Haggai El-Ad, the CEO of the Association of Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), seems to have sent out a call to potential donors under the title: "Israeli Democracy can't Defend Itself. Support ACRI".
Not "We do important things to make our country and society a bit better"
Not "There's always room for improvement, and we strive to improve civil rights in Israel"
Not "Things aren't good enough in Israel; we need your help to make them better"
Not even the specific "Human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories aren't at the level Israel as a democracy needs to have them; ACRI makes them better with your help".
Nope. None of that. Rather, Israeli democracy is on its way out, but ACRI will save it (with your dollars).
The fictitious recounting of the facts is breath-taking, even if you really really don't like Israel's current government; the hubris is mind-boggling. And this gets sent to lots of worried supporters of Israel who aren't here, don't know Hebrew, have no real way to measure the veracity of the inflammatory language, and are despairing of the experiment in Jewish national expression which is going down the drain: look, this important and honorable Israeli fellow even says so!
Bah.
Israel's supposedly staunch supporter Jeffrey Goldberg predicted the same for the near future not so recently. Yesterday however he said the opposite because the head of the Katsav jury had been an Arab Israeli which is supposed to prove something or maybe the opposite.
ReplyDeleteDid you know that flying cows are a danger to ships on the ocean? They are if circumstances are right, so beware, prevent, prevent, prevent ...
“In July 2003, in the Pacific, a Japanese fishing boat was sunk by a flying cow,”
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/16/magazine/16Drilling-t.html?pagewanted=5
Israel's supposedly staunch supporter Jeffrey Goldberg predicted the same for the near future not so recently. Yesterday however he said the opposite because the head of the Katsav jury had been an Arab Israeli which is supposed to prove something or maybe the opposite.
ReplyDeleteDid you know that flying cows are a danger to ships on the ocean? They are if circumstances are right, so beware, prevent, prevent, prevent ...
“In July 2003, in the Pacific, a Japanese fishing boat was sunk by a flying cow,”
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/16/magazine/16Drilling-t.html?pagewanted=5
Related...for your enjoyment.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.commentarymagazine.com/blogs/index.php/alana-goodman/386916
As for Jeffrey Goldberg, he is, alas, an intellectual nebbish.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2011/01/hezbollahs-goldstone-report/69751/
thanks Barry
ReplyDeletethe way I understand the post, Goldberg is supporting a view that the tribunals findings will be as phony and as flawed as Goldstone's. I think wishing that on the Lebanese is pretty mean and inconsiderate.
I remember Goldberg once ululating on some public performance of that Ibish guy, I had a short look at the video and yawned. Recently I think it was Elder of Ziyon who posted approvingly a piece by Ibish which I read.
I forgot my reasons but I remember that I judged weighed and considered too light (gewogen und zu leicht befunden)
The point is that any self-respecting taxi driver should have / would have skewered that absurdly stupid analogy. (It takes an intellectual, etc.....)
ReplyDeleteIbish? Please. As far as I'm concerned, he's an intellectual Ibish.
And he's as good as it gets.
And he's as good as it gets
ReplyDeleteand that's the sad part of it - I pod-caught the much praised Sari Nusseibeh on book tour some years ago and was very underwhelmed
saintlier than thou - or maybe that is just the "culture" and I am prejudiced - but I believe I try really hard to open my mind whenever another one is promoted - sigh!