Apartheid is awful, but my question is who the real racist is
Posted on | March 4, 2012
Here’s an interesting question for you: if someone who’s known for their very violent temper declared they hate you and would rather see you dead, would you let them into your house?
Now let me ask you another question: if as a result of your decision not to let them in, your neighbors would say your behavior is racist, would you still value your life and safety over your image in the neighborhood? Not an easy choice, but I’m guessing choosing life and surviving the bad image is what you’d do.
I’m asking because one of the worst slander festivals against Israel just ended these days. It’s called Israeli Apartheid Week, and it’s being held in 109 university campuses in cities all around the world, for the 8th year in a row. It calls for boycott and sanctions on Israel claiming it is a racial state because it discriminates Palestinians.
After spending quite some time in the official website of this noble organization, I must confess – it I hadn’t known the truth, I too would have been convinced – the site is packed with information and facts. The only problem is that these facts are partial, and therefore paint a partial picture that brings to false accusations.
Let’s talk about the word apartheid for a minute: it means racial segregation. Specifically, it refers to a former political and economic discrimination against black people in South Africa.
The website will tell you that apartheid is a crime against humanity. It is. But is Israel really guilty of it? The allegations against Israel’s policy towards Palestinians chooses to overlook one very simple fact. I searched the whole site, and strange how with all the research and professionalism, it neglects to mention that the Palestinian leaders have always wanted Israel to cease to exist, and still do today. The extreme ones, such as Hamas in Gaza, have no problem saying it right out. The moderate ones, such as PLO, try to play down this fact, with the generous help of organizations such as Israeli Apartheid Week.
Is it a crime against humanity to protect yourself from a declared enemy? And if we’re already on the subject – do the people who run this organization think using children as human shields is a crime against humanity? Or regularly shooting rockets on civilian cities? Perhaps educating toddlers to become shaheeds and blow themselves up in public places? They don’t seem to be bothered by these everyday actions of Hamas.
Perhaps this whole “apartheid” thing started as a dramatization designed to force Israel and the PA to finally reach a peace agreement based on a two state solution. The only problem is that it didn’t work. Israel and the PA leaders were on the verge of reaching an agreement many times, but when the moment of truth came, the Palestinian leaders always refused.
The crazy thing is that real racist laws that do exist and awfully discriminate women, homosexuals, Palestinians and of course Jews, in Arab countries such as Jordan or Syria, are completely overlooked. These discriminating autocratic countries who truly go by apartheid laws are never mentioned. Why? Because that description is ironically saved for Israel, the only democracy in the middle east, which has equal rights and equal laws for all genders, religions and races, and has appointed Arab parliament members and judges in the supreme court.
So can security measures be considered racism? I guess when people want to hate and blame, they don’t really need logic and can always find “facts” that will defend their state of mind. Abbas, for instance, is considered a moderate Palestinian leader, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t deny the holocaust ever happened, or refuses to recognize Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state.
If you think Israel must evacuate the settlements and let the Palestinians build their own state in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, I will agre. That’s exactly what PM Ehud Olmert offered Abbas 3 years ago, but Abbas refused. This was only one of quite a few refusals of Palestinian leaders to Israeli peace offers made in the past 20 years.
I too think the suffering of the Palestinian people should stop. I truly wish they had their own state. But it’s their leaders are a bit more particular about the conditions under which such a thing would actually happen. Israel does not still occupy some of these territories for imperialistic reasons – it would give them away for peace and safe borders. You cannot blame a country for wanting to keep its borders safe from those who define themselves as enemies and continuously practice terror against it.
Has anyone in the world ever been called “racist” because it protected itself against an enemy? I guess that privilege is saved for the Jews. And does anyone bother Palestinian leaders with the very basic question – why they don’t recognize Israel’s right to exist? Not very often, if ever. Maybe it’s because everyone is so busy with promoting the Israeli Apartheid Week. And if that’s not racism, then I seriously don’t know what is.
Could you please stop confusing me with the facts?
Posted on | February 19, 2012
In the world of literature and entertainment, a story of fiction always captures the public’s heart a lot more than a non-fictional one. It’s quite easy to understand why: with fiction you’re free to use your wildest imagination, and create a perfect hero and a perfect story. Whereas in the non-fiction world, the rule is that you have to stick to the truth. But is that really so? Apparently, we’ve become so smitten with fiction, that not only do we use it on the news, when the truth comes up – we prefer to ignore it.Let me ask you a question: what does the name Mohammed al Dura mean to you?
You may remember his name because it was mentioned by the late reporter Daniel Pearl’s captivators, seconds before they ruthlessly beheaded him on tape for the whole world to see, in the name of Mohammed al Dura, the martyr child.
Al Dura’s heartbreaking photo, taken seconds before his death, has become famous both in the Muslim world and in the western one. On Iraqi and Iranian stamps, for example, it appears with the caption: 12 years, killed by the Zionist army in Palestine. A dead child is the most awful price of war. Is it a wonder that hundreds of people raged and died in the name of this boy?
The only problem with this mythological tragedy, is that it isn’t true. I’m not the authority to state this, by the way. It is the supreme court in France that has made this ruling, just last week. Have you heard about it? Probably not. In the past 12 years we’ve gotten so attached to the myth, we don’t really want to ruin it with the truth.
The original Mohammed al Dura story is about a boy that was caught with his dad in the line of fire between Israeli and Palestinian forces, at the very beginning of the second intifada. French television FR2 aired a shaky and grainy minute long video of him trying to hide behind a barrel, crying among the bullets, until collapsing to his death on his father’s lap. Israel and the IDF were blamed, and the hatred towards them roared.
Along the years, many new findings came up about this story. It started with a thorough IDF investigation which concluded that by the direction of the shooting, it’s logical that the boy was hit by Palestinian bullets, and not Israeli ones. Then a German television investigative report showed that the remains of the buried boy who was supposed to be al Dura, were actually those of another boy, questioning if the whole incident actually occurred or if it had been staged for cynical propaganda purposes. It also turned out that the film wasn’t shot by a French reporter, but by a Palestinian who gave it to channel FR2, which aired it right away without checking its authenticity. Search Youtube if you like, and you’ll be amazed at some of the videos questioning if this whole incident actually happened in reality.
But the biggest lie was exposed last week by the French supreme court: it turns out that the boy’s father had lied when he told French TV that his arm and leg were wounded at that same incident in which his boy died. Plain and simple – he lied, probably because he was forced to by Hamas terrorists, and then sued the Israeli doctor for libel. But it was proved that the father’s wounding occurred years before this incident, by barbaric Hamas militants in Gaza. They attacked him with axes and knives, severely wounding him and paralyzing his right arm. He was brought to an Israeli hospital and treated by the Israeli doctor he later sued, because when the doctor saw the father’s false statement on the FR2 report, he sent them the medical documents to show it was a lie.
I don’t blame the boy’s father for lying, by the way. If it were me that had to choose between lying, or telling the truth and being attacked with axes and knives by terrorists again, I’m pretty sure I’d do the same. But while the poor father’s motive for lying is clear – what’s the motive of the western world to keep silent about the truth, and prefer to keep believing the lie?
Sadly, these are the rules of our allegedly truthful world. The myth was aired all over the world and burned into the collective memory. It will live forever, and who knows how many others will be inspired with hatred as a result. And what about the real story? For some crazy reason – no-one is interested in reporting it. I guess it will remain our little secret. It kind of makes you wonder – maybe all we really want is a good story with a hero? And once we get it – please, don’t confuse us with the facts.
Oh, and just in case you personally DO want to spread the truth and shatter the myth? Well, you may want to share this story, and try to make a small difference in a world in which it’s become very hard to know who to believe.
If this is what hate can do to your logic, imagine what love could do
Posted on | February 14, 2012
I think there’s no better day than Valentine’s day to ask yourself a personal question about hatred: how much do you suffer from the hatred that you feel for others? And how much does it make your logic twist and carry itself away to self-destructive thoughts?
I’m asking because this is what popped to mind while I was going over some American readers’ comments about the terror attack against Israeli diplomats in India and Georgia yesterday. What most of them said was that Israel “deserves it” because it was responsible for recent assassinations of nuclear scientists in Iran. Somehow, it just didn’t make sense to me. But then again, prejudice and hatred do not bring on acts of sense.
I guess if you hate Israel strongly enough, you can twist the facts and make sense out of anything. Let me explain.
- Let’s just hang a moment on the difference between an attack targeting a diplomat’s wife, and an attack against a man of a certain profession. In the terror attacks in India yesterday, the wife is the one who got hurt, right after she dropped her kids off at school. As for what happened in Iran – the assassinations of the nuclear scientists were targeted at specific people who had decided to devote their lives to the development of mass destruction weapons, at the service of a mad tyrant. Moreover – these scientists are people who use their knowledge and skills in order to be a part of a project that is a very big threat on no other than… you. Yes, all Americans, including the ones behind the hateful comments who appear to think “it’s only fair”.
- Some of the comments said Israel “had it coming after bragging about the assassinations in Iran”. Bragging? Yes, I know that’s what the speculations are. But Israel never confirmed being behind these actions, and no-one proved that it was. So is it also possible that the CIA might be behind this, for example? After all, if you haven’t noticed, president Obama is conducting a huge global campaign against the nuclear armament of Iran, and for a good reason. I’ll elaborate in point number 3.
- Iranian leaders call the U.S. “the Satan”, and dream about its abolishment, just like Bin Laden did. In their minds, the U.S. is the source of all evil, and only stands in their way. Do you realize the nuclear missiles Iran is developing could destroy major parts of America, and that Obama is uniting European and other powers for an immediate boycott on Iranian oil, because he understands what a big threat a nuclear Iran will pose not only on the free western world, but on American citizens?
- As much as you might like to think differently – Iran is not “the enemy of Israel”. It’s true that its leaders are extremely anti-Semitic and want to “wipe Israel of the face of the earth”. But Israel is just small change as far as Iran is concerned. It’s a clever PR tool that is used, knowing how much antagonism there is towards Israel in the world today. This tool is so effective, that it makes people forget some basic facts: Iran is an autocratic fanatically religious country in which women are stoned to death for adultery, thieves get their arms get chopped off, and people who dare to speak their minds are brutally executed in a public square. It is a ruthless country to its own people, and it funds a large part of terrorism all around the world. Iran’s leader is very ambitious – he longs for a nuclear bomb first and foremost so he can threaten the free world. Yes, Iran is after the big money and not the small change. It wants nuclear arms in order to gain power that can be truly fatal for America, not for little Israel, which is just a pebble that stands in its way.
So for all those who’s hatred is so blinding that they can’t see what they’re rooting for, maybe for the sake of Valentine’s Day you’d like to take a five minute break from hating, and ask yourself a simple question: when you say things that legitimize acts of terror executed by America’s sworn enemy – who’s side are you really on?
Lie to me
Posted on | February 1, 2012
You know the guy from that TV show that can read people’s expressions and tell when they’re lying? Imagine what a tough job he’d have if he was in politics. The poor guy would collapse after his first day on the job.
Take, for instance, Mahmoud Abbas’s declaration today, that Israel alone is responsible for the failure of the recent attempt for peace talks. I must say, I really don’t blame Abbas. I guess if I were him, and I wanted to play my cards right, I would do the same. For him, going back to the UN and asking for a unilateral solution against Israeli citizen’s interests is a much better idea. When you’re dealing with a twisted world such as the one we live in, some people come to the conclusion that lying is the only way to go.
The UN is a great destination for Abbas to turn to. Why? Take for instance the fact that after a year of brutal killings of thousands, the UN is still contemplating if it’s right to condemn Syria. Just today, Russia declared it would veto any “wrong decision” against it. In our world, if you’re called the UN or wearing any other sort of disguise, the sad truth is that political interests are more important than humanity, money is more important than justice, and hate is more important than peace. But if you want to put those cruel political rules aside for a minute for a morsel of truth, here’s something you might like to know about Abbas’s real intentions.
In her book called No Higher Honor, Condoleezza Rice explains it rather well. Rice wrote that just over 3 years ago she was astounded when ex Israeli PM Ehud Olmert aired his dramatic hard-to-imagine offer to Mahmud Abbas: he offered a Palestinian state on 94% of the West Bank, with land swaps to account for the rest. He also offered two capitals, one for Israel in West Jerusalem and one for the Palestinians in East Jerusalem. Rice recalled: “Am I really hearing this? I wondered. Is the Israeli prime minister saying that he’ll divide Jerusalem and put an international body in charge of the holy sites?”
Within this very generous offer, Olmert then also offered Abbas to allow 5,000 Palestinians to return to land of Israel. Rice presented the proposals to Abbas, but he immediately said he could not accept the return of only 5,000 of 4 million Palestinians and all their descendents who have been living outside of Israel for decades.
So Abbas is very comfortable with presenting things as if everything is Israel’s fault, and as if the argument is over the settlements, but that’s not true. Everyone knows that these settlements, although covered widely in the media, are in reality small patches of land, most of which would be evacuated and given to the new Palestinian state, and the rest swapped for identical size land elsewhere, so as to make things work out had there been a real intention for peace.
It’s comfortable for Abbas to keep selling this lie, and for a good reason: everyone seems to be buying it. But the truth is that when Abbas was offered this deal he supposedly wants, he refused. Why? Because he doesn’t just want “a Palestinian state”. He wants much much more.
Do you understand what this “right of return” of millions of Palestinians he’s talking about means? It means over 4 million Palestinians will have the right to become Israeli citizens. Not the new Palestinian state citizens, but Israeli ones. Since the entire population of Israel today consists of roughly 7 million, out of which about 5.5 million are Israeli Jews, and 1.5 million are Israeli Arabs, this means that the moment this were to occur, Israel would cease to exist as a Jewish state. Yes, the real issue at stake here is not settlements or the establishment of a Palestinian state. The real issue is this alleged “right of return”, which means the end of Jewish Israel. If Israel would agree to this demonic demand, it would be equivalent to a person putting a bullet through his own head.
Still, in a world like ours, in which lies are warmly accepted by whoever has something to gain, Abbas cannot be blamed for playing the game.
But what about you? What have you, personally, got to gain from believing this lie? If you ask me – nothing. On the contrary – if you choose to continue to believe the lies, you will only be contributing to the further acceleration of the twisted way this world has learned to turn.
Give me a standard, please. And make it a double
Posted on | January 23, 2012
The great thing about leading a life of double standards is that you can preach about anything, while simultaneously doing the exact same thing you’re preaching against. It’s really such fun! You should definitely try this at home.
You want an example? Gladly, I happen to have plenty.
15 years ago, the American Congress decided to hunt down a terrific American president, Bill Clinton, for pursuing an affair with one, Monica Lewinsky. It was a well coordinated witch hunt led by the speaker of the house, Newt Gingrich, who decided to put the interests of the Republican party above those of the American people.
But this week we learned that while Newt and the gang were riding their moral high horse, Newt was having a three year long affair with the woman who is now his third wife, while asking his second wife to have “an open relationship”, because he wanted to keep them both.
Not bad for leading a life of double standards, if you ask me.
You want another example? No problem, really. All you have to do is ask.
Ben White is a writer who preaches against racism and claims to be so pro-democracy you could just die. So he decided to write a book about racism and anti-democratic actions in Israel, neglecting to mention the fact that he’s a bit, oh, anti-semitic. He chose to ask a radical Arab-Israeli MP to write the forwarding note to his book, which made many eyebrows rise. This radical MP, who is involved with terrorist movements contrary to the Israeli law, wrote him a very radical text stating that Israel leads a racist regime, that it is ruled by apartheid laws, and that it is cruel and imperialistic.
That’s all really great, only they both neglected to ask themselves one question of very simple logic: is there another country in the world in which a state representative such as this MP could take actions like these? Actions against not only the state they represent, but actions that could actually harm the security of its citizens, and not be charged with treason, or be removed from their post? Hmmm. I don’t think so. I can’t think of one, anyway.
So could that possibly mean that no other state in the world takes the democratic idea as far as Israel does, as far as freedom of speech is concerned?
Still, this guyWhite will continue to write for the “distinguished” British Guardian, slandering Israel, every chance he gets.
Will White and Gingrich pay a price for leading a life of double standards?
It’s really up to each and every one of us to decide. Unfortunately, when someone feels fine with leading such double standard life, they are also fine with letting others pay for their exact same failings.
The only things we the people have to do is remember, is that if we let someone get away with their very obvious double standards, it’s ok. But it means something very clear about ourselves: yes, it means that we believe in the double standard way, and want to live by it too. It really means we want to try and excercise this trick at home.
Too much attention. Way too much
Posted on | December 21, 2011
Massive amounts of women in Cairo lost their calm and quit their repressed acceptance: they fled the streets in a protest about the violence of the police towards them. They have taken part in fighting for everyone’s revolution, but have been raped and beaten on the way, and may also lose the right they have just earned to vote, if the Salafi party, which has earned many votes for the Egyptian congress, will have its way.
More than 5,000 people have lost their lives in Syria in the past 10 months. Children have been tortured and shot dead, entire villages fled their homes and crossed the border to Turkey, and Assad denies having responsibility for this and still refuses to step down.
And the UN Security Council, including France’s, UK’s, Germany’s and Portugal’s votes, finds it necessary to severely condemn no other than Israel, for recent violent acts of right wing extremists, who have been punished by Israeli law.
And no-one feels the need to write about this ridiculous discrimination, or report it.
Moreover, popular columnists such as Tom Friedman, keep writing vicious columns about Israel. Friedman himself has recently apologized for insinuating that the American congress has been “bought” by the Jewish lobby.
I don’t know about you, but I have one way only to describe this: Israel seems to be getting too much attention. Way too much. The world, for some reason, feels fine about letting true atrocities and dangers continue, while watching Israel’s every action through a magnifying glass, and condemning it for anything it does.
In one word, this is called anti-Semitism. Look it up.
Reality sucks. But we still have to face it
Posted on | November 20, 2011
Here’s a paradox I simply cannot understand: the modern world is motivated by money. We are all materialistic to some extent, and money can buy some pretty great stuff. This brings people to do crazy things in order to gain money, so crazy that sometimes they make absolutely no sense. Because what good would any amount of money do you, if what you’re doing is helping some crazy guy on his mission to destroy the modern world, and with it all you can enjoy with the money you will supposedly make?
Yes, I’m talking about Iran, and the efforts Obama has to make in order to persuade the sane world to be on his side. I think our main mistake as citizens of the sane world
is falling into the trap of believing that our values are shared by everyone. They’re
not. it’s that simple.
Still, the problem with progressive countries, is that they have a strange idea that there is some sort of consensus about “good” and “bad”. This is what brings them to analyze
events in a totally twisted way. The romantic articles some great journalists wrote
about the Arab spring just a few months ago, seem no less than ridiculously naïve
at the moment. There were voices saying this at the time as well, but somehow –
they weren’t really heard. People wanted to believe a false reality, and when
you choose to believe the prettier version as opposed to the real one, you don’t
solve the problem – you only allow it to get worse.
We all pretend to want to take “the red pill” and see the truth, but we keep feeding ourselves with “the blue pill”, because it’s prettier and gives us some false sense of security and belief in a fairytale world. But if you’re really interested in looking the ugly truth in the face, take a look at some facts.
- Qaddafi’s son was captured in Libya this weekend, wounded. What do you figure his fait will be? After we all saw in gruesome detail how his father and brother ended up, it’s a little hard to believe he will get a ”just and fair trial”. In my book, what separates the good from the bad is the ability to avoid “an eye for an eye”. The fact that someone is a barbaric, ruthless murderer, doesn’t give you a right to do the same if you consider yourself one of the good guys. The job of the good guy is to give a different example as to the idea and definition of justice. So will the Libyan rebels hand Qaddafi’s son to be investigated by the international court, in order to provide real justice? Probably not. Will anyone do anything about
this, or fight for it to happen despite the rebels different idea of “justice”?
Probably not. - It has been 10 months since the outburst of the Egyptian revolution, and yesterday there was another bloody round in Tahrir square. We all know who is behind it: the Muslim Brotherhood and extreme Islam, which has been working on strengthening its hold on society ever since the fall of Mubarak. Is this the kind of freedom and democracy the young Egyptians were fighting for a little less than a year ago, many of them paying for it with their blood? Probably not. But Egypt is not America, and Cairo is not London or Paris. Things have a way of working themselves out a bit differently than the western logic is able to think. The romance of the Arab spring, so it seems, has turned into religion, and not in the good sense of the word.
- Yesterday I was astonished to read this article about women in Libya who are gloriously happy about winning back the right to wear a veil, and not being submitted to “forced secular freedom”. Yes, some people want to cover themselves up in black sheets from head to toe, because that’s the way they were brought up, that’s what they believe in, and they’re not going to let any new ideas mess up their well rooted values. It’s hard for us to understand – but that’s just the way it is. You can use the word “democracy” as much as you like, but different people have totally different interpretations for it, depending on how and where they grew up.
- Hamas and PLO joined forces a few months ago, in order to gain power in the UN. We all hoped this would mean that the relatively moderate PLO will have an influence on the terrorist and barbaric nature of Hamas. We all want the pretty picture of a Palestinian state… we just don’t want to be bothered with the sordid details of its nature. But choosing to look the other way only makes matters worse: yesterday, we found out that Hamas and PLO will form a joint government, that will be situated not in the West Bank (where PLO rules) but in Gaza (the terror land of Hamas). So what do you think – will this make anyone stop and think that maybe they were wrong with their hopes for a peaceful Palestinian state? or will they just continue with their dreams and hope for the best?
The only sane conclusion is that the world is a lot dirtier and problematic than we’d like to think. But if we stick to those old thoughts which don’t coincide with the
facts, we’ll never wake up to “the red pill”. So please, don’t fool yourself. If the whole world won’t unite against Iran immediately in order to weaken it and stop its nuclear armament, there won’t be much to keep these other dreams going for. Time is pressing… we can’t just sit back and continue to let things handle themselves believing that it will somehow work itself out. It won’t.
Sometimes it’s hard to understand people’s motives because they are so different than your own. But even if it’s impossible to understand, at least choose to acknowledge this difference. Acknowledging will help you realize that we have a world to fight for. A world in which good and bad are defined as we see them, not as extremists do.
Watch out – double standards ahead of you
Posted on | October 22, 2011
Isn’t it comfortable to lead a life of double standards? Don’t you sometimes wish you could also use double standards and still pretend that everything is ok, and that you’re a fair person with integrity and strong principles?
Politicians do it all the time. It seems so simple! Especially when they get away with it and no-one judges them for it. If you want to lead a life of double standards and total hypocrisy, here are two great examples you can learn from, just from this past weekend:
- Rajep Erdogan of Turkey has tried to made life hell for Israel, coming to a point of cutting off relations between the two countries. The official reason? He doesn’t like Israel’s attitude towards the Palestinians. But oops – we all forgot to mention that Turkey has been occupying Kurdish land and refusing to give the Kurds autonomy. In the past few days, after the execution of Kaddafi, the PKK (which is the Kurdish underground) has started to fight for its autonomy, causing Turkey to retaliate by killing tens of PKK militants. So Erdogan feels very strongly about giving autonomy, as long as he’s not the one that has to do it. Will Turkey be as understanding and helpful in aiding the rights of the Kurds, as it was with its political stand about Gaza? Turkey was so “helpful” that it managed to overlook the slight detail that Gaza is ruled by Hamas, the terrorist movement who has vowed to destroy Israel. I guess when you choose your excuse for anti-Semitism, you might want to remember that phrase that says you shouldn’t throw stones if you live in a house of glass.
- Ban Ki-Moon, the Secretary General of the UN, is concerned, the poor guy. He is concerned about the released terrorists who were freed as part of the deal to free the abducted Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, and were not permitted to move back to the Palestinian Authority, where they would have probably started new terror-natured activity. He’s concerned that hey have been “transferred illegally”. He’s not concerned that they took part in the murder of thousands of innocent Israeli civilians, and might take part in more in the future. He wasn’t concerned during the five years that Shalit was held in captivity by Hamas without even the very basic right of being visited by the Red Cross to make sure that he’s alive. He wasn’t concerned when Kaddafi gave out prizes for human rights for years, in order to launder his public image while murdering and torturing his people. But now, he is concerned. Aren’t you glad to know that someone is so deeply concerned with double standards about human rights?
Twist and shout
Posted on | October 20, 2011
I guess using your eyes to see is not any sort of guarantee to see the facts: you can still twist things to create your own truth according to the agenda you’d like to promote, and then shout them as loud as you can. Sadly enough, this method seems to work. Look at the UN Secretary General, for instance. He has no problem seeing hundreds of murderous terrorists being freed, in great health, vowing to kidnap and murder more, and comparing their “human rights issues” to those of one weak abducted Israeli soldier who’s basic rights as a prisoner have been brutally abused for over five years.
In the New York Times coverage, a few things are appalling in this sense: first of all, calling the freed terrorists, who brutally murdered and maimed thousands of innocent Israeli civilians in suicide bombings, stabbings or lynches, “Palestinian prisoners”. In my opinion, this is no other than deception. They are not just “prisoners”, they are urderers and people who nurture terrorism who would be executed for their crimes, were this to
happen in the United States. Secondly, the Times’ blaming Netanyahu for negotiating with Hamas but not willing to negotiate with Abbas is also completely twisting the facts – Natanyahu recently offered Abbas to resume peace talks, but Abbas has been refusing to do this for many months, unless his pre-conditions are met. To a simple invitation to resume negotiations – Abbas is the one who keeps saying “no”.
This Washington Post headline quoting Hamas terrorists calls to “ease the blockade on Gaza”, would actually be funny if it weren’t so sad. Yes, we would also love to ease the blockade, and would do so in a minute if Hamas terrorists would just put their weapons down. The blockade is not there for anyone’s amusement – it is there for protection. Hamas has been making its intentions very clear, especially after the freeing of its terrorists: kill Israeli civilians, abduct more soldiers in order to negotiate the freeing of more ruthless terrorists, and the final solution as they see it – Israel ceasing to
exist. But it makes such a nice headline, quoting them asking for an ease of the blockade. So what if all of this other stuff has been neglected to be mentioned, right?
Last but not least – the extreme coverage straight from Al Jazeera, who seemed to be very worried about the freed terrorists’ mental health. After being imprisoned in conditions that not only respect the basic Red Cross rules, but allow these murderers academic studies alongside visitation rights and perfect healthcare, the Al Jazeera “journalists” are worried. Not about these terrorists’ lynch victims, suicide bombing victims, or about Shalit being released pale, skeleton-thin, shaky, and weak. Not about the fact that he didn’t have basic prisoners’ rights or even been allowed visits from the Red Cross for over 5 years. Not even about the future victims these terrorists are now vowing to attack. Al Jazeera is only worried about the traumas of the released terrorists.
Cute.
We’re already used to the UN’s terrible bias against Israel, for political reasons. And you wouldn’t expect any serious, unbiased journalism from Al Jazeera, either. But what is the international media’s excuse for twisting the facts? When you report in a biased manner, the little things are just as bad as the obvious extreme ones. It’s the phrases you use, it’s the choice of words and headlines, and it is the choice of which facts to include and which to evade. All these determine if you are reporting the truth, or twisting and shouting some sort of deception.
Sent from his iPhone
Posted on | October 6, 2011
Passion and faith.
It’s hard not to envy Steve Jobs, not necessarily because of his success, but because of his passion. It’s also hard not to envy his faith in himself – for after a colossal failure he picked himself up and ran forward to become the number 1 business brand in
the world. It’s hard not to admire the strength to keep working despite his illness, as long as he was able to stand on his feet. And still… I can’t help but ask myself – what was eating this guy? Because usually, people don’t develop cancer for no reason.
Timing.
Sometimes symbolism is just bullshit, but sometimes it makes you think. It’s strange that in the midst of revolutions happening
everywhere in the world, of people that were hurt by a whirlpool of consumerism, the master of consumer products passes away. What kind of whirlpool? Well, for the past two decades or so we’ve been in a crazy race against time – the path the western world has taken is the mad invention of products we don’t really need, their mass production, and their brilliant marketing. We have too much of everything and we still feel that we have nothing. The products are supposed to solve our problems, but we’re not
becoming happier. Shopping has become a religious cult, and no-one seems to be asking himself if this really meets an essential need. We grow apart from our nature as time goes by, trapped in this consumption whirlpool that we cannot escape, but on the other hand can’t keep up with. We can’t keep up with the pace, nor the price, nor the waste that contaminates our world. Does Jobs’s death symbolize the death of over-consumerism as well?
Threat.
The love we see for Steve Jobs today is the kind of love that’s saved for obituaries. During his lifetime, Jobs had many enemies,
people who hated him. And this might be something worth remembering: many times successful people feel hatred around them, and it’s very frustrating. Why do I deserve this? They ask themselves. I try so hard to do good – why do I deserve hatred in return? But the thing is it’s not only psychopaths such as Ahmedinijad that attract hatred. People who are motivated by positive thoughts, and the yearning to give to humanity and not take from it, also attract hatred. They present a threat. And Jobs was a threat to many industries, including cell phones, music, and computers. It wasn’t because he did anything bad – it was because he did a lot of good.
Newspapers.
When Jobs passed away it was about 1 o’clock in the morning in Israel. I guess that on his way out, he needed to show the print medium how irrelevant it had become. While the internet and electronic media were full of the story of his death, the morning papers showed nothing of it. And still – the headlines in Israel had a bit of Jobs’s spirit in them: Prof. Dan Shechtman from the Israeli Technion was announced as a Nobel prize winner for chemistry. His story is similar: for years he was mocked for his research, but he kept on going with what he believed in. Shechtman chose a very hard path that demands faith and a lot of endurance. Most people who choose this path will know much bitterness and probably realize that they were wrong somewhere along the way. Few will reach the place Shechtman had reached. It’s a risky path… and still – my logic says there is no other way. If you don’t walk the path of your truth, you may experience less failures and hardships, but you won’t really be living.
Love.
Jobs was sent away to whatever there is up there, as a leader – not as a CEO, or a hi-tech genius, or an inventor. And when the whole world mourns someone’s passing away, it means this someone had put a lot of love into his work, and this love came back to him, big time. It’s as simple as that. And that’s why his finger prints left a deep mark on us all.