 Poll: Most Israelis Believe Eisner's Dismissal Unjustified 51 percent of Israelis believe that the dismissal of Lt. Col. Shalom Eisner from his command position was unjustified, poll finds. Elad Benari A majority of Israelis believe that the dismissal of Lt. Col. Shalom Eisner from his command position in the IDF was unjustified, according to a poll released Friday. The poll, which was conducted by the Ma’agar Mohot institute for the Makor Rishon newspaper, found that 51 percent of Israelis believe that the decision was not justified. 37 percent said they believe the decision was justified, and 12 percent said they had no opinion. Of the respondents who identified themselves as being national-religious, 78 percent said that the dismissal was not justified. Of those who identified as hareidi-religious, 79 percent said they believe Eisner’s dismissal was unjustified. Of those who identified themselves as secular, 55 percent said they believe the dismissal was justified, and 27 percent said there was no need to dismiss Eisner. Eisner was dismissed from his position as Commander after an edited video showed him slamming his gun into the face of an anarchist who was blocking a road along with other leftists and Arabs. IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz decided that Eisner will not be allowed to perform any duties as a commander for two years. As is usual in such cases, the anarchists' video is edited and does not include any documentation of their provocations vis-à-vis the reservist force that had to deal with them on the Jewish Sabbath. There was no evidence in the video that the anarchist was injured. Eisner told a confidante after the incident that the leftist he was seen hitting in the video struck him first, causing fractures in his hand. In later pictures, his fingers were bandaged. A new video released Friday shows that Eisner may have hit four other protesters – including women riding bicycles – during the same incident. The video, which was edited by Palestinian Authority Television, was disseminated by the extreme leftist group B'Tselem, which aims its reports only at Israel and is notorious for publishing one-sided reports aimed at damaging the IDF's and Israel's standing. In countries such as Denmark (click here for the video), from  where the anarchist in the incident came, extreme violence is routine - such as repeated slamming with truncheons, slapping, pusihng, knocking down and dragging on the ground for yards - and this when the demonstrators are peaceful. Respondents in the Makor Rishon poll were also asked whether they believe Gantz’s decision to dismiss Eisner was due to pressure by the media. No less than 70 percent said they believe the decision was indeed made due to pressure by the media. Only 16 percent of respondents said they believe the decision was not due to media pressure. The last question posed to respondents touched on the incident itself, and they were asked, “What is your feeling towards Eisner – are you angry about what he did or do you identify with him?” Only 21 percent of respondents said they feel anger about Eisner’s actions, while 41 percent responded that they identify with Eisner. For another view of trhe incident, click here. The Danish anarchist in question was filmed with a small cut on his lip, continuing to demonstrate, several minutes later. www.israelnationalnews.com  print

- JAIMECHUCH

April 22, 2012 at 12:14pm

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"Tzahal has sterling record on the battlefield and Israel has a sterling record as an occupying power." An evasion of course. What else? The Fourth Geneva Convention forbids the transfer of the occupying power's population into the occupied territory. Flat out. And Israel acknowledges itself to be an occupying power because the territory is governed under military occupation government. The record on the battlefield is irrelevant, and Israel has a lousy record as an occupying power. Because it insists on illegal settlement, it then must impose all sorts of burdens on the occupied population beyond the requirements of security of the State of Israel. This is why, for example, the Israeli justice on the International Court of Justice stated that the security barrier, to the extent it is routed to protect settlements, all of which are illegal, is itself illegal. Subject only to the legitimate needs of security, the occupying power is obliged to allow all normal social and economic life in the occupied territory. This has hardly been the history of the occupation. But even if the occupation had been sterling, the settlements are still a violation of the human rights of the Palestinians not to be colonized. It requires no artistry to state this or to understand. It requires only honesty. That is impossible for Israel and Israelis so long as the insist on trying to rationalize or justify that which is flatly illegal. That Israel then refuses to make peace if its illegal settlements are not legitimized and ceded by the Palestinians only makes matters worse. Israel doesn't want peace, it wants land to which it has no claim. The make Israel a menace to world peace. The rest is blather.

- roidubouloi

April 22, 2012 at 7:29pm

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Leon Wieseltier shows his true colors. Nothing about Lieutenant Colonel Eisner broken bones in his hand a moment before. The idiotic claim that Israel should allow being invaded by organized protest coming from anywhere outside Israel. Does the US allow masses of Mexicans not coming to protest but to work? The US has a long history of baring foreigner with a political agenda contrary to the US's from getting a US visa but Israel should allow them in according to this Leon! Obviously Leon Wiesltier supports the deligitimization of Israel. No country has sustained so many wars attempting to destroy it and decades of Islamic terror as Israel does. Israel never had a day it did not have to protect itself from Islamic terror, not one! Now there is a new form of warfare against Israel, organized invasion with protest in mind and disruption. Keep in mind the hooligans were stopped from entering a military area. In the USA the same might be faced not with the but of a rifle but with live fire.

- Poupic

April 23, 2012 at 6:42am

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The fourth Geneva convention, the fifth, the sixth, the seventh, the eight, the ninth. The Egyptians just broke the agreement to sell gas to Israel. One more violation of all Geneva conventions. The best of the best is old genever better than new genever, excellent gins. Big disappointment by the Galicianer dishonest self hatred Jew. Thus far has not named any agreements from the multiple Geneva conventions that have ever been obeyed by Arabs, Palestinian, Iranians, or Moslems, or German nazis. Nor UNSC resolutions, nor ultraleftists Norway. Le Canard Enchaine is a French magazine full of phony parodies. The Geneva conventions belong there, maybe they are being plagiarized by roi...dent, hemor...roid.

- JAIMECHUCH

April 23, 2012 at 7:26am

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Who left the door to the loony bin open again? And now this: http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/04/24/the-crisis-of-zionism/

- roidubouloi

April 24, 2012 at 10:33pm

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Here's the whole thing by Krugman. It is short: The Crisis of Zionism Something I’ve been meaning to do — and still don’t have the time to do properly — is say something about Peter Beinart’s brave book The Crisis of Zionism. The truth is that like many liberal American Jews — and most American Jews are still liberal — I basically avoid thinking about where Israel is going. It seems obvious from here that the narrow-minded policies of the current government are basically a gradual, long-run form of national suicide — and that’s bad for Jews everywhere, not to mention the world. But I have other battles to fight, and to say anything to that effect is to bring yourself under intense attack from organized groups that try to make any criticism of Israeli policies tantamount to anti-Semitism. But it’s only right to say something on behalf of Beinart, who has predictably run into that buzzsaw. As I said, a brave man, and he deserves better.

- roidubouloi

April 24, 2012 at 10:35pm

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"SO ISRAEL MUST be defended and Israel must be criticized." I couldn't agree more, Mr Wieseltier.

- scrubby

April 24, 2012 at 11:16pm

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The fourth Geneva convention obsessive compulsive is nothing but....yes...a Galicianer dishonest self hatred Jew, hates Israel, loves Iranian islamofascists and loves German nazis. And is looking for company for more demonizers of Israel. To date he has not answered the question to mention a single "international agreement" ever respected by Arabs, Palestinians, Iran or German nazis. He is a mediocre looser with no credibility at all. He has added hystericality to his behavior. before the fourth Geneva convention there was a first, second, third, and after that there were fifth, sixth, seventh and so forth. Le roi..dent, le hemor..roid, presently named roiduschmuck, roiduschlemiel will repeat his parrot like lecture on the fourth Geneva convention legality of the liberated territories. Did he tell that his sister lives there? No more no less the king of the stinky baloney. he should talk about the other Geneva conventions blah blah blah blah...and more blah.

- JAIMECHUCH

April 25, 2012 at 8:54am

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It is a well established fact that the NYT is anti Israel. If Paul Krugman, Thomas Friedman, Roger Cohen would say anything positive about Israel they get fired. But that makes the day for the fourth Geneva convention obsessive compulsive, Galicianer dishonest self hatred Jew, anti Israel, apologizer for Iran and German nazis. Non other that roiduschmuck, roiduschlemiel. And to add insult to injury. Paul Krugman, an economics Nobel winner, is blatantly ignored in his economics advise.

- JAIMECHUCH

April 25, 2012 at 9:08am

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He gets no respect. Come to think they get no respect.

- JAIMECHUCH

April 25, 2012 at 9:13am

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Something positive from the liberated territories Home » News » Eye on Palestine » IDF Soldiers Save Critically Ill Palestinian Infant By: Tibbi Singer Published: April 25th, 2012 IDF Paramedic with newborn Palestinian baby. Photo Credit: IDF Spokesperson Last Sunday night, a Palestinian woman arrived with her 12-day-old baby girl at an IDF post in the Benjamin region of Judea and Samaria. The infant was having trouble breathing and needed immediate first aid. IDF Home Front Command soldiers stationed at the post treated the baby, stabilized her, then called an ambulance, which evacuated her to a nearby hospital in Ramallah. “The baby was suffering from severe difficulty breathing and was vomiting at the same time,” explained the battalion doctor, Cpt. Dr. Michael Findler. “We provided her with initial medical care and succeeded in stabilizing her condition.” Commanders from the Benjamin Regional Brigade explained that Palestinians in the region know that if they have a life-threatening emergency, they can come to the IDF post for assistance. “Every Palestinian in the region knows there is an IDF post permanently stationed here that will provide aid,” said Cpt. Dr. Findler. “Such incidents have become commonplace.” Over the past two weeks, the battalion stationed at the post treated three similar cases of emergency medical care. “Last time one of our paramedics treated a Palestinian girl suffering from meningitis, and in another incident I treated a jaundice patient that arrived with a severe cerebral hemorrhage,” explained the battalion doctor. “In both cases the patients were evacuated for additional medical care at Israeli hospitals.” IDF soldiers have a long history of saving Palestinian lives. In recent months, IDF medics have treated a an elderly Palestinian suffering from pulmonary edema, an unconscious Palestinian man, an injured Gaza teenager and victims of a severe car accident. About the Author: Tibbi Singer is a veteran contributor to publications such as Israel Shelanu and the US supplement of Yedioth. Printed from: http://www.jewishpress.com/news/eye-on-palestine/idf-soldiers-save-critically-ill-palestinian-infant/2012/04/25/

- JAIMECHUCH

April 25, 2012 at 9:18am

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"To date he has not answered the question to mention a single "international agreement" ever respected by Arabs, Palestinians, Iran or German nazis." This is only of importance to those stupid enough and/or deluded enough to think the answer is either interesting, of any consequence whatsoever, or serves somehow as an excuse for Israel: "We're better than Arabs, Palestinians, Iranians and German Nazis, hence we ought not be held to account." I don't discuss baseball scores here either. The are equally irrelevant. Is it lunch time yet in the asylum?

- roidubouloi

April 25, 2012 at 10:37am

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"Commanders from the Benjamin Regional Brigade explained that Palestinians in the region know that if they have a life-threatening emergency, they can come to the IDF post for assistance." As it should be. The government of Israel is the government of the West Bank and the IDF is its gendarmerie there. This is laudable, truly, but one should not get too puffed up about the government meeting its responsibilities. These are its responsibilities.

- roidubouloi

April 25, 2012 at 10:39am

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Finally the fourth Geneva convention obsessive compulsive answers a no answer. Sad nobody is paying you attention today. Your compliments will take you nowhere. Mine hit the mark. Adieu.

- JAIMECHUCH

April 25, 2012 at 11:03am

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This is a translation of an article by Ben Dror Yemini. I don't know who the translator is. http://www.nrg.co.il/online/1/ART2/361/610.html?hp=1&cat=479&loc=25 A wondrous creation If Herzl were to rise from his grave and pay us a visit in honor of Independence Day, our first recommendation for his stay should be: dear visionary and journalist, please, forget your profession for a moment. Don’t read newspapers. Don’t open books. Go to Meah Shearim and Yeruham, Dimona and Maalot. Go to the Weizmann Institute of Science, Teva and Intel’s development center. After your eyes have seen what is going on in this country you can read newspapers, books and articles, and then you will discover one more thing. We are world champions at whining. Israel is a special target for criticism, both self-inflicted and from others. There is no correlation between what you will read in the local or foreign press and reality. Because a miracle, no less, has taken place here. Israel is one of the more remarkable creations of mankind. A country made up entirely of refugees has grown prosperous. From a country fighting for its survival, it has become something even you didn’t dream of. Did you know, dear visionary, that Europe, where you realized that the Jews would have no future, gives more research grants to Israelis than to any other country on earth? Relatively, of course. There is no great love for Jews or affirmative action. The Israelis are just good at what they do. Did you know that Israeli industry manufactures the chips for most of the computers in the world? Did you know that Israeli developments in agriculture, irrigation systems and medicine have given food and life to millions of people around the world? Did you know that the most valuable Israeli export, even more expensive than diamonds or oil, is tomato seeds? Did you know that Israeli researchers are at the top of the scientific publications worldwide? Did you known that the yield per acre here is the highest in the world? Your vision was not fully realized. The rabbis aren’t locked in the synagogues, as you wanted. The extreme ones dictate a significant portion of the basic problems. They have a stranglehold. Anti-Semitic undertones can still be found among the Jews, just as it was. The conflict with the surrounding nations is not as simple as you thought. It still burdens us. Not everyone enjoys the innovations in science, industry, agriculture and medicine. The social gaps are wide. On Independence Day, more than on any other day, we are all invited to balance the national checkbook. Compare the pluses to the minuses. And we can assume that we will find two very different results. If we believe academic publications, international institutions and newspapers, Israel is a terrible place, which manufactures and exports violence to the whole world, a country that spends all its time oppressing, a country that is at the top of the list in corruption and human rights violations. If we were to examine reality, the picture is completely different. Israel is one of the safest places in the world, the public health care system is one of the best in the world, life expectancy is one of the highest in the world, the percentage of people with quality higher education is one of the highest in the world, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has the lowest number of casualties in comparison to any other conflict in the world. These accomplishments are staggering, particularly when two of Israel’s basic conditions are taken into consideration. First, Israel is a country where most of its citizens came as refugees. Second, it is a country that has had to deal with a serious conflict for decades now. In other words, it is a miracle. Dear visionary, the road has been long and hard. Many have fallen on the way. We both cry and celebrate. It is clear that we need to remember, and remind ourselves, that not only is it not all black—there are many colors here. And if we had the strength to get to where we are, we must believe that we can fix what we have broken.

- noga1

April 25, 2012 at 3:48pm

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Paul Krugman's short comment on the eve of the day in which Israel commemorates all those who fell in its wars and terrorist victims (22,993) is tantamount, as Martin Kramer said, to giving it the finger.

- noga1

April 25, 2012 at 3:51pm

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http://www.jewishjournal.com/rosnersdomain/item/the_bravery_of_beinart_and_krugman_20120425/ "Paul Krugman believes that Peter Beinart is “a brave man” who wrote “a brave book” ‎‎(The Crisis of Zionism). And why should Beinart be considered “brave”? Krugman only ‎gives one reason: The possibility of “intense attack from organized groups that try to ‎make any criticism of Israeli policies tantamount to anti-Semitism”. ‎ But even though the post is very short and the point is supposedly very clear, I still ‎had some questions to which I did not get answers:‎ ‎1. If Beinart was brave to write this book, is Krugman brave for calling Beinart brave ‎‎(while those who do not think Beinart is brave are not brave)?‎ ‎2. If Krugman is right and “most American Jews are still liberal” like Beinart and ‎himself, does it not make his point about bravery a little bit less convincing? By ‎Krugman’s own account, all Beinart is doing is catering to the views of the majority of ‎his potential readers.‎ ‎3. Krugman is right: some organizations might attack Beinart. Is that such a heavy ‎price for the author to pay? Consider this price compared to the benefits: Beinart is ‎now far better known than he was, gets invitations to numerous forums, made a lot of ‎money, got a new and hyped journalistic gig, and is called “brave” by the likes of ‎Krugman. Sounds like a pretty good deal to me.‎ ‎4. Consider this sentence: “It seems obvious from here that the narrow-minded ‎policies of the current government are basically a gradual, long-run form of national ‎suicide”. Now ask: What does Krugman mean by “from here”? Does he refer to the ‎city of New York, to the offices of The New York Times (yes, reading the Times ‎might give one such impression of Israel), to the United States? And if it is so ‎‎“obvious”, does it not make Beinart’s book - yet again - not as brave as Krugman ‎argues?‎ ‎5. Krugman also testifies, in this very short column, that he “basically avoid[s] ‎thinking about where Israel is going”. This means that Krugman is able to identify the ‎many follies and vices of a place about which he does not think.‎ ‎ ‎ ‎6. Did Krugman even read Beinart’s book? I don’t know. Has he read any book on ‎Israel in recent years? Does he know anything about Israel? He says nothing about the ‎content of Beinart’s book, shows no inclination to explain why Israel’s policies are ‎‎“long-run form of national suicide”, gives no hint as to the reasons why Israel deserves ‎to be criticized. If anyone wrote with such a commanding tone about the issues on ‎which Krugman does know something, he’d probably be the first to jump on him and ‎demand facts, details, logical analysis (he says he “doesn’t have the time” – but he ‎does give the impression that he had the time to read the whole book – and we all ‎know that reading takes more time than writing).‎ ‎7. Piled on praise of someone as respectable and as smart and as celebrated as Paul ‎Krugman – does that make one brave? ‎"

- noga1

April 25, 2012 at 3:57pm

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To fix what one has broken, one must first be motivated to do so and then make the effort. No sign of either. The rest is irrelevant. "Look! Cows."

- roidubouloi

April 25, 2012 at 4:11pm

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Krugman's comment can be taken as evidence of the esteem with which Israel is regarded even amongst those who have every disposition to hold it in high regard. Certainly, Israel bears no responsibility for this state of affairs. One has but the read the letter to Herzl to understand that. It is in all respects a miraculous place. Perhaps Prof. Krugman is uneducated, unaware of the miracles. Or he may be a closeted anti-Semite and self-hating Jew. Barring that, he must be an unthinking naïf, under the sway of self-hating, anti-Semitic liberal American Jews. We self-haters just cannot seem to understand how computer chips, tomato seeds, and the threats to Israel justify abusing the human rights of Paletinian Arabs. That is surely the very definition of anti-Semitism.

- roidubouloi

April 25, 2012 at 4:24pm

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http://rubinreports.blogspot.ca/2012/04/seated-among-heroes-and-watching-faces.html "But I have not invited you to read these words this day just to say this. There is something equally or even more remarkable to tell. In all of this and throughout the nation on this day, there was not a word of hatred, of reviling any enemy. No smugness of triumph, no desire for conquest; no thirst for revenge or punishment. Thus behaves the world’s most slandered nation."

- noga1

April 25, 2012 at 6:09pm

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Celebrating Yom haatzmaut , Israel independence day.     Print Israel Fan Kasim Hafeez in Israel in 2007 click here to enlarge text Muslim, Zionist and proud Op-ed: His father praised Hitler, but Kasim Hafeez writes about love for Israel, Jewish people Kasim Hafeez I am a Zionist, a proud Muslim Zionist, and I love Israel, but this was not always the case. In fact, for many years I was quite the extreme opposite. I experienced the high levels of anti-Semitism and anti-Israel activity taking place on British university campuses, because I was the anti-Semitic, anti-Israel activist.   Growing up in the Muslim community in the UK I was exposed to materials and opinions at best condemning Israel, painting Jews as usurpers and murderers, and at worse calling for the wholesale destruction of the "Zionist Entity" and all Jews. In short, there was no accommodating a Jewish State in the Middle East. Hating Israel The new anti-Semitism / Moshe Dann Op-ed: Anti-Israel campaign identifies Jews as immoral, Jewish state as historical fraud Full Story   To grow up around this constant barrage of hatred directed at Israel has a massive effect on an individual’s own opinions. More disturbingly, many of these people weren’t radical or extreme, but when it was about Israel the most vicious of rhetoric poured out, coupled with the casual anti-Semitism that seemed too prevalent, when the phrase "stop being a Jew" used as an insult.   My father, however, was much more brazen in his hatred, boasting of how Adolf Hitler was a hero, his only failing being that he didn't kill enough Jews.   By the time I had reached 18 I was completely indoctrinated to the fold of radical Islamism. My hate for Israel and for the Jews was fuelled by images of death and destruction, set to the backdrop of Arabic melodies about Jihad and speeches of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah or Osama Bin Laden.   These views were reinforced when I attended Nakba Day rallies, where speakers predicted Israel's demise as Hezbollah flags were waved proudly in the centre of London.   The Case for Israel Was there a case for Israel? In my mind, of course not, there was no shadow of doubt. Even the most moderate clerics I came across refused to condemn terrorism against Israel as unjustified; the Jews must obviously deserve it, I believed.   So what changed? How could I go from all this hatred to the great love for and affinity with Israel and the Jewish people? I found myself in the Israel and Palestine section of a local bookstore and picked up a copy of Alan Dershowitz’s The Case for Israel. Given my worldview, the Jews and Americans controlled the media, so after brief look at the back, I scoffed thinking "vile Zionist propaganda."   I did, however, decide to buy it, content that I would shortly be deconstructing this propaganda piece, showing that Israel had no case and claiming my findings as a personal victory for the Palestinian cause.   Hafeez in Israel in a visit that changed his life   As I read Dershowitz’s arguments and deconstruction of many lies I saw as unquestionable truths, I searched despairingly for counter arguments, but found more hollow rhetoric that I’d believed for many years. I felt a real crisis of conscience, and thus began a period of unbiased research. Up until that point I had not been exposed to anything remotely positive about Israel.   Now, I didn't know what to believe. I'd blindly followed others for so long, yet here I was questioning whether I had been wrong. I reached a point where I felt I had no other choice but to see Israel for myself; only that way I’d really know the truth. At the risk of sounding cliché, it was a life-changing visit.   No apartheid state I did not encounter an apartheid racist state, but rather, quite the opposite. I was confronted by synagogues, mosques and churches, by Jews and Arabs living together, by minorities playing huge parts in all areas of Israeli life, from the military to the judiciary. It was shocking and eye-opening. This wasn't the evil Zionist Israel that I had been told about.   After much soul searching, I knew what I had once believed was wrong. I had been confronted with the truth and had to accept it. But I had a bigger question to confront, what now? I’d for years campaigned against Israel, but now I knew the truth.   The choice was obvious: I had to stand with Israel, with this tiny nation, free, democratic, making huge strides in medicine, research and development, yet the victim of the same lies and hatred that nearly consumed me.   Doing this is not easy and that’s something that has become very obvious. I have faced hostility from my own community and even some within the Jewish community in the UK, but that’s the reality of standing up for Israel in Europe today. It is not easy, and that’s what makes it so necessary.   This isn’t about religion and politics; it’s about the truth.   When it comes to Israel, the truth is not being heard, the ranks of those filed with blind hatred continue to swell, yet many have not been exposed to the reality, away from the empty rhetoric and politically charged slogans they are so fond of.   We can change this situation but we need to be strong and united. Israel is not just a Jewish issue - it’s about freedom, human rights and democracy, all the values that Western nations cherish. It’s also about trying to be a light among nations.   Israel’s international humanitarian aid work speaks for itself, but if we don’t get the message out there, no one will. We don’t have to be head-bowed apologists leading with :Israel’s not perfect…" - we should never be afraid to say: I am a Zionist and I’m proud. I stand with Israel. Now I ask, will you do that?   Kasim Hafeez is a British Muslim and former Islamist who is now a proud Zionist and stands with Israel. He runs www.theisraelcampaign.org and has a blog on this site. He is also on the advisory board of StandWithUs in the UK and recently completed a university speaking tour     For Hebrew version of article click here   Pro-Israel bloggers are welcome to send emails to opinions@y-i.co.il .   Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter  

- JAIMECHUCH

April 25, 2012 at 7:23pm

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Why is Israel so happy? HOME HOLIDAYS ISRAEL INDEPENDENCE DAY Why is Israel So Happy? The Jewish state ranked 14th on global Happiness Report. What’s its secret? by Giulio Meotti Israel ranked 14th in the United Nations’ first World Happiness Report. The list is headed by Denmark, Finland, Norway and the Netherlands, the paradises of political correctness, welfare, anti-war, ultra-liberal and anti-nationalistic feelings, beacons which, according to the Global Peace Index, topped the list of the most “peaceful” places in the world. So how can we explain the happiness of Israel, the only civilized country under mortal danger, the only nation without recognized borders and globally selected to be an emblem of evil? To people who don’t live in Israel, this is a mystery. Many Israelis probably can’t figure it out, either. How is it possible that a population living under a perpetual emotional strain and ghettoizing itself behind new Maginot lines is so happy? How can the Jews be happy when Iran is going nuclear and threatening to wipe them off the map? How can they be happy when the Arabs are firing rockets every day at civilians in Ashkelon, Beersheba, Ashdod and Sderot? What are the sources of the happiness of the only UN member condemned to death and boycotted all over the world? Israel is much happier than all the European countries that experienced their last war six decades ago. The Jewish state’s population exceeds 7.5 million, nine times that of 1948, the year of the state’s creation. Israelis are happy because they succeeded demographically; considering the Diaspora’s low birth rates and high assimilation rates, it may not be long before most of the world’s Jews will be Israelis. Despite Jewish heroism and Israeli collectivism giving way to Western individualism, self-criticism and frivolous hedonism, Israeli happiness is much more than the American dream of a large house and a nice car. It lies at the intersection between pleasure and meaning, “a nation like all other nations” but also “a light unto the nations.” Related Video: Israel: Defying the Odds Belief in God Israelis, which have one of the longest life expectancies of any nation in the world, are happy because their country has a history of scintillating enlightenment, with the highest production of scientific publications per capita in the world, more museums per capita and the highest worldwide publication of new books. In a war-ravaged country like Israel, the past few years saw five Israeli Nobel Prize winners. Another reason is economic success. No other industrialized country does it better, especially for a nation that doesn’t have natural resources and has a population roughly half of Belgium’s. Israel’s high-tech industry is flourishing, making the country known as “start-up nation.” While Israel’s social fabric is deeply divided between ultra-Orthodox Jews and “Hellenistic” Israelis, nationalists and leftists, two-thirds of Israelis believe in God, therefore maintaining the hope and feeling that there is higher meaning and purpose to their lives. There is also the attachment to the Jewish land, while love for one’s land is a nationalistic taboo in the West. Overall, Israel’s population is very resilient. A new governmental study just found that Intifada-era violence did nothing to affect Israel’s national morale. Israelis are also happy because they know that Dimona and the IDF are there to protect them, even if the army lost some of its famous deterrence. Finally, there is the most important reason why Israeli happiness is an enchanting and heartening mystery for all free men. When comparing the fertility rate to the suicide rate, one can see the proportion of people who choose to create new life against the proportion who choose to destroy their own. This is why the Jews will ultimately win a centennial war against an enemy ready to sacrifice all of its children in order to throw all Israelis into the sea. In Israel, the celebrations of life are far more numerous than the memories of death. That's Israel’s secret for happiness: it's a lighthouse of life on the border between survival and destruction. Ultimately, life will prevail over death. This article originally appeared on ynetnews.com Published: Saturday, April 21, 2012 Visitor Comments: 16 (15) Anonymous, April 25, 2012 9:39 AM We are happy because we are jews and live at Israel Work hard, Thinking, learning always, improving ourselves every day, smiling and eatng 'pita with olive oil' we are israelis!!! And happy!! (14) karenJohnson, April 24, 2012 11:46 PM THATS WHY LA CHAIM IS OUR LOGO.... This has allways been the Jewish national saying to life so whats nu?? mozel tov ISRAEL. (13) JamesPhiladelphia, April 24, 2012 12:25 PM Israelis Happiness The article doesn't explain the reasons. Just celebrates the astonishment that a country under continuous threats by it's neighbors can be so happy. It is the power of love for life. There is always a positive attitude. Is the history of the Jewish people to survive through the ages of relentless prosecution. Yes is the force of Torah, of community, of Jewish tradition of discussion and analysis. Of respect and push for education. Of unmitigated love for your children. We love our brats with all our force. We love our children more than anything else in the world. And unmitigated love causes immense happiness. That is the history of Judaism. We don't waist time hating, we don't waist energy hating. Love and happiness is positive karma. It is just smart. (12) Anonymous, April 24, 2012 11:18 AM be happy... just came back from Turkey, once Israel's ally, now siding with Iran. first hand comments of Turkish citizens (some lived in the UK) were shared: 'i visited my family in Turkey and the governmet had refused me return and sent me to the army for 18 months. i still live in Turkey...). a jewlery shop owner said: ' i dont like the Jews because the get everything...' if that is not jelousy, what is? now, if there leaders hadn't corupted there land and suppressed them through a number of religious beliefs then the citizens will also have the chance to succeed through education. Another guy (no women to be seen, by the way) who got very irritable just by asking the situation with Iran-Turkey and Israel as a friendly debate. his answer was: i am ready to be given a gun and join Iran to battle Israel. the Americans always helped Israel'. this is a guy who has nothing to show for, he is getting married at the end of the year and chatting up European lady tourists on the beach where he works while his 'beloved' is at the other end of the country doing nothing - waiting at home (hence no women in public to be seen). i am a traveler. i want to see the world, including Iran, Iraq and the countries that are suppressing by their own made beliefs. i want to be Happy too! Congrats, Israel. may God be with you always. and may God open up these boundaries for all to be FREE and experience HAPPINESS. AMEN! (11) ruth, April 24, 2012 10:47 AM keep going on the treadmill to Happiness IL... really proud of IL (Israel)! as an intelligent English citizen i feel envy of happiness. why cant the UK, a reach country at the heart of the planet is further declining in happiness, resulting in many suicide cases. (10) Gillian Cockwill, April 23, 2012 10:08 PM Amen to that! What a joy to read, pity not more Countries are like Israel. See All Comments Submit Your Comment: Name:* Display my name? YesNo Email:* (Your email will not be shared.) One Line Summary: Comments:* * required field 2000 Submit Comment Related Articles: HOME HOLIDAYS ISRAEL INDEPENDENCE DAY Back to Top Back to Homepage Site Contents copyright © 1995-2012 Aish.com Your Life, Your Judaism View Full Aish.com Website Wallcam – Western Wall View Contact Us About Aish Your Privacy Donate to Aish.com

- JAIMECHUCH

April 25, 2012 at 7:31pm

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Comparing the 1940's to the 2012's. We have come a long way baby. Were there self hatred Jews and anti-Semites then as now, yes. Today we have a self defense mechanism : Israel. Take it from here. The true facts, just the true facts. From the sane asylum to the insane asylum where obsessive compulsive strives goes the message.   Photo by: Marc Israel Sellem Tell me about the future of the Jews By DANIEL GORDIS 25/04/2012 A Dose of Nuance: The simple but often overlooked truth is that what has made this difference for Jews world over is the State of Israel.   Imagine it’s January 1946. Imagine, too, that you are exactly who you are now: thoughtful, educated, worldly, rational. And then, someone says to you, “Tell me about the future of the Jews.” So you survey the world in January 1946. It’s a year after the liberation of Auschwitz, and just months since the war has ended. You cast your eyes toward Eastern Europe, which not much earlier had been the world’s center of Jewish life, learning, literature and culture. Eastern European Jewry is gone. Though we commonly say that Hitler annihilated one third of the world’s Jews, that number is technically correct but misses the point. The number that really matters is that after Hitler, 90 percent of Eastern Europe’s Jews had been murdered. Prior to the war, there had been some 3,200,000 Polish Jews. At the end of the war, merely 300,000 were left. By 1950, estimates are that 100,000 Jews remained in Poland. As far as Polish Jewry was concerned, Hitler had won. Hitler won in Hungary, too, and throughout Eastern Europe. The great seat of Jewish life was simply no longer. There are a few Jews left there, of course, but many of those who did survive will for a long time be living under Soviet rule, which, if you’d had a crystal ball, you’d know was going to get infinitely worse long before it got any better. A future for the Jews? It did not look pretty. You could look a bit westward. You might turn your attention to Salonika. Some 56,000 Jews had lived there before the war; 98% of them died. Westward still, you might consider France. But the story of Vichy France would bring you no solace. Europe, until only some 10 years earlier the center of the Jewish world, was an enormous, blood-soaked Jewish cemetery – only without markers to note the names of the millions who had been butchered. So you might turn your attention across the Atlantic Ocean, to the United States. But the American Jews you would have surveyed in 1946 were not the American Jews of today. Today, at AIPAC’s annual Policy Conference, for example, thousands of American Jews (and many non- Jews, as well) ascend the steps of Capitol Hill to speak to their elected officials about Israel. They do so with a sense of absolute entitlement (in the best sense of the word), with no hesitation. But between 1938 and 1945, how many Jews ascended those steps to demand that at least one bomb be dropped on the tracks to Auschwitz, or that American shores be opened to at least some of the thousands of Jews who had literally nowhere to go? During the worst years that the Jews had known in two millennia, virtually no Jews went to Capitol Hill or the White House. There was the famous Rabbis’ March of October 1943, in which some 400 mostly Orthodox rabbis went to the White House (though FDR refused to meet with them), but that was about it. In January 1946, American Jews did not interview for positions on Wall Street wearing a kippa, and did not seek jobs on Madison Avenue informing their prospective employers that they would not work on Shabbat. The self-confidence of American Jews that we now take so for granted was almost nowhere to be found back then. With European Jews going up smokestacks, American Jews mostly went about their business, fearful of rocking the boat of American hospitality. A future for the Jews? There was, of course, one other place where there was a sizable Jewish population – Palestine. But in Palestine, too, the shores were sealed. Tens of thousands of British troops were stationed in Palestine, not only to “keep the peace,” but to make sure that Jews did not immigrate and change the demographic balance of the country. The story of the Exodus is famous, perhaps, precisely because it ended reasonably well. Most Jews today can name not even one of the ships that sank, carrying their homeless Jews with them. In January 1946, the British weren’t budging. A future for the Jews? In January 1946, there was little cause to believe in a rich Jewish future. You might have believed that a covenant promised some Jewish future, but it would have been hard to argue it was a bright one. Now fast-forward 66 years, to 2012. Where do we find ourselves today? Jewish life in Europe, while facing renewed anti-Semitism in some places, is coming back to life. Berlin is one of the fastest growing Jewish communities in the world. There are Jewish cultural festivals in Poland (though staged largely by non-Jews, since there are few Jews left). In Budapest and Prague, Jewish museums, kosher restaurants and synagogues abound. Soviet Jews are largely out, and those who remain have synagogues, schools, camps and community centers. And across the ocean, the success and vibrancy of American Jewish life is legendary. There was no way to expect any of this in 1946, no reason to even imagine it. How did it happen? The simple but often overlooked truth is that what has made this difference for Jews world over is the State of Israel. It was Israel’s victory in 1967 that injected energy into Soviet Jewry and led them to rattle their cage, demanding their freedom. Post-1967, the world saw the Jews as people who would shape their own destiny. Unlike the Tibetans (or Chechnyans or Basques, to name just a few), Jews were no longer tiptoeing around the world, waiting to see what the world had in store for them. The re-creation of the Jewish state has changed not only how the world sees the Jews, but how the Jews see themselves. The days of “We looked like grasshoppers to ourselves, and so we appeared to them” (Num. 13:33) are gone, and the reason is the State of Israel. We are a people sometimes over-inclined to indulge in hand-wringing (and at others, unwilling to do the hand-wringing we ought to). And we face our challenges. Iran is worrisome, Egyptian peace is tenuous. Hila Bezaleli’s tragic death was a metaphor for the lack of accountability that plagues this country. The behavior of Lt.-Col. Shalom Eisner, as well as the reactions to what he did, is also deeply unsettling. But let us remember this, nevertheless: it is far too easy to lose sight of what we have accomplished. Sixty-six years ago, no sane, level-headed person could have imagined that we would have what we have. A language brought back to life, and bookstores filled with hundreds of linear feet of books in a language that just a century ago almost no one spoke. More people studying Torah now than there were in Europe at its height. An economic engine that is the envy of many supposedly more established countries. A democracy fashioned by immigrants, most of whom had never lived in a functioning democracy. Cutting-edge health care. An army that keeps us so safe, we go days on end without even thinking about our enemies. That’s worth remembering in the midst of the attacks on us, from the international community as well as from Jews. There’s much to repair, and too often, we fail to meet the standards we’ve set for ourselves. All true, and they demand our continued attention, but at the same time, we dare not lose sight of what we’ve built. To borrow the phrase from Virginia Slims, “we’ve come a long way, baby.” The Jews have a future because the Jews have a state. There are moments when a People has earned a celebration. Yom Ha’atzmaut is, without question, one of those moments. Daniel Gordis is senior vice-president and Koret Distinguished Fellow at the Shalem Center in Jerusalem. His most recent book, Saving Israel: How the Jewish People Can Win a War that May Never End (Wiley), won the 2009 National Jewish Book Award. His next book, The Promise of Israel: Why Its Seemingly Greatest Weakness is Actually Its Greatest Strength, will be published this August.

- JAIMECHUCH

April 26, 2012 at 6:55am

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"Today we have a self defense mechanism: Israel." Yes, completely dependent on the patronage and goodwill of the United States.

- roidubouloi

April 26, 2012 at 9:53am

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Yes the USA and Israel are allies. God bless America. God bless Israel. And here are Obama's words. http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4221223,00.html

- JAIMECHUCH

April 26, 2012 at 5:12pm

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Leon Wieseltier is a attack dog on Israel. With this attack dog Israel doesn’t need enemies. Consider this, a relentless world wide effort to deligitimize Israel a last resort refuge for Jews everywhere. That Is what Zionism mean. That is precisely what anti- Semites world wide abhor. So, they film IDF officer hitting a Danish citizen who travelled to Israel for the specific purpose of rioting and force his way into a military area. This is enough and sufficient to have a full page editorial dedicated to? Let me propose to the readers of The New Republic an experiment. Google Danish police and riot. What you will find is that Officer Eisner is not unique and not the most violent trying to control a riot. Furthermore, do the same search just changing the country to French, US, Deutch or any Advanced democracy of your choice. If this is all Leon Wieseltier find against Israel to squawk about with his venom he is not an attack dog but a venomous snake.

- Poupic

April 26, 2012 at 5:44pm

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He gets no respect roidusclemiel. He was arrested for making antisemitic slurs as a hate crime. Soon they will be arresting self hatred Jews. Be ware 4th GCLLT  : 4th Geneva Convention Legality Liberated Territories. Do you celebrate Shabes? What a question to GDSHJ GalicianerDishonest Self Hatred Jew AIPIPGN anti Israel pro Iran pro German nazi. QDelmon Young arrested in NYC   ESPN.com news services | April 27, 2012 NEW YORK -- Detroit Tigers left fielder Delmon Young has been arrested on a hate-crime harassment charge after police say he attacked a group of men and yelled anti-Semitic epithets. Police say Young was standing outside of the Hilton New York, not far from Times Square. A group of about four Chicago tourists staying there were approached by a panhandler wearing a yarmulke. As the group walked up to the hotel doors, Young started yelling anti-Semitic epithets. Police say it's not clear who he was yelling at, but he got into a tussle with one of the Chicago group, who sustained scratches to his elbows. The man, 32, refused medical attention, New York detective Joseph Cavitolo told the Detroit Free Press. Police were called, and Young was arrested at 4 a.m. local time at 54th Street and 6th Avenue. He was hospitalized at first because he was believed to be intoxicated. Young faces a misdemeanor "aggravated harassment hate crime" charge and was being processed Friday, Cavitolo said, according to the Free Press. Cavitolo said he did not know if the alleged victim of the harassment, which was said to have happened around 2:30 a.m. ET, was Jewish. Tigers president and general manager Dave Dombrowski had no comment when reached by The Associated Press. The team said in a statement that it was aware of the incident. Because of a provision in baseball's labor contract, the team said any allegation involving alcohol is referred to baseball's employee assistance program. "It would be inappropriate for us to comment further at this time," the Tigers said. An email sent to Young's agent wasn't immediately returned. His lawyer declined to comment. The Tigers said Young is not in the starting lineup for Friday night's game against the Yankees. The Tigers were home on Thursday afternoon, when Young went 0 for 3 with a walk in a 5-4 loss to the Seattle Mariners. Young is hitting .242 with one home run and five RBIs, is signed to a one-year contract for $6,725,000 and can become a free agent after the season. In 2006, Young was suspended for 50 games without pay by the International League for throwing a bat that hit a replacement umpire in the chest. Young, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2003 amateur draft, was ejected in the first inning after taking a called third strike. He lingered in the batter's box, walked away and then threw his bat end over end at the umpire, hitting him in the chest. Young has played for the Tigers since last season after spending two seasons with the Minnesota Twins. He's the younger brother of former outfielder and first baseman Dmitri Young. Information from The Associated Press and ESPNNewYork.com's Jane McManus was used in this report. Comment on this story

- JAIMECHUCH

April 27, 2012 at 5:52pm

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I missed an h roiduschlemil. Still he gets no respect.

- JAIMECHUCH

April 27, 2012 at 5:59pm

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This is the follow up for antisemitic slurs.  I am sure roiduschlemiel is mighty interested no connection to 4thGCLLT , but serious for self hatred Jews, if they start arresting them for hate crimes harassment, even if they are inebriated. Worst if they are sober. In the case of roiduschlemiel is just obsessive compulsive mental disability.   4thGCLLT    4thGCLLT.      4thGCLLT.       4thGCLLT.  Repeated until ain't over until it is over. http://scores.espn.go.com/mlb/scoreboard 

- JAIMECHUCH

April 27, 2012 at 6:18pm

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http://scores.espn.go.com/mlb/scoreboard

- JAIMECHUCH

April 27, 2012 at 6:21pm

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I don't fully agree with Leon on the settlements but I share his beautifully crafted conclusion that criticism of Israel and defense of Israel are not mutually exclusive. Of course, criticism of Günter Grass's variety does not reflect any respect for the Jewish state, not that that's stopped some of his contemporaries from claiming such a perverse rationale for his and their verbal sewage.

- drheingold

April 29, 2012 at 1:43am

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