Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

A twitter thread with an anti-Zionist who hated my posters

It is fun to watch how Israel haters react to my series of posters celebrating Zionism.

One such hater is someone named Ben White, who apparently is one of the leaders of the anti-Israel crowd. He wrote a book called "Israeli Apartheid: A Beginner’s Guide" and has been praised by the usual crowd of anti-Zionists like Ali Abunimah and Ilan Pappe.

His reaction to my posters was to put up his own spoof poster on Twitter, replacing "Zionism" with "Hasbara" and tweeting "Israel at 63: This is Hasbara!":

Not having ever heard of him, I thought this was a compliment, because I thinkit is a very good example of what hasbara should be. Only when MargieInTelAviv responded

ah can't stand the truth can you? Why not check it out?

did I realize it was meant to be an insult.

I responded:

Of course it is #Hasbara. And it is true. Hasbara is no more an insult than #Zionism!

Ben:

#hasbara in 2011 = treating kids in Haiti, evicting kids in #Palestine

He then included a link to "Hasbara Buster" who claims that Israel's good deeds aren't good in themselves, but an insidious plot to redirect the world from talking about Israeli crimes.

Me:

You are a sad man to get so upset over Zionists doing good things.

Ben:

you are a not-so-bright man if u think its the "doing good things" bit that's objectionable

Me:

Ah. One sided propaganda against Israel=good, telling the other side=evil. Got it.

Ben:
No, its called using acts of charity in strategy 2 defend apartheid. But nice #projection though

Me:
Even your example disproves your thesis. Org is private. But your hate overrides all. Sad.

He then tried to change the subject, with a photo that I suppose is meant to illustrate Zionist evil. Which is the usual modus operandi of people like him - they need to change the playing field in order to pretend to win.

But think about his main argument: he believes that when Israel - or in this case, ordinary Israelis - do good things, they have an ulterior motive: to cover up crimes. And when people like me publicize how great Israel is, we also have an evil motive: to cover up Israel's crimes.

In other words, to these mental midgets, Israel is inherently evil. Everything it does is evil. This is the premise that informs all of their activities. No shades of grey, no nuance, not even the possibility of admitting that things are more complex than they pretend. When Israel does something seemingly bad, it proves it is evil, when it does something good, it's just more proof that it is evil.

Logical people, who make up their minds based on evidence, can look at both sides of a story and decide. Haters, however, already know the answer, and any evidence to the contrary they use to "prove" their own point!

Let's once again look at the oppressed Palestinian Arab cancer patients who enjoyed a day in the snow courtesy of the IDF, the subject of my first poster:

Looking at these photos drives the haters crazy, as we have seen. They cannot reconcile the idea of Israelis - especially Israeli soldiers - actually doing something nice for the people they supposedly despise and who are, they believe, being ethnically cleansed by the very same soldiers. The cognitive dissonance must be painful. They must therefore invent their own elaborate frameworks of bizarre conspiracy theories to reconcile the obvious truth about Israel with their own, twisted, hate.

How can oppressed Palestinian Arab kids allow themselves to be used as pawns by the evil IDF? How dare they laugh and smile and have fun with the symbols of Zionist atrocities? Better that they refuse to go sleddign in Mount Hermon, and stay in their hospitals, than go and have fun when there is a slight chance that someone might photograph them and use them in such a terrible evil hasbaristic way! Don't they see that they are exactly like the Jews in Theresienstadt before the Red Cross visited it in 1944? Their smiles are lies! Their fun is a lie! The pictures are probably Photoshopped! The IDF was probably mowing them down with machine guns!

There is an entire industry out there, with people who are emotionally - and, in this case, financially - invested in demonizing Israel. Showing the truth is a direct threat to their worldview, and for them, this cannot be allowed. To them, Israel is a uniquely evil entity that must be destroyed, and tons of solid evidence showing that they are completely, irrevocably wrong is simply something else that they must do battle with their only weapon: lies.

PA soldiers at Joseph's Tomb were asleep; fired wildly when they awoke

From Arutz-7:

Palestinian Authority soldiers last month woke up from a slumber and shot wildly at Jews who had been praying at Joseph’s Tomb, killing Ben Yosef Livnat, according to the private Israel Defense website, which is not associated with the IDF.

The report states that an internal PA investigation totally contradicts original accounts that the armed forces shot at the worshippers after they allegedly broke through a roadblock on their return from prayers at the holy site.

The internal investigation, as reported by Israel Defense, discloses a string of failures by the PA. Three soldiers, who had been trained by American army officers, were sleeping in their jeep several hundred yards from Joseph’s Tomb on April 24, the morning of the last day of Passover.

Nineteen Jews, including Livnat (pictured), a nephew of Likud minister Limor Livnat, passed the PA checkpoint where the soldiers were sleeping. When the worshippers began returning home in their three vehicles, two other PA officers at Joseph’s Tomb also were asleep next to a bonfire they had lit to keep warm.

The report states that they woke up from a slumber, saw vehicles they did not recognize, and started shooting wildly at close range without asking superiors for permission to fire.

The shooting woke up the two officers in the jeep, and one of them also fired without knowing who he was shooting at, but he did not hit anyone. The other officer did not fire because he was guarding without a weapon, in violation of standard procedures. The worshippers later said that the PA forces knew them because they frequently prayed at Jospeh's Tomb.

The Palestinian Authority security forces also did not report the incident immediately, while the IDF, observing from nearby Mount Gerizim, observed the shooting and arrived at the scene before senior PA officers arrived, even though PA units are stationed in Shechem.

An Israeli investigation showed that one of the PA soldiers was a former terrorist. It also found that the PA soldiers wildly fired 44 rounds during the incident - when they were not threatened at all.

(h/t Yerushalimey, Joel)

The Muslim world's inferiority complex

From Hudson-NY, translating an op-ed by Khaled Montaser in Al Masry al Youm late last year:

We Muslims have an inferiority complex and are terribly sensitive to the world, feeling that our Islamic religion needs constant, practically daily, confirmation by way of Europeans and Americans converting to Islam. What rapturous joy takes us when a European or American announces [their conversion to] Islam—proof that we are in a constant state of fear, alarm, and chronic anticipation for Western validation or American confirmation that our religion is "okay." We are hostages of this anticipation, as if our victory hinges on it—forgetting that true victory is for us to create or to accomplish something, such as those [civilizations] that these converts to our faith abandon.

And we pound our drums and blow our horns [in triumph] and drag the convert to our backwardness, so that he may stand with us at the back of the world's line of laziness, [in the Muslim world] wherein no new scientific inventions have appeared in the last 500 years. Sometimes those who convert relocate to our countries—only to get on a small boat and escape on the high seas back to their own countries.

The dilemma which we Muslims imbibed from one end of the earth to the other—by way of our sons, our intellectuals, our youth, our elders, our men and our women—regards the German writer Henryk Broder. We celebrated him through our media and Internet sites, saying that he had converted to Islam, because he said "I have been saved from misguidance and have come to know the truth, returning to my natural state [fitriti, i.e., Islam]." Our writers and intellectuals portrayed Broder's statement as a slap to Germany's face, since he was one of the most critical opponents of Islam, but now he had announced his repentance.

Then the truth was immediately revealed and the embarrassing predicament which we imbibed of our own free will: for Broder is not to blame; he merely wrote a sarcastic article—but we are a people incapable of comprehending sarcasm, since it requires a bit of thinking and intellectualizing. And we read with great speed and a hopeful eye, not an eye for truth or reality. Some of us are struck with blindness when we read things that go against our hopes.

We actually imagined that the man was speaking truthfully and sincerely! Thus we drank from the bitter cup of failure and shame, products of our chronic ignorance and contemptuous feelings of inferiority and detestability.

How come the Buddhists don't hold the festivities we do for those who convert to their religion? And some of these converts are much more famous than Broder. Did you know that Richard Gere, Steven Seagal, Harrison Ford—among Hollywood's most famous actors—converted to Buddhism? What did the Buddhist countries of Asia do regarding these celebrities? What did the Buddhists in China and Japan do?

Did they dance and sing praise and march out in the streets, or did they accept these people's entrance into Buddhism as a mere matter of free conviction? When Tiger Woods, the most famous golf player and richest athlete in the world, discussed his acceptance of Buddhism, did China grant him citizenship, or did Japan pour its wealth on him? No, being self-confident, they treated him with equality, not servility.

It is sufficient for the Buddhists that these celebrities purchase their nations' electronic goods—without any beggary or enticements.

I have discussed the Arab and Muslim inferiority complex in the past, and some of the stuff is worth revisiting.

May 2005: Why Israel's creation is a "naqba"

July 2005: The flip-sides to Arab "honor"

December 2008: Mixing up importance and impotence

US Defense Dept. analysis of the Muslim world, 1946

Anecdotal but convincing: Pakistan knew where Bin Laden was

A fascinating article in Hudson-NY by Anna Mahjar-Barducci:

Abbottabad, Pakistan, where Usama bin Laden was killed last week, is the same town I lived in for five years – in a house 800 meters away from his villa.

...All these roads were already heavily patrolled before 9/11, and more so after the Taliban took over the Swat valley: it is unthinkable that the most wanted man tried his luck in reaching Abbottabad at the risk of being stopped at a checkpoint. To avoid this danger, according to experience, there is only one way: to use an official car. No soldier will ever dare to stop what he supposes to be a high-ranking officer.

Abbottabad is considered a "cantonment," or a military town, with many military institutions: the Frontier Force Regiment (popularly known as the "Piffers"), an infantry regiment, and a batallion of mountain artillery. The most remarkable institution, however, is the "Pakistan Military Academy" (PMU), the Pakistani equivalent of West Point, from which Bin Laden's hideout was only a few hundred meters.

In such a place, the presence of security forces and secret services is everywhere. Everyone is under observation, particularly foreigners and newcomers.

Once you gain the confidence of the local officers they may even reveal themselves to you. Some officers of the so-called "secret police" were not exactly the movie image of James Bond. Rather, they were badly dressed and probably having some problems making ends meet. However, this ramshackle police managed to give an American aid-worker suspected of espionage 24 hours' notice to leave the country, It did not take much to raise their suspicion, and for them to take the subsequent action.

Bin Laden's compound was located in Bilal Town, a not very elegant area of Abbottabad. ... The presence of more than 20 people living in the compound, however, could not have passed unnoticed.

...In a country where gossip is a national sport, how is it possible that the presence of people from Waziristan, who were buying food for scores of persons, was never signalled to the police? When I lived there, everybody seemed to know me and my whereabouts. I even received anonymous phone calls although my name was not in the telephone book. I did not know these people, but they knew me.

...Pakistani officials are now protesting that the country's sovereignty has been violated. It probably was. But more importantly, Pakistan's credibility -- if there was any left -- as a reliable partner in the war against terrorism, is now completely gone.

Until now, many thought that Pakistan's double game was due to some deviated sectors of the ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence); now we understand that there is more to it than that. Americans knew full well that Pakistanis could not be trusted, so they took action without informing the country's authorities -- they were right.

Gaza man run over by bulldozer.

Arab media is reporting that a man near the Rafah tunnels was killed accidentally when he was run over by a bulldozer.

I wonder why in this case they assume it is accidental, while in other cases they assume murder?

Canadian PM's Yom HaAtzmaut message

From the Prime Minister of Canada site:

Prime Minister Stephen Harper today issued the following statement to mark Yom Ha’atzmaut (Israel Independence Day) celebrations:

“Today, on the 63rd anniversary of Israel’s independence, I extend warm regards to the many Canadians who are celebrating Yom Ha’atzmaut.

“Since its creation in 1948, the world has witnessed Israel’s unwavering dedication to affirm its right to exist and to achieve peace and security with its neighbours.

“This day offers an opportunity to remember the constant struggles facing Israel and its citizens, and to reaffirm our commitment to strengthen the bonds of our partnership. Through trade, investment and the exchange of knowledge in areas such as innovation, green technology, medicine and law, our nations can continue to grow together.

“Our Government understands the realities of the Middle East and we will not falter in our continued support of Israel, Canada’s friend and ally, in defending the values that both nations share – freedom, democracy, human rights and the rule of law.

“As we celebrate the creation of the State of Israel and the return of the Jewish people to their homeland, I call on all Canadians to wish them peace and prosperity in the year ahead.”

I think we have a winner.

EoZ "Apartheid?" posters translated into Arabic!

BlueStar, a great Israel advocacy organization, has translated (and, in many cases, redone) my "Apartheid?" poster series - into Arabic!

Very nice!

Why the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion" is relevant today

The National Post has a nice piece from a new book by Jonathan Kay called Among the Truthers: A Journey Through America's Growing Conspiracist Underground. This excerpt talks about how the famous forged work, "The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion," is in many ways the precursor to today's conspiracy theories:

Even once the Third Reich lay in ruins, and anti-Semitism became widely detested in its bald-faced Nazi-style form, the Protocols would remain ensconced as a sort of universal blueprint for all the successor conspiracist ideologies that would come to infect Western societies over the next nine decades — right up to the modern-day Truther and Birther fantasies of the 21st century.

In these conspiracy theories, the imagined evildoing cabal would come by many names — communist, globalist, neocon. But in most cases, it would exhibit the same recurring characteristics that the Protocols fastened upon the Jewish elders in the shadow of First World War.

The entire article is worth reading, but this part is of particular interest:

The Protocols was a lie. But like all successful conspiracy theories, it was a lie that people wanted to hear....

For Europeans reading the Protocols in the 1920s and 1930s, the document offered something precious: the idea that only a single barrier — the Jewish race — blocked a return to the peaceful, pious and socially ordered world that had been destroyed by war, revolution, mechanization, urbanization, radical political ideologies, secularization and catastrophic inflation. The evil brilliance of the Protocols lay in the fact that it patched together a theory of Jewish conspiracy that covered every one of these upheavals — all the while enchanting the reader with backward glimpses of the noble, God-fearing milieu that the Jew allegedly had undermined.

Isn't this exactly how many in the world look at Israel today?

It is patently ridiculous to even think that Israel is the source for all the world's problems and the major obstacle to world peace. Yet the idea that if only Israel would give up/go away, things would be better for everyone is mainstream in the Arab and Muslim world and only a tiny bit beneath the surface in Europe and among the far left.

As with the Protocols, today's rampant anti-Zionism is not pure anti-semitism. Rather, it uses latent anti-semitism in order to get people to believe that their problems will be solved by getting rid of the Jewish state. The driving force is not hate as much as an extreme form of wishful thinking that is exploited by hate.

How many times have we seen seemingly smart and logical people say absurd things when it comes to Israel? They are not consciously anti-Jewish or even anti-Zionist; but their Achilles' heel is their intense desire to solve the world's problems in a neat and easy package. It is seductive to pretend that there is a simple solution - force Israel to do what its neighbors have been insisting for years is the major "obstacle to peace."

People naturally gravitate towards finding an Occam's razor to solve the world's problems. And the Arab leadership has been blaming Israel for all of their problems for decades. Even though it is easy to prove that this is not only false but an attempt to deflect from their own corruption, the constant repetition of the lie along with the world's latent antipathy towards Jews are the only ingredients necessary to make the wishful thinkers grab the idea as their own. Against all logic, they believe the autocrats and then find the justifications for their theories afterwards.

This is the reason we hear nonsense like "Israeli intransigence" and "Israeli racism" and "Israeli apartheid." Just like the Protocols, these are the lies that the world wants to hear, today, in order to justify their illogical desire to get rid of that pesky "obstacle to peace" known as the Jewish state.

Syrians torturing protesters - to get their Facebook passwords

From The Telegraph (UK) yesterday:

Protest organisers have set up the Syrian Revolution 2011 Facebook page and have promised that "demonstrations will continue every day".

However, amateur video footage showing the violent suppression of protests has dwindled to a trickle amid signs that the regime could be gaining the upper hand after more than seven weeks of anti-government protests.

"The lines of communication have almost been completely severed," one activist said.

"Some of our people who have been taken have been broken under the most severe torture, and they have revealed passwords and names."

Activists admitted that many of the once-secure networks they used on sites such as Facebook and Twitter had been compromised following a campaign of mass detentions in which more than 8,000 protesters have been arrested.

Over the past two days, almost no video footage has emerged from the town of Baniyas and very little from the city of Homs, despite military sieges having been imposed on both places. With Western journalists barred from entering Syria, individuals have taken it upon themselves to smuggle out footage to reveal the full horrors of the regime's response to the protests, in which at least 650 people, possibly many more, are thought to have died.

Organisers of the uprising have depended on technology. Although the regime has cut off power as well as mobile and land telephone lines in many of the worst affected towns and cities, activists have got round the system by using generators and satellite telephones smuggled in by foreign sympathisers.

With these tools, they have powered up laptops and transmitted images to fellow activists who have then broadcast them to the world on the internet.

Iran is said to have provided the Syrian government with technology for blocking satellite telephone signals that it used to crush protests in Tehran in 2009.

Many of the activists who distributed the images have also fallen silent after they were arrested or cowed into submission. Activists said that some passwords that were disclosed as a result of torture had revealed the identities of many of those at the forefront of the protests and that they too had now been rounded up.

I had noticed that the number of videos had gone down over the weekend, but there seem to be more coming out today, including this one showing gunshots at a protest in Deir al-Zour:

The BBC adds:

Reports from Syria say columns of tanks have moved towards the central city of Hama, which has been the scene of anti-government protests in recent weeks.

Earlier, the UN said it was concerned it had been unable to get humanitarian aid to the embattled city of Deraa.

The humanitarian aid referred to is specifically to 30,000 Palestinian Arab "refugees" in Deraa, via UNRWA.

The best place to get up to date information is from Now Lebanon!

(h/t Mike)

Yom HaAtzmaut 1962 - narrated by Frank Sinatra (video)

An amazing fundraising video about Israel made in 1962, narrated by Frank Sinatra!

It includes footage of him singing at the Tel Nof IAF base and attending Yom HaAtzmaut ceremonies when Israel turned 14 years old.

Well worth watching!

(h/t Jean)

Get your very own "Palestinian" identity card!

The PA Ministry of Sports, Youth and Culture are offering free symbolic "Palestinian" identity cards to anyone who asks.

Just fill in the fields, upload your photo and you are an unofficial citizen with the "right to return."

Here's mine (not sure I got all the fields right...any Arabic speakers want to help out?)

If you always dreamed of "returning" to Palestine, here's all you need!

I can't wait to return to Shechem (Nablus)!

If anyone comes up with other innovative things to put on the card, post them (or the photo) in the comments!

President Obama's and Hillary Clinton's greetings on Yom HaAtzmaut

From The White House:

Sixty-three years ago, when Israel declared its independence, the dream of a state for the Jewish people in their historic homeland was finally realized. On that same day, the United States became the first country in the world to recognize the State of Israel. As Israelis celebrate their hard-won independence, it gives me great pleasure to extend the best wishes of the American people to the people of Israel and to honor their remarkable achievements over the past six decades. Our two nations share a unique and unbreakable bond of friendship that is anchored in common interests and shared values, and the United States’ unwavering commitment to Israel’s security. I have every confidence that the strong relationship between our countries will grow deeper with each passing year.

This is a period of profound change in the Middle East and North Africa, as people across the region courageously pursue the path of dignity and self-governance. Just as I know that Israel will always be one of our closest allies, I believe that the region can be more peaceful and prosperous when its people are able to fulfill their legitimate aspirations. We will continue our efforts with Israel and others in the region to achieve a comprehensive peace, including a two-state solution, and to working together toward a future of peace, security and dignity for the people of Israel and all the people of the region.

I offer my best wishes to President Peres, Prime Minister Netanyahu, and the people of Israel as they celebrate their 63rd Independence Day.

From The State Department:

On behalf of President Obama and the people of the United States, I am delighted to send best wishes to the people of Israel on your 63rd National Day this May 10 – a young nation, but a rich history that holds deep meaning for so many. Your achievements are a testament to your hardworking citizens, innovative economy, and commitment to democratic institutions. Israel has been a beacon of hope and freedom for so many around the world.

Sixty-three years ago the United States was the first country to recognize Israel's independence, and that spirit of kinship continues to guide us today. Our two countries are united by a deep, unshakable friendship and bond. We are bound together by our shared values and history pursuing freedom, equality and democracy. And this relationship is deepening every day. Whether it’s our security partnerships or the expanding economic and trade collaborations – our work together is securing a brighter future for all our people.

As you celebrate your independence, the Middle East is experiencing rapid change. This is a moment of uncertainty, but also of opportunity. The security of Israel is - and will remain - a cornerstone of U.S. foreign policy, and we will continue to strive for a comprehensive peace between Israel and all of its neighbors.

Looks like the new PA will abrogate Rafah crossing agreement

I mentioned last week that a key indicator on the seriousness of the new Hamas-Fatah "unity" government would be how they treat the Rafah crossing.

Israel, the PA and the EU signed an agreement in 2005 allowing European observers on the Rafah border to watch for illegal smuggling, with Israeli observers watching via closed-circuit TV.

The question is: would the PA honor that agreement?

Further signs indicate that the answer is no.

According to Palestine Today, even ahead of specific negotiations between Hamas and Fatah to take place next week, both of them agree that the agreement will not be resumed. A Hamas spokesman said that any Israeli involvement is unacceptable.

Will the EU push back on this explicit abrogation of a signed agreement? Or is the word "unity" so dazzling that every other issue is regarded as irrelevant in its beautiful glare?

It seems that the EU is very big on expecting Israel to honor agreements with the new, unified PA, but not too bothered by the PA reneging on its own signed agreements - with the EU!

Amr Moussa redefines "terrorist"

From the Washington Post, in an interview with Egyptian presidential front-runner Amr Moussa:

The view that Hamas is a terrorist organization is a view that pertains to a minority of countries, not a majority. Being a terrorist is not a stigma forever.

Hamas shooting a laser-guided missile at a schoolbus and murdering a child on board is not "terrorism," according to Amr Moussa. An act is only considered terror if a majority of the world's countries says so, no matter how heinous.

See? Amr Moussa is such a great supporter of democracy that he even wants words in the dictionary to be defined democratically!

Fatah delays local elections

From Ma'an:

Fatah will recommend postponing local elections scheduled for July 9, Central Committee member Mohammad Shtayyeh said Monday.

The reconciliation of Fatah and Hamas in Cairo last week created a new situation where all decisions must be made by national consensus, the Fatah official said.

Elections were set for July by the Fatah-dominated government in Ramallah in February, but Hamas officials vowed not to facilitate polls prior to unity.

The fruits of "unity."