+972 magazine pushes the "9/11 Dancing Israelis" lie

In yet another example of how 972 magazine has no journalistic integrity, an article by Yossi Gurvitz claims that Israelis were "gleeful" after the horrendous terror attack in Norway on Friday.In fact, Gurvitz says that Israelis actually support terrorism because they are usually so happy at any terror attacks, both against Israelis and against foreigners.

His proof of Israelis' "glee"? He notes a couple of talkbacks in a YNet Hebrew article. Yes, he generalizes all Israelis based on a few comments! (Of course, some comments compare the terrorists to settlers too - but Gurvitz is very selective in his outrage about anonymous comments in YNet.)

But he doesn't stop there in his zeal to tarnish all Israelis as loving terror attacks. He writes:

During the shock following the 9/11 attacks, a strong undercurrent of glee showed up. Four Israelis were actually arrested in New York for dancing in front of the burning towers. They spent quite some time in detention before being kicked out of the US.

Apparently, Gurvitz likes to spend time on 9-11 truther websites, because those who actually remember the story know that there were no dancing Israelis on 9/11. The woman who reported them to the police described them this way:

MARIA: Like a few minutes must have gone on, and all of a sudden down there I see this van park. And I see three guys on top of the van, and I'm trying, you know, to look at the building but what caught my attention, they seemed to be taking a movie.

MILLER: (VO) Maria says the three young men were kneeling on the roof of a white van. It was parked right here. They were taking pictures of each other with the World Trade Center burning in the background.

MARIA: And I could see that they were, like, happy, you know? They--they--they weren't--they didn't look shocked to me, you know? They didn't look shocked. I thought it was very strange.

If I would have had a camera with me that day, I would have been taking photos as well - and hundreds of people did. But there was no dancing and no celebration (although there does seem to have been excitement at witnessing such an event, and somewhat bad taste at taking tourist-type photos in front of the smoke.)

The Israelis denied dancing to the US authorities and went on Israeli television and denied it again. But "truther" websites started the rumor that there were "dancing israelis" - and 972 mag now pushes that lie as well. And, of course, they weren't arrested for "dancing," as pseudo-journalist Gurvitz asserts.

So what else does Gurvitz have to slander an entire country as being gleeful when scores are murdered? Nothing. He states it as fact, and then psychoanalyzes it as if he proved it. Few of 972's readers would doubt his accuracy for a second, because they already buy into the idea that Israelis are collectively morally corrupt (outside of the brave, moral writers for 972mag, of course.)

To be fair, I have no doubt that Israelis have mixed feelings at terror attacks abroad. They hope against hope that the victim country will now have an inkling of the fear that Israelis had to go through for years, before going on the offensive to stop daily terror attacks (using methods that no doubt offend the oh-so-moral sensitivities of 972mag columnists.) In other words, they naturally hope that Europeans will start to empathize with what Israelis have had to live with and notice that they have common enemies. This is human, but it is a not close to the happiness that Gurvitz is describing in this sickeningly vile piece of garbage.