Those stellar representatives of the State of Israel staffing the embassy in Ireland have again brought great honor (Hebrew and English) to the “Jewish state.” In Facebook and Twitter postings, they denounced the so-called hatred directed at Israel by the UN, saying that were Hitler alive today he’d be delighted with the UN’s treatment.
Were this the only offense against decency and common sense, we could forgive the embassy staff for their overzealous Israel advocacy. But last Christmas, they posted that were Mary and Joseph alive today they’d be lynched:
If Jesus and mother Mary were alive today, they would, as Jews…probably end up being lynched in Bethlehem by hostile Palestinians.
Hey, but that’s not all. The embassy also posted a warm message to Hamas: “Feck Off, Hamas.”
In case you hadn’t noticed, I don’t think much of Israel’s foreign ministry and its advocacy on Israel’s behalf. But this is in a class all by itself. Instead of being the product of professional diplomacy, this seems the product of a bunch of lunatics and incompetents. The embassy seems more like an Israeli high school locker room than a diplomatic outpost.
Haaretz was more generous in its characterization:
The [social media] accounts of the Israeli embassy in Ireland have an extremist, confrontation tone which doesn’t characterize other Israeli embassies in the world.
Haaretz also suggests that someone in the MFA ought to take all the keyboards out of the embassy so no one there will be tempted to embarrass the State further with hijinks like this.
The cracker-jack diplomats who deserve all the credit for this are Boaz Modai and his wife, Nurit Tinari-Modai. In an e-mail sent to her colleagues in the ministry in Israel she also accused Israelis in Ireland who attack the Israeli Occupation of having deviant sexual tendencies. She suggested personally attacking these activists in the Irish media by exposing sensitive information about their personal lives.
Finally, the Haaretz article notes the irony of the ahistoricity of the Israel embassy in Ireland. In fact, the UN was founded out of the ashes of the Holocaust. At the close of the war, Eleanor Roosevelt joined with other world leaders to found the United Nations as an organization that would prevent precisely the sort of genocide which Hitler perpetrated on the Jewish people.
Further, when Hitler came to power in 1933 he withdrew Germany from the UN’s predecessor organization, the League of Nations. In fact, Hitler felt about the League very similarly to the way Israeli nationalists like Modai feel about the UN.
Twitter #Israel_In_Ireland: Lame excuse following the Xmas tweet. Nurit Tinari-Modai, the woman is the deputy-ambassador to Ireland!
Btw has Liberman been jailed yet and is PM Netanyahu still running Israel’s foreign policy affairs and diplomats?
I was inspired by this article to see has Israel a own Facebook page for Finland. Yes it has with the name Israel Suomessa.
Mostly the “information” on the timeline page is tourist information and promoting Israel with pretty pictures of “Jews in a purely Jewish country with purely Jewish Christian history”. And the comments are made by Finnish extreme Christians thanking upstairs forces for Israel. Israel’s Arabs and the land’s Arab history and culture is almost completely whipped out. Even all food is Israeli cuisine (rarely it is mentioned that actually it is not originally from Israeli and is Arab cuisine).
I found one embassy’s questionable political message from July 27. 2013. A picture of Ismail Haniyah visiting an orphanage in Gaza. The Embassy produced text asks questions: But what is offered for children? The popular Israeli brand, Gil-yoghurt! What about the Gaza blockade? Boycott of Israeli products?
Sure the Israeli Embassy in Helsinki knows, that the yoghourt and everything else the children in Gaza orphanages, run by foreign organizations, eat is paid by those organizations and much of that food has to be bought from Israeli companies (without doubt not very cheaply and not with a discount). It is absurd pretending, that the orphanage is Israeli offered aid. Surely these children, all of them, would throw the Israeli youghurt in the garbage instantly, if they would have options to less “kosher products”. The untold reality is that Israel makes money even with orphans in Gaza. With children whose parents they in many cases have killed.
@SimoHurtta: Hello my friend, Simo!! Glad to meet you again.
Simo, please, since I don’t speak Finnish, I hope someone else will write to the embassy’s staff that upload the Haniyah photo that it was a big mistake and a result of ignorance from two reasons:
First, The blockade on Gaza is not aimed to prevent food, rather weapon, missiles, raw materials and chemical materials like phosphorous and nitrogenous compounds. Since there is no starvation in Gaza and no shortage of food, there is no reason to show photo of kids eating Israeli food to prove it.
Second, although PA in West Bank and Hamas in Gaza declared official boycott, actually, most of the Arabs don’t boycott Israeli goods. In case of Gaza, you can say that there is no option, but also in West Bank there is no boycott. During Ramadan, the Arabs of West Bank can enter Israel freely. The Israeli markets and malls are visited by many of them resulted in the income increase. Next time you visit the West Bank, please, visit Ramy Levy mini-market in Gush Etzion (near Beth Lehem) and you can realize by yourself there is no boycott. So, no need to upload photo to proof well-known facts.
“Israel makes money even with orphans in Gaza, With children whose parents they in many cases have killed” – Most of the Israelis support full engagement from Gaza including separate Electricity system, fuel system and so on. The Gazans don’t want to engage from us. You probably know the phrase “Israel left Gaza, but Gaza didn’t leave Israel”. Any way, your sentence shocking (and I am delicate in my response since I am under glass magnifier here).
And one more comment, please: I tired to hear again and again that Israeli food is actually Arab food (with all the meaning and connotations around this claim). Well, peoples of the East Mediterranean, Arabs, Greeks, Kurds, Turks, Israelis etc. use and eat same food for thousands years. The “Arabic” Humus is mentioned in the Jewish scripture (Himtza). Kibbe (Kubbe) is eaten by all peoples including Iranians.
@ Eli (Yishai ?)
“During the Ramadan, the Arabs of West Bank can enter Israel freely”
Haha, do you have other jokes like that ?
Palestinians from the West Bank ‘entering Israel (that is occupied East Jerusalm !]’ freely’ on the third Friday of Ramadan:
http://cdn1.electronicintifada.net/sites/electronicintifada.net/files/styles/banner_wide/public/130805-jerusalem-wall.jpg
@ Deir Yassin
Other Jokes ? Yes i have one.
Close to 1,000,000 – one million – Palestinians who reside in the west bank, visited/will visit Israel during the Ramadan.
http://www.nrg.co.il/online/1/ART2/490/353.html
And is Yoyo some nickname for Yuli-Yoel Edelstein, former Minister of Hasbara ?
@ Deir Yasin
Do me a favor, I’m not interested in butting heads with people. Your statement and “knowledge” of the happening in Israel / Palestine is extremely limited, if you can’t deal with the facts and all you are interested is spreading snark remarks find someone else to do it with.
@ Yoyo
I’ll just remind you that YOU reacted to one of my comments, not the other way around.
As far as facts are concerned, Eli’s statement about Palestinians entering Israel freely during Ramadan is a lie, I know that and so do you !
And you’re wrong: I’m pretty sure I know far better than you what’s happening in Palestine and probably also among the Palestinian community in Israel, so just get of that high horse of yours !
@ Deir Yassin
1. Historically i’m not the one riding a horse, high or short.
2. You can be civilized even if you don’t agree with my comment, you certainty don’t have to resort to name calling and snark
3. Do you live in Israel ? Do you live in the Palestinian authority ? If neither is true i seriously doubt your statement is right.
@ Yoyo
Historically ? What are you talking about ? This is the first time I’ve ever had any communication with you. You’re playing the collective ‘eternal victim card’ ? Don’t play that with me, it doesn’t work at all !
Just stick to the discussion here, and instead of refuting Eli’s lie, you supported him, and then claim I don’t know the ‘facts’.
If you don’t know anything about me, how can you claim my “knowledge” of what’s happening in Israel/Palestine is extremely limited ? Another Israeli Jew being specialist on the Palestinians whether Israeli citizens or not….
@yoyo: So you’re claiming what? That Palestinians have freedom of movement? That would be false. So you’re claiming that Palestinian women, children, and men above 60 can visit the Dome of the Rock for a single specific religious holiday, but can’t move freely at any other time of the year? And that’s supposed to make us jump up & down and cheer at Israel’s noblesse oblige??!
In 2000 Rami Levy purchased a plot in the Har Nof neighborhood of Jerusalem zoned for 100 housing units. He also invested 145.5 million NIS (US$36.3 million) in land for 265 apartments in the Holyland complex. In 2008, he bought the rights to SBH Sha’ar L’Yerushalayim for 15 million NIS (US$3.95 million), making him the controlling shareholder of a company that owns land on Hebron Road zoned for 240 housing units, a hotel, and commercial and industrial space. In 2009 he bought Delek Real Estate’s share of the Jerusalem Railway Station compound on Derech Beit Lehem for about 13 million (US$3.6 million); the site is zoned for 1000 housing units. In 2010 Levy partnered with Amikam Ben-Zvi and Housing and Construction Real Estate to buy 13 million NIS (US$3.6 million) worth of land in the Givat HaMatos area in Jerusalem, also zoned for 1000 housing units. However, Levy blames slow progress on developing the company’s recent acquisitions on bureaucratic red tape by planning authorities. [Source Wikipedia]
No humanitarian crisis, the Israelis counted calories minus local farm supplies, naturally. Read also The Guardian.
#Qui, good evening
From your first link:
1) ” Israeli human-rights activists and Palestinian officials said Israel’s practices during the embargo closely…”
2) “(Israeli) Military officials said the so-called “red-lines” document was only a draft and was never used…”
From the Guardian:
1) “Israel says it never limited how many calories were available to Gaza…”
2) “….Israel used food restrictions to hit Hamas, says Palestine group”
So, it depends who you believe. As far as I know there is no food shortage in Gaza strip and I don’t think someone “count’ calories. I sure that if this fact is correct, several Israeli MK’s and leftists organizations would not be silent about that. I never heard a debate in Israel about it.
Oh, you’ve never heard about the “counting calories” ? Dov Weinglass as well as Martin Kramer have both publicly made statements about cutting of calories to Gaza. I even think Kramer did so at a conference at the Herzliya Institute.
If you google (you know how to google, right ?) Gisha+ red lines document, I’m sure you’ll find dozens of articles. Here’s one from an Israeli website:
http://972mag.com/government-releases-red-lines-document-detailing-gaza-food-restrictions/57883
Me think Richard has to expand the landing strip in his back yard, those hasbaristeas coming from Ben Gourion take up a lot of space
@Eli: with love. 😉
from a liberal Amsterdam
@Eli:
No, it depends whether you believe in truth or lies. We know what you prefer. The red lines document was used by the IDF to limit import of “excess” goods into Gaza. This was part of the illegal policy of collective punishment of civilian population of which Israel is guilty. There certainly was “counting of calories,” as there was malnutrition & related conditions affecting Gaza children. As for whether or not there is a food shortage now–that is immaterial. Israel simply has NO RIGHT to impose any siege on Gaza at all. It has no right to limit what is imported to or exported from Gaza.
And that means what? That there hasn’t been one? That you follow the statements of the Israeli left? Puh-leeze.
[comment deleted–please don’t publish vague comments on subjects no one besides you can follow]
No, next level as #IDFspokesperson in the team of Satcha Dratwa. 🙂
Eli it is no pleasure to meet you, I sadly must confess. Some decades ago South African white supremacists were not popular companionship. Increasing Jewish supremacists are inheriting their popularity. Eli no need to try to feed that Israeli propaganda we all including you know is not true.
I know, that you the Israeli internet warriors do not represent the most talented people in your tribe , but still you manage to produce surprises (not in the “intelligent direction”) . Do you Eli honestly believe, that they speak only Finnish in the Israeli Embassy in Helsinki? Most of them there speak your native language. Contact the Israeli embassy yourself if you see a need for that. I can only comment In Finnish – uskomatonta …
First of all the reality is that you Israelis (Jews, not Israeli Arabs) make tons of money with this astonishing and long occupation. Pretending that the occupied Palestinians have options from where they can import and buy goods is amusingly stupid propaganda. Palestinians simply use Israeli products because they are not allowed to import what they need/want. Israel controls all borders and transactions. Palestinians are independent and free only in Israeli Jewish propaganda. In reality Palestinians are the human cattle which Israeli Jewish society exploits without any shame. The reality is also, that the only historic comparison point in recent history to Gaza is the Ghetto of Warsaw. I am 100 percent sure you do not claim, that the German and Polish foodstuff the people in the Ghetto got occasionally proved, that there is no blockade. It is pure BS to claim that Israel left Gaza. If you would have done you would have had to solve the whole Palestine problem and gave them real independence. You have not done it. Nazis left the Warsaw Ghetto, did that make it independent?
Secondly never in world history has there been this kind of case where the occupying power gets billions for the occupied peoples upkeep and even the military costs of the occupation are paid by outsiders. So much as possible of that money donated to Palestinians by UN, EU, USA, Japan, Arab countries etc you Israelis try to transfer in your deep pockets. And get the rest of their lands without paying anything or at the best laughable little.
Eli try to understand a big part of Israeli Jewish population have culturally (or ethnically) nothing to do with Middle East. They are people from Europe. Many real Jewish foodstuffs are based on the “materials” of Poland, Ukraine etc. You can’t deny the fact that Israel is deliberately trying to abduct local Arab foodstuffs as their own. In Europe is nowadays a tradition and laws, that only those who originally produced/invented some foodstuff have the right to call it as their product. For example Feta cheese made in Finland is not anymore allowed to be called Feta cheese. Or cognac, I suppose you know who have the rights to use the name of that product. But of course we know intellectual property concept is very difficult for people who do not understand the meaning of property, especially land property.
@SimoHurtta: Reading your third paragraph remain me speechless. Better I will not comment for such brutal and ugly propaganda against us which I sure is a consequence of your blindness and deeply hatred toward us. Only want to tell you that if you want to find obstacle for peace read your paragraph again. uskomatonta!!!
You don’t know who am I so don’t tell me who am I and don’t try to educate me and treat me like low level person. Leave your hatred at home. I can tell you that I represent the majority of my people (end stop call us tribe!!!) – the regular people in the street, that care about their mortgage, good education, work and health and…yes, want peace!!! with the Arabs, peace that respect all nations in the area and bring justice for all, peoples who are against killing from both side. We all tired of your hatred!!!! Enough with it!!! Dai!!! Bass!!!
@Eli:
No, you don’t represent the majority of Israelis. Perhaps the majority of narrow-minded Israeli nationalists. But not much else. As for being a tribe–if you’re not, don’t act like one. If you do, then the shoe fits & you wear it.
Groan. THis is precisely the sort of garbage scores of pro-Israel commenters like you have posted here countless times. I grow absolutely disgusted by the repetitive nature of this garbage. I’ve decided to moderate you since allowing you to comment freely has allowed you to regurgitate old and false hasbara claims.
Of course there has been starvation in Gaza. There have been and are power outages. There are shortages of medicine & medical care. All brought on by Israel’s illegal siege. A siege whose purpose is not as you claimed in order to prevent weapons smuggling. But in order to punish Gazans for choosing Hamas to represent them. This is a political siege, not a military siege. Read my lips: I will not allow you to lie about Palestinian reality. You may or may not believe the garbage you peddle here. But if you do believe it you won’t peddle it here. You will peddle facts founded on evidence. You will not peddle propaganda points distributed by the foreign ministry.
This too is a stupid claim. You may be referring to BDS. If you are BDS has nothing to do with Hamas or the PA. I’m aware of no official boycott of any sort from any official Palestinian governmental body. Again, this is precisely the sort of bullshit I detest when it’s peddled here.
Finally, you once again violate the comment rules by peddling pro-Israel propaganda about how good the Palestinians have it, how well they’re treated by Israel, and how perverse their boycotts & anti-Israel propaganda are.
As Deir Yassin wrote, your landing rights have been suspended. Send in the next flight of pro-Israel propagandists.
@ Richard
“This too is a stupid claim. You may be referring to BDS. If you are BDS has nothing to do with Hamas or the PA. I’m aware of no official boycott of any sort from any official Palestinian governmental body. Again, this is precisely the sort of bullshit I detest when it’s peddled here.”
*** In 2010 the PA passed a law boycotting all goods originated in the Jewish settlements in the west bank. The law was of course implemented. ***
http://www.calcalist.co.il/world/articles/0,7340,L-3380383,00.html
Thank you for your blog and great effort. The disrespect shown by the likes of Goonen, Eli, Elad R, YoYo and Lark illustrates the importance of your voice.
Hamas PM Ismail Haniyeh participates in Ramadan breakfast – Gaza City in 2011.
Interpal helping Palestinians in need – link.
“Interpal is a non-political charity based in the UK. By working with partners in Palestine, Lebanon and Jordan we aim to alleviate the suffering of the Palestinian people by providing relief and development to those in need. Founded in 1994 upon the ray of hope that was the Oslo Accord, Interpal sought to concentrate on four major areas of concern; under-nourishment, poor medical services, shortages in the provision of education and rehabilitation facilities for the injured and disabled.”
Gee — making a good market of oppressed children! Devilishly clever, eh?
@Davey: I have a lot to say about your ugly comment but I afraid Richard will delete my comment. Maybe next time
The reality is ugly, not the comment.
@Dave: I totally agree with you – the reality is ugly, very ugly.
@ Dier Yassin
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4403123,00.html
You are trapped in your misconceptions
Give me a break, will ya ! Don’t you think I know enough Palestinians in the West Bank to know that Eli’s statement about ‘During the Ramadan, Arabs from the West Bank can enter Israel freely’ is a lie ?
Even your own link states ‘worshippers above 60 granted unlimited access to Temple Mount [sic]”. If Palestinians could enter freely, why this specification ?
The photo taken at Al-Ram is by an Israeli photographer, Oren Ziv, just in case you think it’s a photoshop, and it’s picturing young Palestinians climbing the Wall of Apartheid with a ladder to go pray in Al-Aqsa on Friday 26 of July.
@ Dier Yassin,
“this year there will be unlimited access to Jerusalem for all Palestinians above the age of 60 during the month of Ramadan; unlimited access to the Temple Mount’s Friday prayer services for women of all ages and men over 40; and authorisation will be granted to those wishing to enter Israel to meet with their families”
that’s the complete quote – but what does it matter anyway you have made up your mind regardless…the fact that even palestinians complain that the amount of visitors to israel reduces their own profits… also doesn’t change a thing…
the hebrew article by the way states that even the amount of paper work and bureaucracy will be reduced to a minimum to make the trip easier, and if you look at last year Haaretz report around 300,000 palestinians visited israel during the Ramadan.
“If Palestinians could enter freely, why this specification ?”
can i travel to the US freely? anyone can enter? every country has it’s limitation on who can enter and who can’t. now you ask why the age limitation? i’m sure you know by now that it’s not the 70 yrs old prayers who throws rocks at the police and jewish prayers. it’s the young ones. and you need one serious incident to throw all these confidence build up away and then next year restriction will be more severe – so they are limited unless they meet the other requirements which you forgot to quote.
here’s another picture for you to ignore from last year Ramadan Tel Aviv:
http://www.haaretz.com/polopoly_fs/1.459828.1345590551!/image/202603649.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_640/202603649.jpg
If Barbara Boxer & your government & Aipac have anything to say about it the answer will be Yes.
But that’s besides the point. You are Israeli and the U.S. is another independent country. Palestinians do not have a country because you’ve refused to recognize one. They are occupied by your country and they are not citizens of a foreign country. They have a deep historical connection to Jerusalem and Israel has no right to exercise any restraint on their movement for purposes of religious worship. The fact that it does means Israel does not permit freedom of worship for non-Jews (as it claims it does).
@ Richard,
“If Barbara Boxer & your government & Aipac have anything to say about it the answer will be Yes.”
was it so hard to say – ‘No you can not go in freely?’
“Palestinians do not have a country because you’ve refused to recognise one.”
first israel wasn’t always around to deny palestinian from having a country. second, they were not always occupied by Israel and still didn’t mange to form a country.
“Israel has no right to exercise any restraint on their movement for purposes of religious worship.”
actually it does. Israel can decide who goes inside it’s own borders like it or not (independent country like the US). and Tel aviv coast line – where the pictures are from – is quite far from Jerusalem. israel could have just given the visitors passes to Jerusalem. or made it so difficult to get permission to visit that it will deter most. but it chose to do the opposite.
“http://www.nrg.co.il/online/1/ART2/490/714.html”
here’s an interview with the Palestinian religion minister (sar hadatot) who’s worried about the passes given to young Palestinian to go into israel – apparently instead of going to al aqsa and worship god they are doing a different kind of ‘worshiping’ in tel aviv.
“The fact that it does means Israel does not permit freedom of worship for non-Jews (as it claims it does).”
Richard, please that’s a cheep spin and you know it. Muslim and Christian and other religion for that matter are free to practice they’re religion inside israel when they are ISRAELI CITIZENS! are you suggesting that freedom of worship is letting everyone in without any sort of organised procedure? documentation? you can’t be serious.
i hope that despite all you bad wishers, that this trend will continue on for years to come until we finally reach a stable solution.
If I’d wanted to say that I would have. I wanted to point out that the Israel Lobby wants to allow virtually any Israeli Jew to enter the U.S. freely (while of course refusing to allow American-Arabs to enter Israel freely).
Further, you can enter this country far more freely than any American-Arab can enter yours.
Israel may not refuse access to Muslims unless it wishes to be known as a state in which there is no freedom of religion for non-Jews. Don’t allow me ever to see you try to make such a claim that it does, here.
If you wish to claim that Israel has complete sovereignty over all of Jerusalem, then that further supports BDS and the notion that Israel cannot be trusted with control over holy places that aren’t Jewish, since it restricts access on a totally arbitrary basis that violates religious freedom.
Talk about cheap spin…& I’ll go further: on your part they are either lies or abject ignorance. You know as well as I that Israel doesn’t claim to offer religious freedom to its citizens only. It offers religious freedom (or so it claims) to all those who visit the country for religious purposes. Thus it treats Christians making pilgrimages quite well. Popes, except for carping from settlerists & Jewish supremacists, are treated quite nicely. But it does not offer Palestinians similar freedom to worship. Thus, Israel is lying when it makes such claims & you’re lying when you try to distinguish between citizens & non-citizens.
If you accuse me of “cheap spin” again, you’ll be moderated.
@ Richard,
“Israel Lobby wants to allow virtually any Israeli Jew to enter the U.S. freely”
isn’t the purpose of any lobby is to lobby in favour of it’s cause? do they make the distinction between Israeli arabs and jews? i’m actually asking bcz i have no idea how the inner US politics work – but i’m certain that i they do make that distinction it will never pass.
“Israel may not refuse access to Muslims unless it wishes to be known as a state in which there is no freedom of religion for non-Jews.”
“You know as well as I that Israel doesn’t claim to offer religious freedom to its citizens only. It offers religious freedom (or so it claims) to all those who visit the country for religious purposes.”
i’m sure i don’t need to say that, but, Israel was founded to be a safe haven for jews around the world. and in order to do that it made it much easier for jews to get an israeli citizenship. if you are not jewish (by law – not by Halacha) it will be harder to get one.
Israel doesn’t refuse access to muslims visiting here in general as a policy – it does though refuse entrance to non-jewish citizens of what israel sees as enemy states which most of them are muslim based – such as Iran. and Iran for example does the same. israelis aren’t allowed there nor in dubai etc. (by the way if you are an iranian citizen and you have visited israel your passport will be taken from you for 10 yrs – happened to my friends grandparents when they came for their wedding – they took the risk).
about the freedom of religion – palestinian is not a religion – denying access to them isn’t a religious matter it is a political one – so saying that israel isn’t allowing freedom of religion isn’t relevant. there’s no police forces outside mosques and churches denying prayers to go inside.
“it restricts access on a totally arbitrary basis that violates religious freedom.”
restricting access with such a specific code as was shown in the article i linked to is nothing but arbitrary. it takes to account the respect for a religious population to conduct it’s prayers and rituals while trying to avoid having to confront them as happened many times in the past.
FYI – non muslims (jews amongst them of course) aren’t allowed on the Temple Mount on fridays and saturdays and Muslim holy days. and during the Ramadan the visiting hours for non muslims are limited as opposed to the rest of the year. so as you can see – arbitrary it is not. and goes to show that Israel most certainly can be trusted with non jewish holy sites – unlike… well you know in what shape we found the western wall…
@Noam:
There is no private lobby in the U.S. which pressures the U.S. Congress to admit the citizens of another country without any visa requirements. Only the Israel lobby does this.
That’s completely beside the point. The real point is that ISRAEL makes a distinction between American-Muslims visiting Israel and American non-Muslims. This is racist & the Israel lobby is asking the U.S. Congress to endorse Israeli racism.
As for whether the U.S. would make distinctions between Israeli Arab and Jewish visitors, why would it unless Israel warned the U.S. that one of its Palestinian citizens was an “undesirable” (which is entirely possible). Here in the U.S., except in rare cases like the NYPD, we don’t do racial profiling as Israel does. So we wouldn’t target an Israeli simply because he was Palestinian. But give us a few years, we learn so much from you Israelis. No doubt we can become as racist as you with a little tutoring from you.
Israel doesn’t have to have a Law of Return in order to provide a safe haven for Jews. Any Jew who needs a safe haven may be offered one in the same way the U.S. offers asylum to anyone who would be in danger were they to be returned to their country of origin. The Law of Return offers automatic citizenship to any Jew whether or not he needs a safe haven. I assure you that very few Jews these days make aliya who need a safe haven.
Tell it to the scores of American-Muslims who’ve been deported from Israel, refused entry not because of anything they’ve done or said–but because they are Muslim. Israel as a general policy refuses access to a very large proportion of Muslims seeking to visit, especially if they wish to visit the Occupied Territories or have any previous connection to Israel.
Your argument about Iran is also false. Iran refuses access to Israelis, but not to Diapspora Jews. Israel on the other hand discriminates not on the basis of nationality, but on the basis of religion. Iran does not do this.
Israel denies access to Palestinian MUSLIMS and that IS a religion. So denying access to Jerusalem as it does IS a religious matter.
Are you out of your mind? There are Border Police ringing the outskirts of the Temple Mount doing precisely what you claim they’re not doing.
Sure it does, Israel respects religious freedom by denying access to all men under the age of 60. You’d be right at home in the novel, 1984 or Alice in Wonderland: words mean exactly what you want them to mean even if your meaning has no correspondence to reality.
You’re done in this thread. No more comments here. Respect what I’ve just written.
Qui: I like very much the UTube!! especially the woman priest at 3:20:
“To the all people, Muslims, Christians and Jews, We should live in peace and brotherhood as children of God”. I join her pray too.
You know, two years ago, I met a nice Iranian guy in Italy named Amir (Prince) works in amusement park. Since Amir is also Hebrew name I thought he is an Israeli and we started talk. He told me the same things about Israel ‘we have nothing with you”. 🙂 🙂
@Eli: This is precisely the sort of non-sequitur, rambling off-topic which caused me to moderate you.
“If Jesus…”
Someone should make a film in which King David, Jesus, and Anne Frank time-travel to the present and join forces with the Palestinians.
Your film would not find funding. Even it did, there would no distribution.
However, if King David arises anew to slay the Muslim hordes, no problem. Some pretty boy shagetz will save the poor Jews from certain immolation, just like Charlton Heston did in the bible, I think.
Off topic, no?
Probably, but de minimus.
In case you didn’t get the reference, that charming “Feck off Hamas” image is a take on the legendary Irish sitcom “Father Ted”. Pictured in the armchair is Fr. Jack, a lecherous alcoholic remarkable for his incoherent, vulgar outbursts (“Feck! Arse! Drink! Girls!”) So “Feck off Hamas” would be entirely in character for him – and entirely meaningless, too. He’d say that to the Pope’s face if given half a chance. It seems to be in character for those so-called diplomats as well.
I’m glad somebody mentioned it; details like that get lost quickly on this blog because the comments section often becomes a screaming match between the hasbarists and the people with open minds.
[Never seen “Father Ted”, but I’ve noticed that the photo of Father Jack flipping the bird has become an “exploitable template” for Internet memes.]
Richard aren’t you being a bit unfair to Eli? You always let random off-topic comments stand as long as they are critical of Israel. Look at Simo’s laundry list of anti-Israel talking points at 2:16, which you let stand, and only respond to Eli’s response to Simo! Or Davey’s comments, or the constant link-filled rants of Dickerson. Yet Eli posts something positive that’s at least related to the topic of the post (such as on the Africa thread) and he gets called out, deleted, or moderated? I know that you reject the label of being anti-Israel, but your policy seems to allow random, off-topic anti-Israel comments, while calling out on-topic comments that show Israel in a positive light, even to the point of moderation and banning.
@Lark:
I have told commenters critical of Israel that their comments are off topic. I’ve taken some to task for various reasons. Anyone who’s published more than 8 comments here as you have would know that. As for whether what you deem “anti-Israel” is indeed that, rather than just critical of Israel–that’s a perspective [yours] with which I completely disagree.
Further, there seems to be a clearly orchestrated campaign by pro-Israel forces to impact the tone & content of debate here. There is no similar campaign by those on the left to engage in a similar sort of propaganda campaign. That’s why I watch such commenters especially closely while allowing others more leeway.
You may suggest to me that I review a comment that violates the comment rules & I will do so. I can’t promise I’ll agree with you. But I’ve banned or deleted a number of comments by those on the hard Left after they were pointed out to me by other commenters.
“But I’ve banned or deleted a number of comments by those on the hard Left after they were pointed out to me by other commenters”
@ Richard, I think I’m on the ‘hard left’ 🙂
People like Rehmat, The Cynical-I-Don’t-Know-What etc are not on the ‘hard left’ according to my interpretation. Some of them are just genuine antisemites, and some of them are right-wing antisemites. I remember someone recently, some American guy with a red avatar who gave us the Cosmopolitan-Bolshevik-Jewish-conspiration-stick which is typical right-wing discourse.
@Deir Yassin: When I used the term “hard left,” I wasn’t referring to you. There is a certain intolerant, snooty, morally judgmental element to what I call the hard left. Precisely those commenters you referred to and others as well I’ve either banned or disciplined. I don’t count you among them. I don’t label you or anyone “hard Left” because you’re anti-Zionist or support one state. Hard left refers to an intolerant attitude that augurs very poorly for any sort of reconciliation over time with the other side. It also refers to people who harbor conspiratorial theories about Jewish power, etc. Again, you’re not among them.
BTW, I include others among the hard left too who I often don’t refer to here. Among them are Max Blumenthal, Bernhardt, Paul Woodward & some of the folks at Mondoweiss both because they (many of them at least) view me as assets of Israeli intelligence and because they tend to have a narrow, sanctimonious view of I-P politics.
@ Richard
I know you didn’t count me among the people you referred to 🙂
I was referring to some of the people you’ve banned recently (not Rehmat who’s just a nutcase…) who are rather right-wing antisemites, and therefore anti-zionists. I recall more than one commenter giving us the Bolshevik-Jewish-conspiracy-stick and one also claimed that the State of Israel was evil communism. Fiirst time I read that kind of crap, fell down my chair), it seems mostly to be Americans voting Republican.
Anyhow, there clearly is some kind of pattern in Zionists right-wingers commenting en masse on left-wing blogs: the commentary section on 972 mag is simply occupied by Naftali Bennett supporters.
Since @Noam: Jerusalem is not part of Israel, Israel has no right to deny Christians or Muslims or people of any other faith or no faith at all from visiting Jerusalem whenever they wish. Even the U.S., which defers to Israel no matter how egregious its crimes, does not recognize Jerusalem as being in Israel.
[off topic–comment deleted]
Can you provide a source for that statement? It certainly was not in 1900.
[comment off topic–deleted]
@Davey: While I understand you may wish to engage in discussion or debate with some of these commenters, when they stray way off topic as several are doing lately, it’s best not to feed the trolls.
I find myself bored silly by some of the hoary historical claims brought up by these people. While some may find this interesting, I think it detracts from the overall thrust of the debate I’m trying to engender which I prefer to deal with contemporary issues as much as possible.
Interesting. Certainly does not correspond to impressions I picked up over time and reading. Admittedly, Americans are the last to know anything at all. Some, however, has ferreted out a great deal of information about the conflict. It seems clear to me that the root cause is that modern Zionism aimed at a state for Jews over the extent of mandate Palestine which required removing Arabs from their homes and appropriating their property for this new state. Would you say this was generally untrue and I have been badly misled?
[way off topic–comment deleted]
Thanks for reassuring me in my understanding.
[pro-Israel quackery may not be promoted here, which is what Joan Peters is–comment deleted]
Btw I think Davey is joking….
[comment deleted]
[comment deleted]
[comment deleted-off topic]
Joan Peters, huh? Peel Commission? Side-by side, eh? Thanks for shedding your light into these dark corners. I clearly have a lot to learn.
[comment deleted–off topic]
[comment deleted–off topic. You’ve been warned. The next comment violation will result in moderation.]
[comment deleted–you have been moderated]
[another off topic comment. You have been moderated. All future comments must adhere to comment rules to be published.
Thank you all for answering my questions.
We see what Zionism was about before us today. It is fair to insist that this violent greedy mean lying little state at odds with every standard was embryonic in the movement all along. Israel has controlled the region for some time. If there is no “peace” it is entirely at Israel’s behest as it could not be otherwise. They have what they wanted all along, all of Palestine for their settlers from New Jersey and Australia, their diplomats from Russia. Just not in my name.
No more please, let’s just move on.
@Davey:
Precisely, but if you feed the trolls they don’t move on.
The Zionist goal of a Jewish National Home was succeeded by a Jewish declaration for establishing a Jewish Commonwealth. The Nazi death camps of WWII changed the discourse in Europe and by benefactor USA. I can’t seem to find a link what the people of Palestine had to say about the Zionist agreements. The Zionist movement changed from collaboration with the British colonizer to its opposition and increased intensity of its terror attacks. The bombing of the King David hotel in Jerusalem as one of the many crimes. The goal of living in peace with neighboring Arab states seems lacking and elusive. From world support to establish the State of Israel (famously “Jewish” crossed out by President Truman) to becoming a pariah in the world community, one must truly do its utmost in 68 years.
Netahyahu and the false comparisons to the Shoa or Holocaust.