Israelis in public life and various self-appointed Jewish spokespeople in Israeli NGOs seem to relish the freedom of speech which their democracy allows them. But Israel is not a Western democracy in peaceful coexistence with its neighbours, nor are its Jewish citizens accorded the respect in the world that their status as citizens of a democratic country should receive. Why?
Firstly because they are Jews. Secondly because they are Jews in an Islamic neighbourhood. Thirdly because it is a Jewish State which has shown itself to be resilient and successful, in spite of all the odds stacked against it.
Yet there are those Jewish Israelis who still take it all for granted.They practice subversion in their public utterances, giving succour to the traditional antisemites (see below re Sweden) and the current enemies of the Jews. In other words, in the name of 'freedom of speech', or 'academic freedom'(see also Haaretz article re LA OpED),it is allowable to practice incitement: to hatred, to 'divestment', to anti-Israel'boycotts' of all kinds, all of which constitute virtual traitorous behaviour in the eyes of their countrymen and women who value the Jewish ideal of the State of Israel.Do they have to be accepted without question and without repercussion from employers, the state or other responsible authorities in the name of 'freedom of speech'?
Israeli institutions, such as Universities, are very dependent on overseas funding from generous donors who are sympathetic to Israel as a Jewish State. Those are people who are committed to the survival and prosperity of the Jewish State first and foremost and for the purpose of 'the ingathering of the exiles'in the Jewish State. They accept that Israel tries as best it can to be a democracy and to conduct itself according to Jewish values in a sea of nations with totally different standards and values. It will have its weaknesses, but it also has to defend itself from enemies outside its borders,from potential Arab collaborators/5-th columnists within its borders, but it should not need to also put up with its own Jewish and supposed intellectuals as teachers to the young who act in concert with outside enemies, on top of it.
The only reliable supporters of the Jewish State are the Jews in the diaspora. Once it ceases to be 'Jewish', that support can and will cease overnight,- I guarantee it!
Those Israeli citizens (and some diaspora Jews) who think that they can avoid their 'Jewishness' and become just simple 'Israelis' in a State which will demographically change its Jewish status, had better forget the survival of an "Israel'as a state. The notion of a 'bi-national state' of Moslems and Jews will end up in the same way as the previous East Timor, Yugoslavia, Cyprus, the Communist Soviet Union, etc.
'Apartheid' Israel? Who is kidding whom? The whole world is divided in apartheid blocs.Minority South African whites might have tried to rule the majority blacks with apartheid laws,- but now the majority rules. In Israel, the majority also rules,- they happen to be Jewish. Bad luck for those who don't like us Jews! We are a minority everywhere else,- one tiny bit of land we want to claim as our own where we can be a majority and even that sticks in everyone's throat,- including a few stupid Israelis and other Jews!Shame on them!
And pity the Arab Palestinians who are full of hatred instead of a 'love thy neighbour' type of culture. Treat the Jewish State as the 'welcome visitor' to your neighbourhood and share in the common prosperity which would ensue from friendly collaboration instead of inimical confrontation! Enough of the perpetual victimhood of the 'refugees'. We are all former refugees from one country or another,- the West is awash with refugees from the Moslem countries. They run away from there to seek better lives anywhere in the West. Only the Palestinians are kept in perpetual limbo by their own kith and kin. When will they say: 'enough!- let's make peace and start living a normal life?' May it be sooner rather than later for everyone's sake.
MM
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BLOOD LIBEL REVISITED IN SWEDEN.
Honest Reporting released a report entitled: Outrage: IDF Accused of “Harvesting Palestinian Organs”. The accuser was Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet. Under the headline “They plunder the organ of our sons”, the report claimed that young men from the West Bank and Gaza Strip had been taken away in the night by the IDF only to be returned later, with missing organs. The families’ claim that the bodies had been completely stitched up and that the Israelis claimed that the bodies had been autopsied.
The article was criticised internally by another major daily newspaper in Sweden, Sydsvenskan, with an opinion piece entitled ‘Antisemitbladet' which exposed the story for exactly what it was:
“We have heard the story before, in one form or the other. It follows the traditional pattern of conspiracy theory: a great number of loose threads that the theorist tempts the reader to tie into a neat knot… Whispers in the dark. Anonymous sources. Rumors. That is all it takes… Now all that remains is the defense, equally predictable: ‘Anti-Semitism’ No, no, just criticism of Israel”.
Sweden’s ambassador to Israel, Elisabet Borsiin Bonnier, issued a press release stating, “The article… is as shocking and appalling to us Swedes, as it is to Israeli citizens… Just as in Israel, freedom of the press prevails in Sweden… However, freedom of the press and freedom of expression are freedoms which carry a certain responsibility” (see more).
Regrettably, the Foreign Ministry in Sweden sought to distance itself from Borsiin Bonnier’s comments and refused to condemn the offending article.
Israel’s Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman stated, “It’s a shame that the Swedish Foreign Ministry doesn’t intervene in cases of blood libels against Jews ... The article published this week is a natural outgrowth of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, and blood libels in which Jews were accused of adding the blood of Christian children to the Passover matzahs” (see more).
Today’s Australian newspaper ties this whole sorry saga together in an article by Abraham Rabinovich entitled ‘Israel and Sweden in diplomatic crisis over organ claim’. It exposes the double standards of the Swedish newspaper, citing past examples including the issue of the Danish cartoons criticizing Islam a few years ago, where Aftonbladet did not re-publish the cartoons, declaring that on sensitive subjects they must act with restraint to avoid harming segments of the population.
Obviously the publication of unfounded libels about organ theft carried out by the Israeli army is not considered harmful to the Jewish people.
In the meantime, the journalist, Donald Bostrum, acknowledged that the families claiming the IDF had stolen organs never had their own autopsies carried out to confirm these suspicions. So basically, this whole controversy has emerged over an article that claims one thing, but has absolutely no evidence to back it up. This shows that the man knows very little about responsible investigative journalism and is more concerned with his own agenda.
And just to prove the point to those who are more discerning than your average reader of Aftonbladet, that paper has made a second attempt to cover the issue, not backtracking or apologising but rather trying to present “additional information”. The article entitled ‘Mother never stopped suffering, she never stopped wondering’ makes similar claims about an incident from 1992, where a Palestinian man was killed in a clash with Israeli soldiers. His body was allegedly returned several days later, at a cost of NIS 5,000, with a scar running from his neck down to the abdomen (see more).
It was not expected that the issue would go as far as it has between the two countries. In an Op-Ed for Ynet entitled ‘How childish are we?’, Adi Dvir suggests that if the report was initially ignored it would have “passed silently away, like the puff of hot air it so obviously impersonates”. Perhaps he is right, but it is important, no matter how ridiculous a claim may be, to address them. Otherwise, the world will simply continue to perpetuate centuries-old slander relating to the blood libel.
(E.C. SZCV)
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1109275.html Last update - 01:29 23/08/2009
L.A. Jews mull boycott of Israel university over 'apartheid' op-ed
By Barak Ravid, Haaretz Correspondent
Members of the Los Angeles Jewish community have threatened to withhold
donations to an Israeli university in protest of an op-ed published by a
prominent Israeli academic in the Los Angeles Times on Friday, in which he
called to boycott Israel economically, culturally and politically.
Dr. Neve Gordon of Ben-Gurion University in Be'er Sheva, a veteran peace
activist, branded Israel as an apartheid state and said that a boycott was
"the only way to save it from itself."
Gordon, a political scientist, said that "apartheid state" is the most
accurate way to describe Israel today.(see article for more).
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