The Times of Israel Guessing Game (Judean Rose)

I have a little game I like to play. I like to see if I can guess by the title of a piece if it's a Times of Israel piece. Ian's Linkdumps, here at Elder of Ziyon, serve me well for this purpose.

Here's where I'm going to confess that these linkdumps are my go-to source for Israel news and commentary. I scroll through Ian's links and if I see something interesting, I'll open it in a new tab and share it on Facebook with a pull quote. I'd rather not, however, give page views to publications I deem harmful to Israel. That means I'd rather not click a title I suspect is from the Times of Israel.

Instead, I'll hover over the hyperlinked title with my mouse, so that the full URL appears in the taskbar. That way I can then see with what publication a given link is associated. And if it's a Times of Israel article, I give it a miss. 

The thing is, I've gotten so good at spotting Times of Israel titles that it's almost creepy. Basically, Times of Israel articles fall into three categories:  A) Articles that show Israel in a negative light, B) Holocaust articles, and C) articles about old guys having bar mitzvahs and other dying Jewish things.

Here's an example from a September 3 linkdump: "Palestinian suspect shot by IDF said to die of wounds."

Implied IDF Cruelty

I knew right away this was going to be a Times of Israel piece, because the emphasis is on the implied cruelty of the IDF as opposed to the suspect's misdeeds. The phrase "shot by IDF" makes it sound as if the guy had been shot with malice and forethought. "Said to die of wounds" implies suspicion that the IDF is not being truthful, that the army is hiding something here; some terrible act that should be investigated, but probably will not be, because ISRAEL (sarcasm).

I didn't need to read Ian's pull quote to confirm my suspicions. I just knew it was the Times of Israel from the title. The piece falls into the first of the three categories outlined above: it makes Israel look bad. But just to show I know my stuff, I took my mouse and hovered over the title. Bingo! A Times of Israel link.

I win. Yay me. Now that was even more fun than the other game I play—the one where I see if I can put away all the clean dishes in the two minutes it takes to heat a mug of water in the microwave. Man, I lead an exciting life!

To clarify, there is no doubt there's a lot more to the story than this Times of Israel headline. The IDF is a moral army: an army deserving of admiration and respect. IDF soldiers don't just go shooting people dead without cause. Yet this is how the Times of Israel chose to present this story.

To prove the point, I found the back story in this headline from Israel National News: "Terrorist dies a month after being shot." The dead guy was a terrorist, but you wouldn't know that from a quick glance at the Times of Israel headline. Why not? Because it's not in the interests of the Times of Israel to disseminate the facts in a headline. It's apparently in the interests of the Times of Israel to demonize Israel.

There is no other way to understand that headline.

Three Flavors

As I said, Times of Israel articles generally come in three flavors. I went to google to dig up an example of old guys having bar mitzvahs for the purpose of this column. I typed: "Times of Israel septuagenarian bar mitzvah" and laughed out loud when the first result was "70 years on, Holocaust survivors get bar mitzvahs." Why did I laugh? Because first of all, the piece appeared only two days ago at the time of this writing (way to prove a point). And also: this piece actually combines categories two and three (old guys having bar mitzvahs AND the Holocaust).

How perfect is that?

Let's analyze this briefly (because longer will make me upchuck.) Articles depicting Israel in a negative light can be taken straight up: The Times of Israel hates Israel and sees it as an entity that rules over another people by force. The only way Israel can expiate this sin is to give the Arabs everything they demand which means that Israel will then no longer exist and the world will live happily ever after. Then they, the staff of the Times of Israel, at least those among them who are Jews, will be GOOD Jews, unlike the, ahem, callous unfeeling settlers and cruel IDF soldiers (more sarcasm). The Times of Israel helps this process along by making Israel look really, really bad at every possible opportunity, thus making Israel the focus of world enmity. Not to mention supplying the Arabs fodder for their propaganda machine.

As in our earlier example above, it's easier to see how this is done when you compare a Times of Israel title to one from a pro-Israel publication. Here is a Times of Israel title from September 5: "Palestinian Family Evicted from East Jerusalem." Compare this headline to that of the Israel National News piece on the same subject: "Arab squatters evicted from Jewish property in Jerusalem"

The Times of Israel piece focuses on the cruelty of Israeli courts in throwing a family out of its home. There are photos of mighty Israeli policemen, a sad Arab dad peeking out of a graffiti-stained door, and a crying Arab mama accompanying the piece. 

One can almost hear the simmering undercurrent of umbrage: Where is Israel's mercy? A family evicted! Does it matter whether this is a Jewish or an Arab family??? Is this how Jews should act?? TIKUN OLAM!!!!

But if you are smart enough not to take your news from a single news outlet, you might read the INN piece, which gives you several good reasons the court ruled as it did, including the facts that this is a Jewish property and that the illegal tenants damaged that property:

Police evicted an Arab family from a Jewish-owned home in the Shimon Hatzaddik neighborhood (Sheikh Jarrah) in eastern Jerusalem Tuesday morning, returning the property to Jewish hands.

The home, which had been built and inhabited by Jews prior to the establishment of Israel in 1948, was seized by Jordan during the occupation of eastern Jerusalem from 1948 to 1967.

Despite the liberation of the area in 1967, for the past 50 years the home has been occupied by local Arabs.

While the law enables Jewish landowners who were deprived of their property during the Jordanian occupation to sue for its return, the legal process can take decades, especially if there are people living in the home.

Police were ordered to evict the family Tuesday after a court declared them illegal squatters, following their refusal to pay the Jewish owners rent, as well as causing damage to the property.

Officers closed the entrances to the Shimon Hatzaddik neighborhood (Sheikh Jarrah) ahead of the evacuation before forcibly removing the squatters after they refused to comply with the eviction orders.

A small group of Arabs and left-wing activists protested the squatters’ eviction.

The last sentence is especially telling. The Times of Israel made a big hoo-hah over this story. Such a hoo-hah that the story got picked up by a bunch of mainstream media outlets including ABC and the BBC. That doesn't mean those outlets got the story from the Times of Israel, but the Times of Israel coverage of the story does certainly help spread the word—especially via that headline! Meantime, the event was no big deal here in Israel. Only a small group of protesters showed up. No. Big. Deal.

This is how a small story is distorted and blown up out of proportion to damn Israel. And in my opinion, it's pure antisemitism. It's done simply to generate hate against Israel and the Jews. This story was a nothing burger and remains a nothing burger, except for the way in which it is slanted and abused to hurt Israel.

As for the second category, the heavy focus on Holocaust stories, this is the Times of Israel underscoring the idea that Obama so loved: that Jews think they have a right to Israel only because of the legacy of the Holocaust and that it's not the Arabs' fault that Jews were murdered, so why should they have to suffer the consequences?

Playing up the Holocaust is about covering up any prior history that proves the Jewish people are indigenous to Israel. It's the Times of Israel saying, "Yes. We know we suffered in the Holocaust. And that is real. But it doesn't give us the right to lord it over another people. In fact, having gone through the Holocaust we should not be making these poor Arab people suffer as we did."

As if there is anything comparable in Israel's treatment of a belligerent minority to the systematic gassing and burning of the six million (shakes head).

Judaism: Quaint and Outdated

That leaves us with our third category of Times of Israel articles: old guys' bar mitzvahs. This is about showing the world how modern they are at TOI. And how quaint and outdated is the Judaism of our ancestors. The Judaism of old is corned beef and matzoh ball soup and old guys having bar mitzvahs. The new Judaism is voting for Hillary and giving money to Linda Sarsour. Judaism is now whatever we want it to be (and not what God wants it to be). It is giving money to Slutwalk Chicago while eating shrimp! It is the far left.

In other words, there is no religious reason, no VALID reason, for Jews to be in Israel. Because Judaism has EVOLVED. There is no longer any reason to hold onto the idea of Israel as the land of the Chosen People, or even to see that people as "chosen." These are all outmoded ideas that belong on the garbage heap of history along with delis, Allan Sherman (who?), and old people with Russian "hecksents."

The Times of Israel wants you to remember that old Judaism with nostalgia and fondness, but not to take it seriously. They want you to move on (and out of Israel). Unless, of course, you're ready for your Jewish children to mix with Arab children until there is one people, one culture, one nation. A nation that is neither Jewish nor Arab but a joyous amalgamation of the two.

Which can only begin with the destruction of the Jewish State.

---

---

We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.