By MARTIN SHERMAN
If one knows a storm is brewing, but takes no measures to prepare for it, when the storm hits, who is to blame for the damage? The storm… or those who did not prepare for it?
“If the aim of the Israeli government is to prevent a peace deal with the Palestinians, now or in the future, it’s close to realizing that goal. Last week, it approved the construction of a new Jewish settlement in the West Bank, another step in the steady march under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to build on land needed to create a Palestinian state…The Obama administration, with every justification, strongly condemned the action as a betrayal of the idea of a two-state solution in the Middle East. But Mr. Netanyahu obviously doesn’t care what Washington thinks, so it will be up to President Obama to find another way to preserve that option before he leaves office.”
At the Boiling Point with Israel, The New York Times Editorial Board, October 6, 2016
Last week, the New York Times descended to a new low—with the publication of a particularly infuriating and offensive anti-Israel editorial—that was so distortive, deceptive and deceitful regarding the Jewish state and its democratically elected prime minister—that some less charitable souls than me might almost be tempted to say that it would have done Der Stürmer proud.
NYT’s anti-Jewish innuendo
Doubtless, many will claim that even the slightest hint that any such comparison is even vaguely valid is wildly inappropriate. True the NYT editorial did not sport a crude cartoon of a conniving, hooked nosed, money-grasping Jewish prime minister. But it did, however, include virtually everything else.
It seized on the recent government decision to build 100 new homes in the existing community of Shiloh to unleash a vicious attack on Netanyahu, liberally peppered with the basest anti-Semitic innuendo portraying him as devious, sly and underhand—whom those pesky Jews, inexplicably, keep electing in free and fair elections.
But the NYT Judeophobic barbs were not limited to Netanyahu alone. It went on to allude darkly that it was the demonic powers of Jews that caused George Bush sr. to lose his 1990 bid for re-election because of his withholding US loan guarantees over a dispute regarding the “settlements”.
The thinly veiled accusation is unmistakably clear: The avaricious land-grabbing Jews are hell-bent on depriving the poor Palestinian-Arabs for a chance of statehood. Nothing—literally nothing—about belligerent Palestinian rejectionism was mentioned—even hinted at—as a contributing factor for the continuing conflict. Everything is the fault of the Jewish state—despite the wrenching concessions it has made, both politically and territorially, over the past decades.
Lies about past; threats regarding future
Virtually every line in the editorial was either entirely mendacious or egregiously misleading. Exposing the entire web of falsehood and deception that comprises this shamefully biased excuse for journalism would require at least an entire column—if not beyond that. This is a task I shall postpone for a later date.
Rather than deal with the blatant lies regarding the past, I should like to focus on the impending threats regarding the future that the editorial appears to herald.
Indeed, there are gathering signs, of which the NYT editorial is but one, that the Obama administration is planning to exploit the presidential “interregnum” (between the election and the inauguration of the next president), in which there is no need to fear Jewish retribution, to unleash a savage diplomatic attack on Israel to compel it to accept far-reaching concessions on the Palestinian issue.
Thus, quoting senior congressional sources, The Weekly Standard (TWS) warns: “The Obama administration is manufacturing a crisis with Israel in anticipation of a post-election diplomatic push targeting the Jewish state, and this past week launched a series of broadsides criticizing the Israelis through the media and in press briefings”.
As the TWS points out, the current controversy and the administration’s contrived condemnation over the construction of about 100 new houses on state land within an existing settlement is merely “a pretext for eroding relations with Israel and potentially for setting up a broader diplomatic offensive.”
Hostile choreography not unexpected
Of course the recent incident of the planned construction of a handful of new houses in the confines of an existing community has purposely been blown out of all proportion by the Obama administration.
According TWS sources “President Obama has been ‘waiting for an opening’ to condemn Israel. The recent decision [to build]… in an existing community that did not expand the boundaries at all [is] not something that should even make the news in Israel, let alone the U.S.”
But this malicious choreographing of conflict should hardly have been unexpected. Indeed it is strongly reminiscent of the 2010-hullabaloo the Obama administration made over the approval for future construction in the northern Jerusalem suburb of Ramat Shlomo. The approval, decided upon during the visit of vice-president Joe Biden, was deemed a grave insult to the US, despite the fact that Biden himself had co-sponsored several Senate resolutions stipulating that Jerusalem should remain Israel’s undivided capital, under Israeli sovereignty. Indeed, as Daniel Greenfield caustically points out in “The deadly Israeli house”, Biden then feigned outrage “when the Israelis actually took him at his word”.
Thus, although this kind of animosity towards the Jewish state in not new, this time it appears “far more coordinated and aggressive“—perhaps spurred on by the fact that after the elections and before the inauguration—harsh anti-Israel measures can be undertaken with relative impunity, and immunity from deleterious political repercussions from the dreaded pro-Israel lobbies.
Blame Bibi bears
But for all the recognition of the innate anti-Israeli predilections of the Obama administration, and sympathy for the Israeli governments that have had to contend with it, there is still significant blame Netanyahu must bear for the accumulating US pressure on Israel.
After all, ever since he assumed office in Jan 2009 (and arguably well-before that), the inherent antipathy that Obama harbored towards Israel—together with his undisguised Islamophilic proclivities—have been painfully clear to anyone with the intellectual integrity to read the abundantly unequivocal signs.
Yet despite the fact that Netanyahu has been in power continuously for well over half a decade, he and his government have done virtually nothing to put in place effective mechanisms to contend with the pernicious effects of the White House’s predilections.
Depressingly, this is a matter I have raised repeatedly in the past years, warning time and again of the gravely detrimental repercussion that would inevitably result from such dereliction—to no avail. See for example If I were Prime Minister…; My Billion-Dollar Budget: If I Were PM (Cont.); Dereliction of Duty; Intellectual Warriors, Not Slicker Diplomats.
The pitiful amounts allotted by Israel for the fight for the hearts and minds of the international community have all but left what British journalist, Melanie Phillips, termed “the battle field of the mind” to its adversaries—whether this be the Palestinians and their well-oiled propaganda machine or the inimical politically-correct mainstream media, exemplified by the NYT.
Not a paucity of funds
Until recently, the total budget allocation for Israel’s global public diplomacy effort was less than the advertising budget of the Israeli “Osem” food company.
With such a feeble effort made to establish Israel’s case in the world, there should be little surprise that the Palestinian narrative, portraying the Palestinian-Arabs as down-trodden, dispossessed victims of the Zionist ogre, has dominated the international discourse on the Israel-Arab conflict.
This dismal situation is not a result of a lack of funds. It is rather a lack of political resolve and lack of political awareness of the crucial role public diplomacy plays in the nation’s strategic arsenal.
After all, with a state budget of around $100 billion, allotting a mere 1% for public diplomacy would make a sum of one billion dollars available for making Israel’s case in the world, and no less important, debunking that of its adversaries.
Such resources would not be devoted to attempts to win over implacable adversaries of Israel and the Zionist endeavor, but to the creation of a political climate in which their positions are exposed to be ridiculous, self-contradictory, immoral and irrational—and hence untenable as the basis for any policy decisions by any incumbent government.
Bibi’s bitter Bar Ilan fruits
Regrettably, Netanyahu has hamstrung much of the freedom needed for any official diplomatic effort to rebuff adversarial diplomatic initiatives against Israel by his unfortunate acceptance of the idea of Palestinian statehood in his 2009 Bar Ilan speech.
For having committed himself to the perilously impractical idea of two-states, he cannot articulate arguments that show it to be a totally unfeasible and counterproductive objective, which will precipitate outcomes—both moral and practical—that are the diametric opposite of those its proponents claim it will achieve.
For example, when the NYT urges Obama to use his interregnum immunity to undertake drastic measures to preserve the option of a two-state solution, it is in fact urging preservation of the option to establish yet another homophobic, misogynistic, Muslim-majority tyranny, characterized by gender discrimination, persecution of homosexuals and the suppression of political dissidence.
But if that was the manner in which the two-state option was portrayed, backed by the force of a billion dollar budget, driving pervasive social media campaigns, eye-catching billboards and impactful videos, together with a blitz of well-informed persuasive spokespersons across US campuses, it is doubtful whether any liberal leaning political party could embrace it for long.
Sadly, in light of his Bar Ilan speech, this is not a line of augment that Netanyahu can pursue officially and would necessarily have to work through “proxies”—government-funded NGOs able to express positions that might be too “forthright” for Israeli officialdom to adopt.
Mutually exclusive legitimacies
Yet here too, the Netanyahu government has shown little initiative.
Recent additions to the public diplomacy budget have been directed (with some success) at the symptoms of Israel’s diplomatic predicament (the BDS movement) and not at its underlying causes (at attempts to delegitimize the notion of a Jewish nation state).
The reason for this is clear: Since the Palestinian narrative and Zionist narrative are mutually exclusive—at least in practice, if not in theory, any attempt to re-legitimize the Zionist narrative must, ipso facto, entail the de-legitimization of the Palestinian narrative. But since the Netanyahu government is wedded to the two-state formula—which presupposes the legitimacy of the Palestinian narrative –it cannot work to undermine that legitimacy.
Thus, while on the one hand, foreign governments can finance a myriad of NGOs, with hundreds of millions of dollars, to besmirch Israel’s name and to create an inclement political climate that facilitates hostile measures against it; the Israeli government, on the other hand, does nothing to finance cash-strapped NGOs, fighting desperately on miniscule budgets, to defend Israel’s name and to create a favorable political climate that impedes hostile measures against it.
This is the grossly unlevel playing field that Netanyahu has created for himself and for Israel in the battle for international hearts and minds.
Laying the foundations for Israel’s demise?
Despite all the chatter about the unprecedentedly close intelligence and military cooperation between Israel and the US, a far from implausible case could be made for the claim that the Obama administration is—intentionally or otherwise—laying the foundations for Israel’s demise.
After all, for Israel a true nightmare situation would be the establishment of a mega-terror base in Judea-Samaria, ten times that of Gaza, which would complete its encirclement in the north, east and south by radical Islamist forces that could wage an ongoing war of attrition against it under the protective umbrella of a nuclear Iran.
The Obama administration, greatly aided by the paucity of Israeli diplomacy, has already facilitated the latter (nuclear Iran). It now seems bent on laying the foundation for the former (a mega-terror base overlooking Israel’s urban megalopolis).
This is the grim specter that is emerging as the next session of the UN Security Council approaches –with an inimical US president, unshackled from any restraining electoral consideration, facing off against a beleaguered Israel. This is the existential storm that Israel may soon have to weather—very much on its own.
Blaming the storm?
This is a storm that has been long brewing. Sadly, few measures have been taken to deal with it—measures that could, and should, have been taken.
So, if one knows a storm is brewing, but takes no measures to prepare for it, when the storm hits, who is to blame for the damage? The storm… or those who did not prepare for it?
Martin Sherman (www.martinsherman.org) is the founder and executive director of the Israel Institute for Strategic Studies. (www.strategic-israel.org)
@ Felix Quigley:Felix do not let the door hit you on the way out.
By the way you baited some commentators on Israpundit hoped they would roll in the verbal mud with you. When they then beat you up hook line and sink you cried foul and now you hopefully are truly staying away as you added nothing constructive to any dialog.
So wrong. Fact is I am so tired of Israpundit and need to move on. But what I said about your racism to the Irish remain. it is one of the key countries in this new antisemitism that has plagued us all and especially plagued the left. But I will tell you this I will be writing to Martin Sherman about this and ask him to examine the fundamentals of Israpundit and the anti-Irish racism there, which has an immediate implication for HIS plans. As I said you cannot hate the Irish and hope to win them over to love for Zionism. And there is no more BobH…So Israpundit ends not with a bang but with a whimper.
Bear Klein Said:
true
Bear Klein Said:
Boredom !!!! If I weren’t such a Southern Lady, I’d tell you the reason !!!
Felix Quigley Said:
Just wait till we start on the Poles and Romanians !!
@ bernard ross:Felix got you to take his bait. He makes a ludicrous statement and hopes you or Yamit will take him on. As I am not a mind reader I do not know why he does this.
Felix Quigley Said:
you have been making lots of points during your tenure here…. but supporting your points is something you NEVER do….. hence nothing to argue about.
Felix Quigley Said:
NO, no sign of you having “won” any debate….. just another of your delusions
Felix Quigley Said:
I searched all over your posts for support, evidence or proof of this assertion and I failed to find any….. Perhaps you can point it out? just another of your delusions.
BTW ignoring your unsupported rants is not hiding….. its simply ignoring your unsupported rants.
Felix Quigley Said:
Perhaps you can point out to the forum where it is “on this very post” that you confirmed that “I am a fraud”.
As I have given you an impossible task you may chew on this in the meantime
HMMMM, they never worried about offending Jews though.
Personally the nature of catholocism, and Christianity, is anti semitism in doctrine
without anti semitism they cannot propagate their claim of replacing the Jews so there is a very practical motivation for their anti semitism which has driven the economic success of the 2000 year business model.
This is the real reason why the pope embraces the muslims to the detriment of his own flock… everyone wants Jerusalem but the Christians need it as a basis for authenticity… hijacking the Jewish bible and replacing its characters with oneself is not a convincing creed, for the literate with access to literature.
@ Felix Quigley:
Felix you are really getting boring. You are just looking for a pissing match with someone again dribbling out boring bait.
I would be more concerned with the retirement of Robbie Keane from the National Team if I were you.
Perhaps the success Ireland has had in drawing foreign firms with the low tax rate of 12%. Free Market is booming in Ireland. Easy to start new businesses. The Irish are succeeding with large GDP growths and the only Marxists left are few old IRA guys with canes or walkers.
I have made my point that the issue of anti-Irish racism inside of this form of Zionism is a very serious issue. People like Yamit unwittingly continue to make the central point. Martin Sherman must take note. With views like this within Zionism the 1 billion would be totally wasted. The fact that I cannot get through on this on Israpundit actually reinforces the truth of what I have written. Sometimes things work like that.
@ yamit82:
Good post.
Felix Quigley Said:
What point do you perceive I made????
Catholicism?? Allied with the Nazis, while claiming neutrality???? Repaying Jewish loyalty and past aid by barring refugees???? You consider Catholicism a poison ideology but not Marxism???? Haaaa hard to gauge which is worse or which brought more death destruction and human suffering except one must take into consideration that you Commies have only been active for around 100 years the Church for 15 centuries yet you Commies may have surpassed the Church and even the Nazis combined. From a Jewish pov the Irish were better than most Europeans but they were and are still vile Jew haters.
Felix Quigley Said:
Where these ” poison ideas” found very fertile ground.
yamit82 Said:
Cowboy and Texans both won their games Sunday. How did your Pats and Giants do ?
Bear Klein
I know I should argue with you, and I am trying, but I just cannot bring myself to do it but anybody who offers a cut ad paste job with the Antisemite Zbigniew Brzezinski … well I just cannot do it
Yamit82 … you make my point all the time… these are poison ideologies bought into the great Irish people
As regards reference to Bernard Ross on the great issue of anti-Irish racism within Israpundit arguably Zionism he is silent for once…draw your own conclusions…seems fraudulent to me
Not sure if I already said this but I think Bibi believes that time is on Israel’s side, that a Palestinian State will never happen because they don’t want one, and it’s just a matter of giving the required lipservice to avoid the U.S. cutting off relations with Israel under Obama who, along with Clinton, Kerry, and Biden has been straining to make that happen by offering one provocation after another.
Bibi hasn’t taken the bait. He has ignored many provocations. He never publicly mentioned Obama cutting of mandated weapons aid during one of the Gaza wars. Read his recent speech to the U.N. He makes it clear that he believes time is on Israel’s side, Israel’s support is growing and no nonsense he is required to say at a given point in time is carved in stone. He is now raising the question of racist eliminationist anti-semitism implicit in the two state solution. He is now authorizing some settlement building again.
It’s a dance. “One step forward and two steps Back” as Lenin titled his pamphlet. And his speeches are truly Churchillian and moving. He is one of the great orators. That being said, my politics are more in line with Bennett and Shaked but hey, as I’m sure Alexander Hamilton (being from the West indies and All) would have liked to put on the masthead of the NY Post which he founded — as opposed to the somewhat anal motto of the NY Times: “All the News that’s Fit to Print” — “It’s All Good.”
Here’s Bibi’s speech:
http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Benjamin-Netanyahu/READ-Full-text-of-Netanyahus-speech-to-UN-General-Assembly-468500
@ yamit82:
Thank you yamit82, such a wealth of knowledge on a very tragic subject.
@ Felix Quigley:
The Limerick pogrom, 1904
Ireland has admitted for the first time that its ‘morally bankrupt’ regime of the 1930s denied visas to desperate Jews trying to escape from Nazi persecution.
Justice Minister Alan Shatter said that, following Adolf Hitler’s rise to power, Ireland’s anti-semitic Berlin ambassador Charles Bewley ensured ‘the doors to this state were kept firmly closed to German Jewish families trying to flee’.
The admission came as he apologised for the way brave soldiers who ‘deserted’ the Irish Army to fight with the Allies during the Second World War were treated.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2092138/Irish-minister-admits-time-Jews-fleeing-Nazis-denied-visas-1930s-morally-bankrupt-regime.html#ixzz4NQ4dIM53
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Felix Quigley Said:
How can you say that, Bernard is as cute as a ” little bugs ear” . And his joke are the very light of the Pundit.
@ Felix Quigley:
I appreciate that you made my point so well. Challenge your failed belief system of Marxism and you resort to name calling. You do not make intelligent arguments on behalf of your beliefs but resort to trying to find the best insults you can muster. That is a clear sign of one who has lost the argument.
Yamit 82
What a wonderful piece about Rothschild and his help to my poor ancestors in the Famine. I thank you very much for bringing this to my attention and I will follow this up strenuously. It is possible that the Baron was cognizant of the terrible poverty that British Imperialism was imposing on Ireland to control its very first colony. I think this is very likely indeed. I will in the future have more to say on this. It strikes me as I write this that there is this connection tot he Holocaust. The Irish could not even start to fight the famine because they were a nation of people with no control whatsoever over their destiny. It was exactly the same with the Jews in 1939-45 in that they also did not have control over their destiny. This is terribly important and a new generation must begin to see this…the main culprit in both cases was the role of British Imperialism.
To Bear Klein…you misunderstand totally about just about everything. Marxism is a reality. The ideas are out there. Just like Zionism. Just because enemies distort those ideas does not disqualify them. You obviously think because things did not work out as they hoped and planned following 1917 that that rubbishes the theory. No! Just as if Israel were destroyed and only five Jews remained on earth that would not disqualify Zionism. Also I suspect Bear Klein you have zero knowledge of all of this, including of the period of 1917 until the Moscow Trials of 1936…I repeat zero. In effect you are an ignoramus with pretensions to “advise” (hope never) the Great Jewish People.
As regards the racism in present day Zionism I have won this debate here with lasting implications. Not one has answered and that includes the most faux “Zionist” (Bernard Ross) of all who has hidden his sorry existence even. Such a fraud! I always knew that and it has been confirmed on this very post.
@ yamit82:
What are the football teams like in Israel?????
@ honeybee:
LOUSY FOOTBALL TEAMS IN Texas
@ honeybee:
😛 😛 😛 😛 😛 😛
@ Felix Quigley:
During a time of great distress and tragedy during the famine the Jews came to the aid of the Irish, during the time of great need, distress and tragedy of the Jews Ireland banned Jewish refugees and the IRA SIDED WITH THE NAZIS. Nuff said.
@ yamit82:
INSULT THE GREAT STATE OF TEXAS AMD THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS.
TED MY COMMENT TO FELIX WAS BOTTED PLS RETREIVE AND POST
@ Felix Quigley:
Jewish Aid and the Irish Potato Famine
The Great Potato Famine – the catastrophic failure of crops in Ireland spanning six years between 1845 and 1851 – caused the death of over a million people in Ireland. Amid the horrific suffering, some of Ireland’s greatest relief came from Jews around the world.
The British Jewish politician Baron Lionel de Rothschild was one of the first to help, setting up the British Relief Association to raise and distribute funds. A Dublin newspaper in 1850 pointed out that Rothschild and his family had “contributed during the Irish famine of 1847… a sum far beyond the joint contributions of the (great British families) Devonshires, and Herefords, Lansdownes, Fitzwilliams and Herberts, who annually drew so many times that amount from their Irish estates”.
Rabbis in New York came to Ireland’s aid, too, raising funds for emergency food. Official recognition of the part New York Jews played in Ireland’s national disaster finally came in 2010, when the then President of Ireland Mary McAleese visited Shearith Israel synagogue in New York’s Lower East Side, formally thanking the congregation for its generosity 153 years before.
@ Austin:
@ yamit82:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQMksI3dlCc
@ Felix Quigley:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vb3IMTJjzfo
@ yamit82:
You can insult Jesus, you can insult Jews, you can even insult Kinkey !!!!! BUT DON’T YOU BE INSULTING THE GREAT STATE OF TEXAS, boy chik !!!!!!!!
Note the Santamuerte skull and red rose on his jacket
@ yamit82:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iamk3cZI1ec
@ Austin:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESNCWrks6vQ
Austin Said:
Who ???
Austin Said:
It ain’t language, it’s attitude. I have found that Israel and Texas share the same ” in your face” attitude.
Austin Said:
Really ?????? You were expecting ??
Bear Klein Said:
I never participated, beyond my abilities.
@ Felix QuigleyMy post in 37 above basically shows in detail the Irish are anti Israel. Since you did not debate this based on your standards it must be true.
You engage in boorish over generalizations, extrapolations and proclamations about all sorts of subjects. When you then proceed to get into written pissing matches with other commentators you then cry foul when perhaps they hit you below the belt. You are not able to stay above the fray or perhaps you are looking for pissing matches when you can not convince others about Marxism. These seems to send you into endless fits of accusations. It must be extremely frustrating to be stuck in a mid 1800s political philosophy that the world has shown to be a complete failure.
Jews are not required to shout down other Jews if they act badly to justify attacking anti-Israel groups. This is a double standard which if not applied to other nations of people is not just hypocritical but antisemitic. When double standards are applied to Israel or Jews this is called Antisemitism.
I wrote in comment 29 above:
“Apart from the confused ramblings of Glick who in the 2003 Iraq war stands condemned for all time you can only fight a war if your basic principles are sound and the principles of THIS FORM OF ZIONISM are not sound. How can they be sound when a representative section such as Israpundit veers into an anti-Irish racism?”
In reply to my question…How can you win the Irish to love Zionism if you hate them?
Yanit82 answered:
Don’t want their love, don’t care even.
Who gives a fiddle what the stupid ‘MICKS’ think about us????
They are an inconsequential country inhabited by mostly stupid bigoted drunks.
It is obvious that until every single person on Israpundit denounces in the strongest terms this anti-Irish filth racism they also are racists against the Irish people.
Spoken like a true bigot, an anti-Irish bigot the Orange Men would be proud of such utterance by Israpundit’s very own hatchet man Yamit82.
Supported so far by every single one of the regular commenters of Israpundit and in this case silence equals assent with said horror racism against the Irish
Now as I see it you also are all on Israpundit opposed to Martin Sherman. For this reason … If he is successful and Israel votes to spend a billion or 1% of GDP as he asks then of what use would that billion be with anti-Irish racist views such as held by Yamit82.
If that problem that I have so expertly drawn out and displayed better Martin Sherman to retract your policy and not spend a penny because the money would be totally wasted.
In other words you cannot go into Ireland or any other equivalent country spouting anti-Irish RACIST views and change a single thing.
Result of this anti-Irish racism … BDS and IPSC as well as others like the Hierarchy will win without a shot being fired.