Sunday, August 10, 2008

Lawrence of Cyberia: Malicious Cherry Picker

Some insights into the ugly mind of an Israel hater. Because of its length, I put it here.

Update: Faux-Ibrahim has demonstrated to me that when Ms. Mason seems to be reading Arabic, all she's really doing is using an automatic translation program. He seems to feel this weakens my case against her. I think rather the opposite.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

FROM CAROL HERMAN

What could I change, if I could change one thing?

First of all, I know Jews who hate others with relish. And, looked down their noses on others, as well.

Heck, just calling someone a "schvartza" was not a term of endearment.

And, it's a bad habit, to boot.

So you've got the words up of an "Israeli hater." He's not the only one. And, most people would ignore this stuff. Just as my dad told me, people used to ignore those who got up on soap boxes. Though, as you can tell, in America, you can always stand on a soap box.

I do.

And, you can't convince me that pointing out Israeli haters changes one thing in the equation where Israelis, today, are shocked to see a stinking political system. And, they can also go and look to Japan. Who started the race in abject surrender, back in 1945. Their luck of the draw? Douglas MacArthur wrote their constitution. ANd, he stayed in place, in Tokyo for 5 years. Making sure the Japanese would find a way to survive the devastation of WW2. And, also come out of 700 years of hiding. Because their leaders kept all of the people in harm's way. In a closed society.

By the way, even with terrible governments, people survive.

And, even with the best of governments; and, America has one. We survive because business and capital moves. While bureaucrats just screw things up, and try to steal from the works.

Here, let me help you out. Ronald Reagan benefitted because the computers filled offices; tossing out IBM's typewriters. That was such a big change; business kept America afloat. Jimmy Carter's "malaise?" Was wrong.

For Israel, alas, there's too much public religion allowed into the whole mix.

If you think people become more religious every day ... the lesson of why goverments fail to prosper when they don't put up a wall separating church and state ... has been lost on you.

And, that's where the harms to Israel really do come from.

Oh, and you can throw in the academic intellectuals; who can't yet see the harms of Marx. What can you do? Tell them Groucho's better?

It'll get worse with Livni.

Ibrahim Ibn Yusuf said...

Yaacov Lozowick charges someone with cherry-picking: the dead man is scared at the sight of the hanged man! Your analysis focuses on minor matters and contains the same kind of "confirmation bias" you find in Lawrence. Let's cherry-pick from your article:

1) You charge "In this post she slams Haaretz for making a statement that simply wasn’t made in the original Hebrew. (...) The term Stern used was Yishuvim, of course, not hitnachaluyot." As anyone with a minimum of intellectual honesty can realize, the mistake is on the part of Ha'aretz's translators, since Yishuvim is rendered in English as "communities," not "settlements," when referring to events in present-day Israel, precisely to avoid the confusion with the Jewish settlements on the West Bank.

2) You state "Haaretz didn’t traffic with Samson, they trafficked with Efrat." Sloppy research, Yaacov: before writing the article you criticize, Lawrence had already established that Haaretz does traffic with the racist site Samson Blinded; see here.

3) You say: "Her blog is an unrelenting litany of things Israel does wrong, totally shorn of any context." Can't your blog be described as doing the same vis-à-vis the Palestinians? When the Palestinians do something wrong, they're Jew-haters; when Israel does something wrong -- ah, war is a messy thing.

Actually, Israel never does anything wrong willingly. The Palestinians are doubly guilty: of killing Israeli children and of forcing Israel to sometimes behave bad.

You'll gain some credibility the day you depict one Israeli wrong as not necessitated by the circumstances.

Here's some help: last week Ehud Barak approved construction in a new settlement in the Jordan Valley. A further obstacle to peace, and not dictated by any security concern. I'll be looking forward to reading your post on this unprovoked violation of international law.

You do succeed in making my blood boil.

Yaacov said...

My pleasure, faux-Ibrahim. And while I'm doing, you're proving to be a fine research tool,as I probe what makes you respond and what not, and how you go about doing so. It's too bad you're afraid to stand forth with your true identity: had we done that joint blog I'd be tearing you apart.

Ibrahim Ibn Yusuf said...

במצור הראשוני על הבית השתתפו חיילי גדוד מחטיבת שריון ומחלקת חיילים מגדוד החי"ר דוכיפת. חיילי דוכיפת נדחסו לאמבולנס ממוגן כדי להגיע במהירות האפשרית לבית שבו הסתתר ברגותי ולסגור אותו מכל עבריו. על המבצע פיקד מג"ד השריון.

http://www.haaretz.co.il/hasite/pages/ShArtPE.jhtml?itemNo=153175

Thanks to Lawrence of Cyberia, we know that Israel makes cynical use of ambulances for military purposes. War is really messy...

By the way, she's fluent in Hebrew, but can't read Arabic. How sloppy can a research be?

Anonymous said...

FROM CAROL HERMAN

Ibrahim, "your blood boiling" doesn't amount to a hill of beans.

Ibrahim Ibn Yusuf said...

Have you read today's Lawrence of Cyberia's analysis of Ehud Olmert's upcoming "generous offer"?

Simply brilliant!

Yaacov said...

Heh. This piece is additional proof that while Ms. Mason may recognize Hebrew letters and even words, she knows absolutely nothing about what the Israelis say to one another in their language. Like you, fuax-Ibrahim, she's just another fool who is so clueless she's willing to parade her ignorance where everyone can see it without even realizing how foolish she appears.

Have you noticed, by the way, how she doesn't enable comments of any sort? At least Juan Cole allows comments (after he has vetted them and chooses them to reinforce his line). Ms. Mason won't allow her readers any sort of response, since responses might sow doubt in the minds of other readers.

Pathetic through and through.

Ibrahim Ibn Yusuf said...

I agree that it's better when comments are allowed, and even better when they're uncensored.

I want to congratulate you on that.