I am too busy for much blogging at the moment, but this story needs to be related to. It's about the turmoil near Yitzhar yesterday. In this particular case the violence was started by a Palestinian would-be murderer, but that doesn't change the fundamental structure of the story. There are a small number of well-known Jewish settlements on the West Bank - Yitzhar, Tapuach and the Jewish Quarter of Hebron spring to mind as the most obvious, but there are a few more, only slightly less malicious places - which are dominated by violent evil men, thugs of the worst degree. These thugs terrorize their Palestinian neighbors, and do so mostly unrestrained by the Israeli security forces who are in charge of those areas. The thugs are a blemish on our face and defilers of our honor, but the long-standing inability or unwillingness of our security forces to stop them is even worse, as they have the power to do so, but don't use it.
In future posts I'll go back to facing down our detractors for their indefensible depictions of us, but for today I'm setting aside whatever they may make of this story, and telling it as it is.
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4 comments:
FROM CAROL HERMAN
I just wish you had juxtaposed this story with one out of Brooklyn, New York. In that story the Jewish neighborhood came together; when a grocer's store saw the entry of a "momza" ... who picked up one watermelon after the other, and exploded them. Shouting out hateful words towards Jews. And, then, when the store owner threatened to call the police, this guy ran outside, and ran into a 9-year old. Stabbing him; and ripping off his "schtremel." He then fled. With 25 neighbors in hot pursuit. In the next picture, the gonif is on the ground. He was thrown down. And, about 25 men, all orthodox, formed a circle around him. While the police were called.
That there are settlers in Israel out of countol? No doubt. This has been true since Disengagement. And, the media is showing you the "worst-of-the-worst" ... while the Israeli police make themselves "judges and juries" as they go after politicians.
In Israel the real problem is that the elite media control! In America? They do not. Yes, in America, you see that Charlie Gibson spit on Sarah Palin. But in America, the Internet keeps the focus on the liberal media; and they are not in a good light at all.
Israel, sadly, has no Internet connecting it to the world view; of all the audiences around the globe that form their opinions on the Internet.
Meanwhile, just to keep things interesting, next week Olmert leaves. He won't be "charged." Those charges have no substance. And, even if he is "charged." It's Olmert's who is gonna lead, ahead; as he is HIRED to comment. At fee. He will earn more money. Just as he can, writing a book.
It's the part the media, itself, fails to grasp.
Olmert will discuss that the story of a "Greater Israel," is only for the delusional. And,those are the people, vying now, to take over politics.
Did the door open yet so that Israelis won't feel guilty going and living in other countries? I'm not kidding. And, all the best countries have an ability to use English to advantage.
Here, you may be surprised. But both China and Japan had an "Internet Access" problem. They use word representation that you just can't knock out on a typing pad.
So I asked my son. Who speaks a little Chinese, and a little more Japanese, how those countries cope with the Internet. And, he told me that China and Japan have adapted ALL their words to be represented by English's ALPHABET. 26 letters. Pretty much, phonetically, can spell out everything you can do with your tongue.
And, that's the future, too. Where, I also think Israel's media is heading for its own garbage heap. So far, it's still much too small to make a dent in world politics.
Such a shame. From the people who birthed ENSTEIN.
By the way, no matter what you do, Yaacov, the world's not perfect. There will always be "liberals." Where liberals are now defined as "people who sell communism one drink at a time."
The entire spectrum remains. But the power to the people shows itself, here in America. Where in spite of the bad press, Sarah Palin energies the GOP.
In 1944, E.B. White, who wrote for the New Yorker, did an article about "what democracy means to me." (FDR LOVED IT!). I only remember it's first line: "Democracy means more than half the people are right more than half the time."
Only dictators think they need universal "love" ... which they "buy" through violence.
Why should it be different for Jews? Didn't we have Meyer Lansky as the "brains" of the MOB? There's room for everyone in the pool of life. I don't take Meyer Lansky personally.
What are you doing, Yaacov! Of all the bad-behaving settlers in the world you choose to criticize the Jewish settlers on the West Bank! Whose sins are nothing as compared to, say, those of the Chinese Han settlers in the Tibet! You've become an -- antisemite!
Seriously speaking. I understand your ulterior motives in apparently admitting to some Israeli misbehavior (i.e. to sometime in the future prove that those who "cherry-pick" those "isolated" and "extremely minoritarian" actions are antisemitic), so that I won't congratulate you on your openness.
I will, however, point to your casual claim that "the violence was started by a Palestinian would-be murderer." Was it? Just read one of the "related stories" to the one you link to: State admits outpost built on private Arab land. That's where the violence starts: in grabbing other people's land because you're those people's master and can do whatever you wish to them. Much less spectacular violence than blowing yourself up in a café -- but much more enduring, too.
Actually, faux-Ibrahim, had you read that book I once recommended you'd know that this is a long-standing strategic method of argumentation, and one that is highly effective, as noted in the New York Times review of that book, among others.
As for your last statement: posh. Grabbing people's land and being beastly to them is unfortunately standard behavior throughout most of human history; the willingness, nay, eagerness, to slaughter the civilians of the occupier's side is rare, and the exhilaration of killing yourself along with them is extremely rare outside of the Muslim world, and until recently, hardly heard of even there.
the willingness, nay, eagerness, to slaughter the civilians of the occupier's side is rare
You're in sore need of a lesson or two in Native American history. People faced with an occupying power that can't be militarily defeated usually retaliate by attacking their civilians.
And, of course, the fact that the dispossessed people massacre civilians doesn't retroactively justify the grabbing of their land. What kind of weird logic are you trying to use?
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