On Sunday, January 22nd 1995, my former husband set off early in the morning to drive to Tel Aviv for work together with a neighbour who had asked for a lift as he was starting a month’s reserve duty and needed to get to his base as early as possible. A couple of hours later their route brought them to the Beit Lid junction, where their journey came to a dramatic halt. They had arrived just seconds after a double suicide bombing which killed 21 Israelis and wounded some 69 others. Our neighbour happens to be an army medic and my former husband a Magen David Adom ambulance volunteer, so they lost no time and set to work treating the injured as best they could until the emergency services arrived with proper equipment. A few weeks later, one of the soldiers they had saved from bleeding to death got in touch, together with his parents, to say thank you. There’s a saying in Hebrew that ‘anyone who saves a life saves a whole world’, and everyone who has ever had the privilege of being able to save a life will know just how true that saying is.
On Friday, January 22nd 2010, Seth Freedman took a cheap and very nasty pot shot at Israel’s rescue mission to Haiti in yet another CiF article written in his own Bri-nylon journalistic style. Freedman concluded “It is a damning indictment of Israel that it is prepared only to come to the aid of those who fit certain political critieria, rather than that of every victim crying out for intervention.” Actually, it is a damning indictment of the writer of that sentence that because of his own political criteria he chooses not only to ignore, but to deliberately conceal the many ongoing Israeli projects which have supplied Palestinians with aid, even in the midst of war, both official and unofficial, benefiting people and even animals. Were Freedman’s aims purely humanitarian, he would surely have something to say about the PA’s cynical denial of vital medical care to some of its population. Sadly, Freedman apparently sees no moral quandary in employing his selective viewpoint as a means to push his warped political agenda and solicit praise and agreement from his below the line clones.
22 Jan 2010, 11:57AM
A bold article, Mr. Freedman — you say it as it is. You are indeed a decent human, I’ll give you that.
“Questions should be asked about why Israel ? which has proved itself incredibly capable when it comes to responding to certain humanitarian crises ? is so intransigent about assisting the Palestinians.”
Oh yes — and we all know the answer:
Israel wants as much land as it can lay its hands on, with as few Palestinians as possible living on that land.
KeithSimmonds and DWearing — excellent comments.
There are more decent human beings in this world than at first meets the eye!
22 Jan 2010, 12:11PM
Questions should be asked about why Israel ? which has proved itself incredibly capable when it comes to responding to certain humanitarian crises ? is so intransigent about assisting the Palestinians.
That is what is so depressing: a country and people who are so humane, civilised and sophisticated in one context can be so brutal and inhumane in another.
We humans seem to have the capacity to selectively disregard the humanity of other human beings, look at the history of Slavery, the Nazis and Stalinist Russia.
Israeli Jews of all people should recognise that, but they seem so caught up in their own pain and status as victims, that they seem to be able to ignore the humanity of their Palestinian neighbours. Consequently a solution could be very near but in reality is very far away. Zionism contains the seeds of it’s own destruction.
A very important piece Seth, your best yet.
Like Freedman, there was no shortage of others who also deliberately ignore Israel’s aid to Gaza.
22 Jan 2010, 10:38AM
Contributor
If, as many claim, Israel’s leaders believe it to be in their long-term interests to slowly strangle Gaza’s economy and destroy its infrastructure as a means to topple Hamas, it is a reprehensible way to behave.
Exactly. It is not a question of Israel failing to help the Palestinians. It is a question of Israel deliberately imposing a humanitarian catastrophe on the Palestinians.
Israel’s policy was summed up by Dov Weisglass, an adviser to Ehud Olmert, the Israeli Prime Minister, earlier this year [2006]. ‘The idea is to put the Palestinians on a diet, but not to make them die of hunger,’ he said. The hunger pangs are supposed to encourage the Palestinians to force Hamas to change its attitude towards Israel or force Hamas out of government
Real humanitarians do not impose “hunger pangs” on other people’s children for political reasons. Hence the suspicion of Israel’s motives in Haiti, suspicions shared even by Israelis who have been involved in such missions themselves.
22 Jan 2010, 4:33PM
@ToryZionist
Everything you mention are in the overall of Palestinian-Israeli relations nothing more than sticking plaster. How anyone who can consider the history of Palestinian ambulances which have been attacked by the IDF, Palestinian people dying while waiting at roadblocks on the way to hospital can witter on about how great the Israelis are vis-a-vis ill Palestinians has his head in the clouds (being polite).
This thread also produced some prime examples of those pushing the old Zionism/racism equivalence.
22 Jan 2010, 11:32AM
Seth
Surely this goes to the very nature of Israel as a zionist/ethnic concept.
As long as Israel is an ethnically driven state (as it currently is – see the quote that it represents world jewry) it will always obssess with maintaining the “right” racial composition. And as long as Israel is worried about racial composition it will be hostile to its immediate neighbours (the people, even if it gets on with the states) because it will want to keep them out.
If there was peace tomorrow Israel would still face a “demographic threat” as Israel has dfeined the term since it would face a wave of economic migrants – it has a successful economy whilst its neighbours don’t. Look at Netanyahu warning of the dangers of African non-Arab migrants recently – how they will “change” Israel. Security concerns cloud the issue when it is to do with Arabs but Netanyahu’s views on African migrants indicates the true reality of what needs to be overcome – in essence a racial view of the world that many subscribe to.
22 Jan 2010, 12:54PM
AvnerStein
You’re right about comments being removed.
AlecMacPherson
Israel’s immigration laws are racist and an expression of racial property rights. People like Avner believe the land “belongs” to his “race”, not that it belongs to the citizens of the country regardless of race or religion. Hence “fastracking” as you put it on on racial grounds – though to be honest for you to call it fastracking is disingenuous. You dont get fasttracked immigration into the UK or France on the basis of being the right race. In many countries you used to – the white ausrtalia policy for example or blood citizenship laws. But not in many places any more, certainly not in the developed world. Except Israel which effectively operates a blood citizenship law. Why? Because Israel is racist in its essence. Israel needs to abandon its racial nature if it is to become a normal modern country.
As for the relevance of this to the article, Seth was wondering how Israelis can be humanitarian to people far away yet cruel to people nearby. I was pointing out that the racist essence of Israel is the reason for this since its the people nearby are the ones that pose a “threat” in demographic terms in the eyes of people with racist mindsets. It goes to the core of why Israel behaves the way it does towards the Palestinians.
I don’t doubt the Israelis are doing a good job in Haiti like many others and I don’t doubt that like many others a bit of PR is part of their motivation but frankly who cares in these circumstances when the help is needed. But this article isn’t about Haiti. It’s about why the Israelis treat the Palestinians so badly.
22 Jan 2010, 2:17PM
AlecMacpherson
“There is a veritable cornucopia of blogs and threads for you to rail against Israel (often on CiF).”
This article is about Israel however much you may wish it were not. Not Haiti.
“If you are unable to discuss Haiti and whatever Israeli teams are doing to help people there, could I suggest you go for a lie down?”
Nice try but this piece isn’t about the sterling job the Israeli rescue teams are doing and it is bad taste in the least for propagandists such as yourself to try and milk a natural disaster in order to imporve the image of a state you support. This article is about the treatment of Palestinians.
This article is about the disparity between Israeli treatment of Palestinians and the compassion Israel engages in elsewhere.
“I don’t intend to allow you to set the terms of this discussion.”
No, you intend the discussion to be a puff piece for the state you support. Sorry, but the discussion is about Israeli treatment of Palestinians. Here’s a quote from the author to remind you:
“Questions should be asked about why Israel ? which has proved itself incredibly capable when it comes to responding to certain humanitarian crises ? is so intransigent about assisting the Palestinians.”
I’ve given my view on why that treatment occurs – its the racist conception of Israel (a conception you would I imagine defend to your dieing breath) that is the cause. What is your view on why the treatment occurs? That is what is being discussed here.
“Since the earthquake, more Haitians have likely died from injuries/disease/entombment than Gazans in at least the past 13 months (see the cut-off date?).”
That may be so but it is irrelevant to a discussion on Israeli treatment of Palestinians. Unless you are suggesting that once more Palestinians die they too will become beneficiaries of Israeli aid?
“Well done for showing your concern.”
I’ve shown my concern elsewhere and with my pocket. Have you? Or is the hasbara taking up all your time. And this thread isn’t about Haiti – its about Israel as you well know however much you may wish it wasn’t.
People like you who want to use disasters for political ends make my skin crawl to be honest.
(Some great irony going on there!)
22 Jan 2010, 2:16PM
HumanBeingsSuck
Careful, you’ll be saying that Zionism and anti-semitism share the same premises and conclusions next.
Now that is an uncomfortable truth.
22 Jan 2010, 3:16PM
HebrewHammer
“you repeat the same BS even though you were proven wrong in a dozen different CIF threads and you are not contributing to any discussion you just spill some hateful rubbish you heard from someone .”
You’ve never addressed my points on any thread. You simply accuse anyone who disagrees with your belief that you are entitled to engage in racism as, ironically, a racist. You are like an alcoholic HebrewHammer – until you are able to admit your problem you won’t be able to fix it. Your disease is racism.
GarryG
Ah! The voice of the true racist!
“
To that end, many countries have passed repatriation laws giving members of the diaspora the right to return to their “kin state”. These include Armenia, China, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Norway, the Philippines, Spain, South Korea, Taiwan, Chile and Turkey, and many states of the former Soviet Union.”
Firstly, even if some other states did parctice racist immigration laws, that wouldn’t entitle Israel to – it would just make those states as racist as Israel. Secondly, your list is wrong. As an example, Germany abolished its blood citizenship law – under Gerhard Schroder. If you read my posts you’ll see I point out that most developed states once upon a time operated such a racist approach (I even used the example of “white australia”) but that very few now do. This is because racism is seen as de-legitimate by civilised people in the developed world. Yet Israel continues its racism. Israel and its supporters effectively think Israel should have the unique privilege of indefinitiely existing as a racist state and that anyone who is critical of this is themselves a racist.
“Singling out Israel for doing something that is perfectly legal, and that many other countries do, is demonization”
Not that many countries do it and you are engaging in the classic Zionist propaganda tool – everyone must prove they are not anti-semitic by criticising everyone else in the world ever who has done something wrong first before saying a word about Israel. A viscious attempt to prevent criticism if I saw one. No, I don’t support any other countries operating the kind of racist immigration law Israel has. Yes, I will criticise them – show me a thread where they are being discussed and I would be happy to.
Next; some examples of those pushing the ‘ethnic cleansing’ trope.
22 Jan 2010, 12:10PM
goldmine,
Of I’m not suggesting that that there aren’t any “innocent victims” in Gaza however, they voted in a leadership that hate Israel, the Haitian people didn’t vote for their country to be destroyed.
Why do you insist with comments that are completely irrelevant. Yes, Haiti isn’t attacking Israel, but Haitianers are also not being attacked, occupaied, dispossesed, ethnic cleansed by Israel like the Palestinians are. Palestinian attacks are self defense against Israeli attacks. Do you have something against a people like the Palestinians defending themselves from military agression?
22 Jan 2010, 12:44PM
Israel is the most culturally, sexually and ethnically diverse state in the Middle East, and certainly more than Britain.
Absolute utter b*******.
Further more Israel’s relief effort is a cynical PR stunt designed to deflect attention from their illegal and immoral actions in Gaza.
Why fly half way across the world to help people in Haiti but allow babies to die in Gaza because they have to wait months for permits to travel for treatment.
Israel needs to learn once and for all that they have no moral integrity whatsoever because their policy of ethnic cleansing in Israel and the Occupied territories. Sort out the humanitarian situation in Gaza before you parade your “humanitarian work” elsewhere.
Shameful
22 Jan 2010, 12:54PM
SPLD 22 Jan 2010, 12:47PM
to make your post make any sense, could you tell us how many Palestinians have had to leave their homes, how many Palestinians have been killed during the time you mention? Could you explain to us why Israel has been treating Palestinians the way that they have been doing, and why they don’t let the people who were ethnic cleansed come back to their homes? Could you explain why Israel doesn’t allow Palestinians to dig wells for more water when they have no water? Or why Israel doesn’t allow food to pass the borders to Gaza?
22 Jan 2010, 1:30PM
JonothanWest
A good analysis of the tensions within post-state Zionism in your post as 12:42.
If one looks at both Zionist theory as well as pre- and post-state Zionist practice one can begin to discern Zionism in its essential aspect: the drive towards the expulsion of the Arabs.
It used to be called “transfer” now it is called “seperation” or “convergence” but the content remains the same. It is what, in normal discourse, is called ethnic cleansing. And it is absolutely central to the Zionist project, the chief means in fact through which it can be realised and maintained.
Now, the means for carrying this out have changed and changed again over the decades, for various reason, but all variations can be sumbsumed under one common heading: to Israel, the greatest amount of land with the fewest possible number of Arabs.
The thread was also graced by the presence of some ‘experts’ on the IDF.
22 Jan 2010, 11:05AM
TheHebrewHammer
Because when Israel built a field hospital in cast led operation Hamas held the injured from going to the hospital and bombed it .
Because when Trucks are trying to get into Gaza Hamas is bombing the cross’s .
and still Israel is trying to help the Palestinians when they ask for help , but Israel will not give Hamas a free hand to do whatever they want .
Every single post you make boils down to one basic assumption.
Israel has done nothing wrong. It’s all their fault (insert who “they” are as required, it doesn’t really matter)
Is this the same IDF who prevented over the course of days, the Red Cross from rescuing children from houses they’d just shelled, after first having moved those people into those houses? Or maybe you mean the IDF who prevent children’s toys from entering Gaza? Or is it the same IDF who shelled a doctor’s house from roughly a kilometre away, killing most of his family, because they saw some shadows? Or was it the IDF soldiers manning the artillery pieces that fired the white phosphorous shells?
Israel and it’s army of conscripted thugs is in no position to blame Hamas for anything as long as it is far, far worse.
22 Jan 2010, 1:38PM
The Israeli’s have saved lives. That’s good for those lives saved..
They could save thousands more on their own doorstep, and the fact they choose not to is to their eternal shame.
The IDF is a loathsome organisation full of brain washed, head full of religion conscripts who spend the vast majority of their time attacking either their neighbours or refugee camps, oblivious to what they’re actually shooting at because they don’t consider themselves responsible for their own actions. In their heads they’re always the victims regardless of the age of the person they’ve just shot.
The fact that the IDF has done something good for a change doesn’t alter it’s purpose and history one bit. It was to defend Israel, but now it’s an army of oppression enforcing a brutal land grab and ethnic cleansing in an apartheid state.
It should be the target of sanctions, not praise.
22 Jan 2010, 5:56PM
@pretzelberg
Ive no problem with recognizing the individual efforts of all countries, but before we start ordering the garlands for the IDF we ought to remember what their record actually is.
There is a record of gangsters doing good to gain a degree of respect and community support, all the easier to get up to that which gangsters do.
And in among, some just plain nasty comments.
22 Jan 2010, 3:15PM
@THH
Religious nut jobs exists in every religion .
Of course, but only in Israel does a complicit government turn a blind eye to their (very secular) aim of colonising more and more land outside the country’s proper borders.
22 Jan 2010, 3:13PM
If every Palestian home were to fall tomorrow in some sort of choosy earthquake, the IDF bulldozers would be in there in a flash to clear the rubble for nice new condos for Jewish settlers.
But you don’t need mother nature when you can make mini earthquakes with American made and sold gunships and other weapons.
The end result is the same.
22 Jan 2010, 2:50PM
Israel should not only leave Haiti, but the Khazars should pack up and leave Palestine.
Peaceboy
22 Jan 2010, 11:09AM
Similarly, Israel and Palestine are supposedly due for an Earthquake themselves. It therefore begs the question. If it hit in the Territories what would Israels response be? Would they lead the way for Humanitarian Assistance. Or would they be more concerned about ‘security issues’ or the safety of the Settlers?
Whilst Freedman and cronies were busy indulging their Israel-bashing habit in the virtual CiF world where Israel is always wrong and Palestinians forever downtrodden and blameless, out in the real world of the Middle East, another newspaper- the Islamic jihad mouthpiece ‘Palestine Today’- was celebrating the fifteenth anniversary of the suicide bombing at Beit Lid. But of course Freedman and his fans will be able to ignore facts like these precisely in the same way that they overlook the thousands of tons of aid crossing from Israel into Gaza every month, for nothing must upset their ‘world view’, no matter how inconvenient or how true.
Hawkeye
Omar2
WellofSense
Medusa
The Alchemist
Louise
Tosca
Maimon
Telling the Truth
Israelinurse
Adam Levick
Margie in Tel Aviv
Guest/Cross Post
Hadar Sela
50 comments
Comments feed for this article
February 7, 2010 at 1:46 am
favelas
Posting on CiF is the same as going into a boxing ring with multiple opponents,with one hand tied back,and a crooked referee.The match is fixed even before you step into the ring.
February 7, 2010 at 2:01 am
JerusalemMite
favelas
Posting on CiF is the same as going into a boxing ring with multiple opponents,with one hand tied back,and a crooked referee.The match is fixed even before you step into the ring.
Great analogy.
Fits CiF like a worn glove.
This site must make more of an effort to put The Guardian/CiF firmly in the place of a propaganda outlet/rag and not longer a NEWSpaper.
It has become the extreme anarchist lefty counterpart of FOX news. Displaying not so subtle mind manipulations ‘presented’ as NEWS.
February 7, 2010 at 2:34 am
armaros
Israel went to the aid of Shri Lankans after the tsunami and was turned away.
How does Freedman know if there was an earthquake in Gaza Israel would not come and help?
Is he some god now? Sees the future, the past and all the dimensions within?
Pathetic little whore.
As if Israel has not helped Palestinians enough. The only country which gave them citizenship.
But I propose a deal for Freedman.
Let him go and help. Lets have Ben White, Galloway and Freedman drive an ambulance with some supplies into Gaza and start working.
Just don’t call when you re kidnapped for ransom Seth. Make sure your mother doesn’t either once you show up on Al Jazeera with a copy of the Guardian proving the date of your capture…
February 7, 2010 at 2:40 am
Abandon hope
david119 (12 11 )
” look at the history of Slavery, the Nazis and Stalinist Russia ”
Stupid comparisons and a gift for Zionists and CIFwatch. Offensive to the millions who were victims of all three. Palestinians are not slaves ..they are not put into concentration camps ..nor gulags to be worked to death. Life is f***ing awful ..but at present they are not being murdered en masse.
.
TwoSwords (12 54)
.
“Israel’s immigration laws are racist ”
.
They are “religiously discriminatory ” not “racist”. The term ” racist ” is a handy and lazy way to generate venom . I once used this term as applied to Israel out of frustration and regret it. ( I had forgotten and it was included in some Parliamentary report on CIF!
Some of the other posts are not helpful… i e bass46 1:38PM “The IDF is a loathsome organisation” but the rest seem OK. I criticised Seth for publishing the article whilst the bodies were still being dug up but that was my only issue.
February 7, 2010 at 2:57 am
Abandon hope
armaros
.
“Pathetic little whore. ”
.
This type of response should be challenged on CIFwatch to ensure it is not dismissed as a site for preppy sneerers. I keep saying..CIF is vulnerable but can safely ignore CIFwatch so long as this type of verbiage reigns.
This is as bad as anything ATL.
February 7, 2010 at 3:44 am
Margie
Seth closes his eyes to what he wants to ignore. The same sort of field hospital as in Haiti, based on the same principles, backed by the same hard-earned knowledge, was erected at Erez crossing during the Cast Lead campaign for the treatment of the innocent. Hamas prevented them from attending. The sterile wards stood empty. The world only saw the propaganda against Israel.
February 7, 2010 at 5:21 am
favelas
The topics Seth mentions most
arabs arabs arabs gaza hamas hevron idf israe israelis jerusalem lieberman palestine palestine palestinians btselem west bank idf .
Journalists who write similar articles
rachel shabi ian black ben white ahmad samih khaladi dafna bar-am khaled diab ian black avi shlaim brian whitaker
February 7, 2010 at 6:15 am
AKUS
Freedman never waits before making a rush to judgment, and using extremely poor judgment, for that matter. His article on Haiti, written, as you say, while the bodies were still being pulled out of the rubble, was similar in that sense to his article for CiF, “Israeli Rottweilers on the Loose”, where he attacked Rebbitzen Holzberg’s parents before their daughter was even buried.
He is a thoroughly nasty, disgusting person.
February 7, 2010 at 6:22 am
Israelinurse
Abandon hope – Israel’s immigration laws are no more discriminatory than those of any other country. The often-used claim that the ‘right of return’ is unique and racist is simply false. Many other democracies have similar laws – for example since the collapse the former Soviet Union, Russia has absorbed thousands of ethnic Russians from former republics. Since 1945 millions of ethnic Germans have come to Germany from all over Europe and the former SU. German immigration law defines a state of ‘Germanness’ (Deutschtum) on the basis of certain facts such as descent, language, upbringing and culture.
Immigration laws can only be discriminatory if they are designed to exclude anyone not from a certain racial or religious group, which is obviously not the case in Israel as approximately half a million non-Jewish spouses and children of immigrants from the former USSR were given Israeli citizenship, as were the Vietnamese boat people. In 1999 Israel offered citizenship to over 100 Albanian refugees airlifted from Kosovo and also offered to grant citizenship to Muslim refugees from Bosnia.
Jordan, for example, does have discriminatory immigration laws under which no Jew is allowed citizenship, even if they had formerly lived there for generations. British immigration law is not without its restrictions either; try reading the small print next time you renew your passport.
February 7, 2010 at 6:23 am
Snigger
dopey, Freedman IS a whore who sells his questionable “talent” to the highest bidder. Comment is Free is renowned for whoring its journalistic principles if it ever had any. The Henry coven whores its pretensions to journalistic prowess whenever it publishes a half-baked ill-researched article condemning Israel in which it knows it is telling lies and yet presents its own bile-filled views as facts to gullible people like you. AND YOU DON’T QUESTION THAT ON CIF ITSELF so what does that make you?
So go ahead and challenge here if it makes you feel better. You are in a minority. Heaven knows how much hatred CiF is responsible for by continuing to drip drip drip its hatred into the blogosphere.
Improve the standard at CIF dopey – you have said elsewhere that they “listen” to you but I find that difficult to imagine – above the line and the standards will improve below it.
There will then be no need for such a site as CiFWatch will there if you get it right. Until then, don’t lecture anyone here about how to behave. If you don’t like it then you are at liberty to leave and please close the door behind you.
February 7, 2010 at 6:41 am
Ahasonist
‘It has become the extreme anarchist lefty counterpart of FOX news. Displaying not so subtle mind manipulations ‘presented’ as NEWS.’
What?! There is nothing anarchistic about the Guardian, thankyou very much! It’s centre-left at a push, and statist.
Actually, this ‘far left’ business does irritate me slightly. The anarchists of this world (the proper ones) aren’t antisemites; yes they appose Israel as a state, but they appose statism in all forms and in all countries. In fact, kibbutzim are held in very high regard as a model of anarchism in practice.
February 7, 2010 at 6:42 am
Yohoho
AKUS, I once wondered “aloud” on CiF whether Freedman had ever been dropped on his head when he was a baby…..
I was serious.
No wonder they banned me…
February 7, 2010 at 6:59 am
SarahLeah
Berchmans, but CiF does not and cannot “safely ignore” CiFWatch can it? We have Seaton demanding the right to reply from the Jewish Chronicle, which he and CiF never give to others it gratuitously and deliberately offends, in order to try to wriggle his way out of his unintelligent and unprofessional behaviour towards Prof Alderman. Is that evidence of CiF ignoring CiFWatch?
And you keep on arguing that to the extent that I believe you are protesting too much, and that you are as much trying to convince yourself as us. Give it up. You are wasting your time. Go back to CiF and pursue your crusade about more coverage there of Afghanistan.
I do believe that CiFWatch is making an impact, Berchmans, on CiF’s Israel-hating obsession because CiF is panicking and treating Prof Alderman in such a disrespectful way. I believe that the coven must really be in headless chicken mode otherwise there would not have been that idiotic ultimatum to him.
February 7, 2010 at 7:24 am
Gerald Kreeve
Stupid comparisons and a gift for Zionists and CIFwatch
Berchmans when I write that something is ‘stupid’ and a ‘gift for’ my intention is not to praise whoever gets the gift.
Your antagonism to this blog couldn’t be clearer in outline but we are still not seeing the detail. What is your own intention here?
On comment is free you’re not so coy. You swing between diabetic sweetness and nastiness there.
Here’s your latest to Hebrew Hammer
February 7, 2010 at 7:26 am
Gerald Kreeve
The last paragraph of the above was a direct question from me to Berchmans, sorry it seems confusing.
What is that well oiled machine you’re talking about? who are you hinting about? That is typical Berchmans innuendo.
Do enlighten us Berchmans, do.
February 7, 2010 at 9:07 am
pretzelberg
rubberneck (from the CiF thread)
Further more Israel’s relief effort is a cynical PR stunt
I was bemused by the number of such comments. Having watched CNN and BBC World coverage of Haiti, I can only conclude that this “PR stunt” was spectacularly ineffective.
There were also sadly predictable comments with words to the effect of “Zionist domination/nifiltration” of the Western media.
The question is with such individuals: was this their automatic response when seeing the occasional (i.e. as also applies to the countless other countries represented on Haiti) references to Israeli aid in the Western media, or was this bile prompted by Seth Freedman’s article?
February 7, 2010 at 10:38 am
Abandon hope
Yohoho
” whether Freedman had ever been dropped on his head when he was a baby…..”
Those of us who have spent some decades working with people who have actually been dropped on their heads might wonder why you think this is such a suitable thing to say. As youi say no wonder they banned you …but my guess is that was one of a few.
Gerald Kreeve
Re dh48 ; “Arabs dont listen ” ( or words to that effect.. it is deleted)
What dh48 said was a dreadful statement that Arabs are not only in the wrong… but when you tell them they are wrong…they dont understand. It was both blaming them and calling them thick. Hebrew Hammer went to his aid…Why would he do this ?
February 7, 2010 at 10:53 am
THH
who went to the aid of who?
February 7, 2010 at 10:58 am
THH
OK.
I replied to dh48 stupid post with a post that criticises dh48 and the article which are both stupid generalization about Egypt and the Arab population which can be made about any other country or ethnicity in the world .
But then you made your stupid remark
“dh48s disgusting typification still stands..if anything your support simply makes his ignorant pronouncement all the worse. Imagine how long his horrible attack would last on CIF if another people were chosen for insult.
However there is no well oiled machine to pounce on attacks on Muslims.”
which has no relevance to the article or what I wrote and you posted just to provoke some response .
because Im not a Guardian Moderator or part of any Zionist well oiled machine .
February 7, 2010 at 11:00 am
Yohoho
Berchmans, they should not have banned me for it. I was, after all, being as ironic and sarcastic about Freedamn as you are about antisemitism and the left….
February 7, 2010 at 11:02 am
Yohoho
Berchmans many Arabs, according to Tarek Heggy are unable to compromise because if they do they believe they lose face. That is thick because it is not pragmatic. We see the results of this lack of intelligence in the continued lunacy by Hamas et al in Gaza. Intelligent behaviour? Do me a favour!
February 7, 2010 at 11:07 am
HairShirt
Gerald Kreeve, Berchmans has been sidelined on CiF. He’s a sad act there and so he’s trying to impress them by trying not be a sad act here. No doubt he’s hoping to impress Matt Seaton by his “undermining” of this site but he’s upping the hit rate here at the expense of CiF.
February 7, 2010 at 11:14 am
Margie
The assimon has finally dropped. THH is The Hebrew Hammer.
February 7, 2010 at 11:15 am
Abandon hope
THH
“I replied to dh48 stupid post with a post that criticises dh48 and the article which are both stupid generalization about Egypt ”
I had thought you were allowing his hatred of Arabs to be seen in a less than serious light. Any post saying ” Jews are uncomfortable hearing the truth “would have been on CIFwatch in a flash . Your post was nothing like as clear as your above explanation.
February 7, 2010 at 11:18 am
Gerald Kreeve
What is that well oiled machine you’re talking about? who are you hinting about? That is typical Berchmans innuendo.
Do enlighten us Berchmans, do.
February 7, 2010 at 11:19 am
THH
@Abandon hope
Again
I am not a part of CifWatch or Cif .
so if you like you can build CifWatch of yourself and promote your own agenda’s.
It seems a bit silly when you are asking me why Cif is not moderating a remark about Arabs just because I am Jewish ..
And finally
My post was to nullify what dh48 wrote .
which is all human beings don’t like being criticised .
February 7, 2010 at 11:20 am
THH
@Margie
Toda La’El .
February 7, 2010 at 11:24 am
THH
@Abandon
“Your post was nothing like as clear as your above explanation.”
So
“## “Arabs like all the Human race are uncomfortable hearing the truth “.##”
is not clear as
“I replied to dh48 stupid post with a post that criticises dh48 and the article which are both stupid generalization about Egypt and the Arab population which can be made about any other country or ethnicity in the world .”
I think there is something wrong with how you understand things .
February 7, 2010 at 11:48 am
JerusalemMite
THH
I think there is something wrong with how you understand things .
Oh! You noticed.
February 7, 2010 at 11:53 am
Gerald Kreeve
HairShirt, how sad can Berchmans be? Is it possible that he could be so sad that even he doesn’t know what he is talking about? But if so, why should we (if I may count myself among you) have to endure that hopelessness?
February 7, 2010 at 12:02 pm
JerusalemMite
Gerald Kreeve
HairShirt, how sad can Berchmans be? Is it possible that he could be so sad that even he doesn’t know what he is talking about? But if so, why should we (if I may count myself among you) have to endure that hopelessness?
I am coming to the horrified conclusion that Georgina prefers the he be ‘here’ rather than ‘there’.
February 7, 2010 at 12:26 pm
TomWonacott
Abandon dope
“……Stupid comparisons and a gift for Zionists and CIFwatch……”
For most Jews, this is not a political game, Berchmans. This is not a sit around the card table, trying to bluff someone in a poker game. What David119 believes is real and offensive – and worse – is all too common in Europe, and many places around the world (US included).
There is no gift in this to anyone except those that frequent Stormfront, and the regulars that post incognito at CIF. The gift will be when this type of comment is no longer a part of the discourse.
February 7, 2010 at 12:53 pm
Independent Observer
Israel’s immigration laws are no more discriminatory than those of any other country.
Israelinurse is correct.
There are dozens of countries which base citizenship upon ethnicity:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jus_sanguinis
There are dozens with special laws to facilitate or encourage the reunion of a diaspora:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_of_return
Finally, of course, it does not even occur to ignorant, anti-Semitic bigots like Berchmans that Israel, like very other country, does have “ordinary” immigration procedures independent of the law of return; that is, the law of return states only that Jews may not be excluded and does not exclude gentile immigrants.
February 7, 2010 at 1:28 pm
Abandon hope
Independent Observer
” anti-Semitic bigots like Berchmans..”
Look …everybody likes me …anti Semitic bigots included.I make folk laugh… I am just that kind of guy ..you will eventually and as for Margie ..well
February 7, 2010 at 1:32 pm
THH
@Abandon hope
“Look …everybody likes me …anti Semitic bigots included.I make folk laugh… I am just that kind of guy ..you will eventually and as for Margie ..well”
You are the kind of guy everybody is thinking is wit and funny at first , but then when they hear your annoying remarks every second you become more of a “Why did we invite him?” kind of guy .
February 7, 2010 at 1:36 pm
blowtorch
Seth,Rachel Shabi,and the like wouldn’t get much breathing space in the Israeli media,it would either be that no one ever heard of them,or that they are just not good enough,and even if it did happen that they were to write articles in the Israeli media, they would get very short shrift. No fawning posters of the likes of CiF.
These people flock to the Guardian instead,where they feel very comfortable among their own species.
February 7, 2010 at 1:44 pm
Independent Observer
they feel very comfortable among their own species
Then they should simply get out of Israel, and stay out, for it is certain “their own species” is not the average Israeli outside a few unis within the bubble.
February 7, 2010 at 1:51 pm
Benito
Hi don’t know if you’ve reverted to pasting in text because of what I said, or if this is just a temporary measure, but thank you!
I can now read the bizarre views of Cif posters without squinting. Thanks!
February 7, 2010 at 2:46 pm
blowtorch
Could Britain please take Seth back,we don’t want nor need him.He has a British passport,he kept it to be on the safe side.
February 7, 2010 at 6:48 pm
SarahLeah
Berchmans, if everybody likes you why doesn’t CiF and why don’t they listen to you? I reckon you’re just as much a pain in the backside there as you are here.
And do you grow on people rather like fungus that can’t be got rid of on walls?
THH, re Berchmans, I didn’t even like him at first….
And Gerald, I hope HairShirt will forgive me answering your question of him/her, but it’s evident that most if not all the Berchmans doesn’t know what he’s prattling on about. Worse, I think he forgets what he’s already told us because he keeps on repeating his inanities. I suspect he’ll be endured here just so long as his “erudition” doesn’t slippy-slide into Jew-hatred or not blaming Palestinians for hating Jews “now” or such-like, and when that happens he’ll be given the heave-ho. Be patient. It’s bound to happen.
JerusalemMite, heaven forbid!
February 7, 2010 at 6:51 pm
SarahLeah
Poor Freedman, belongs nowhere really does he?
February 8, 2010 at 12:00 am
peter1
Poor sethele must go through contortions to find a way to abuse Israel as he hopes to show himself as a good jew, a nice jew, a house jew.
The article draws a simplistic and illogical parallel, very par for the course as the guardian appears to have issued directives to their writers to employ sophistry in their zeal to find new ways to demonize Israel weekly.
Why would Israel expend energy to aid a territory that she is at war with?
Why would sethele expect Israel to do in gaza what the arabs themselves do not do?
Why would sethele expect Israel to care and nurture gazans when they have a gov’t that is supposed to be doing it?
Why would sethele even think to claim Israel should should offer aid and assistance to her enemies?
Where was seaton to keep things “balanced” in his under the line appearances?
I recognize that it must be a pain to keep mentioning the sophistry, but its so blatant and obviously the guideline given to these hacks, simplistic seemingly logical but clear distortions that cater to the anti-semites that love to gorge on it.
The article was down to his usual standards, mindless drivel that is considered enlightening by the blinkered and blind.
February 8, 2010 at 12:12 am
Abandon hope
THH
,
“You are the kind of guy everybody is thinking is wit and funny at first ,”
My life in a few words …my entire life has been that people are charmed and intrigued at first.. as you were .. but when I come on all superior and point out the incongruences ( once a Social worker…) they get snarly.
I could change and just merge in but I am on a mission!
February 8, 2010 at 7:02 am
peter1
Our troll really does live in la-la land….
He takes incredulity for charm and intrigue…..noxious babbling for superiority and one line revisionist tosh for aha moments.
This shmendrick really does make a wonderful poster boy for the guardian, a whole lot of nod nod wink wink anti-semitism standing wide-eyed with a big who me expression.
February 8, 2010 at 9:04 am
Abandon hope
peter1
” nod nod wink wink anti-semitism standing wide-eyed with a big who me expression.”
If you put a tiny fraction of your undoubted ingenuity into peace rather than using it to typify people you would live in paradise.
February 8, 2010 at 9:23 am
peter1
Our troll does his who me? shtick, surprise surpise.
At this point even somebody as thick as you must have difficulty thinking that your bullshit goes over and by anybody here.
If you put all of your fractured intellect together and recognized a single truth regarding the topic…..it would be too much for you to handle, honesty overload, would blow your mind.
February 8, 2010 at 11:35 am
Abandon hope
peter1
peter1
“If you put all of your fractured intellect together and recognized a single truth regarding the topic…..”
I made the point several times that Seth should have waited until the bodies were dug up before he published. I congratulated the Israeli team on CIF .
Your problem is that you hate me even more when I agree with you than when I dont! You like your beer to be cold.. your curries hot and your critics of Israel to be loopy!
February 8, 2010 at 12:11 pm
peter1
Our troll thinks that I hate him, just another leap of the intellectual black hole that defines him.
Now he thinks that stating that sethele should have waited until the bodies were dug up before publishing has some significance.
Oy vay, if only he’d have waited a little then his sophistry would have gone over better.
Yes, you’re a wonderful posterboy for the guardian, an anti-semite who thinks that his “what me worry” blank look of stupidity fools anybody.
nod nod wink wink.
February 16, 2010 at 5:10 pm
Other Blogs. « ModernityBlog
[...] Free. There’s a lot to choose from but I thought one of Israelinurse’s contributions, Cheap and very nasty well worth a second [...]
February 16, 2010 at 5:19 pm
pretzelberg
@ peter1
We’ve often disagreed, but in your own interests I would suggest you don’t bother replying to Abandon hope.