Ha'aretz is the Nakba - by Victor Rosenthal

I would like to understand what Schocken, Levy, and the others see when they stand in front of the mirror. After all, they are Israelis too. Does this cause them to feel the “shame” that they want all of us to feel? Or do they see themselves as courageous fighters for the “truth,” which is that Israelis are murderers and Arabs saintly victims? It’s the latter, of course. They are not “self-hating” Jews, because they clearly love and value themselves. It’s just the Jewish people that they hate.

Victor Rosenthal..
Abu Yehuda..
11 July '19..
Link: http://abuyehuda.com/2019/07/the-nakba-that-is-haaretz/




One who becomes compassionate instead of cruel, will ultimately become cruel instead of compassionate…
Midrash Kohelet Rabba (a discussion of this is here)

The lead editorial in Ha’aretz today is headlined “The Nakba isn’t Going Away,” and it touts a longer article by investigative journalist Hagar Shezaf published last week, about how Defense Ministry personnel have collected and sealed documents that describe the alleged expulsion and other ill-treatment of Arabs at the time of Israel’s War of Independence and afterwards.

The editorial accuses Israel of “expulsion, looting, murder and rape” in 1948. There is no doubt that some of these things did occur, although it is also true that we were far kinder to the Arabs than they would have been to us if they had won. I don’t object to the publication of such facts, although Ha’aretz has a tendency to exaggerate the extent and cruelty of our deeds and to accept the narrative of our enemies uncritically. What I do violently object to is their attribution of moral guilt and demand for some kind of accounting for it toward the Palestinians.

The editorial concludes:

Israel at age 71 is strong enough to address the moral failings of its past. The Nakba won’t go away. It’s still there in the landscape, in the rows of pear cactus of the abandoned villages, in the many arched houses of Jaffa and Haifa, and in the memory of the Palestinian community in Israel, and in the territories and across the border.

Instead of censoring and concealing things, the history of Israel’s establishment and the Palestinian society that was uprooted should be studied and taught. Commemoration signs should be put up at the sites of destroyed villages, and the moral dilemmas that have accompanied Israel since 1948 should be faced. Such recognition won’t resolve the conflict, but it will place dialogue between Jews and Palestinians in Israel on a foundation of truth instead of lies, shame and concealment.

No, this is absolutely not what “should” happen. Israel was born in war, a war that was forced on it by Arabs who couldn’t abide Jewish sovereignty, and who planned – in the words of Abdul Rahman Azzam, Secretary-General of the Arab League – “a war of extermination and momentous massacre which will be spoken of like the Mongolian massacre and the Crusades.” A pity, for the Ha’aretz editorial board, that we won the war and now have “moral failings” to address as a result. But we did, and there is no reason to be apologetic about it, or to get nostalgic over the losses of our enemies, who, incidentally, have not stopped murdering us whenever the opportunity presents itself.

Perhaps they wouldn’t be murdering us today if we had followed the same policy in 1967 that the Jordanians did when they conquered Judea/Samaria and part of Jerusalem in 1948. Every single Jew living in areas under their control was forced to leave at gunpoint. Some were murdered. Synagogues were destroyed, gravestones uprooted, and not a trace of the former Jewish inhabitants was allowed to remain. Did newspapers in Jordan call for a “dialogue” or agonize about their “moral failures?” To ask the question is to answer it.

Dear Gideon Levy, You are spreading lies about me - by Sherri Mandell

Look at how we 'settlers' who have lost children to terror memorialize them, and rethink your claim of our so-called insatiable 'lust for revenge'

Sherri Mandell..
TOI/Blog..
17 December '18..

Dear Gideon Levy,

After the Ish-Ran family was seriously wounded, after the baby had to be delivered prematurely and later died, after the baby’s parents had to miss the funeral because they were in the hospital recovering from their wounds, you wrote that you have no sympathy for the settlers, that their tragedy is not yours. Then you added that “the settlers’ lust for revenge is never satisfied. How is it possible to identify with the grief of people who behave like that?”

You don’t have to grieve with the Ish-Rans or mourn with me or others like me or even feel anything for us. But please don’t spread lies about us. Don’t pretend that you know me. Or others like me.

Don’t tell me that because I am a settler I have a lust for revenge. Our son Koby was 13 when he was murdered by terrorists in 2001. I know it won’t matter to you that he and his friend, Yosef Ish-Ran, were in eighth grade when they cut school, went out hiking and, were met by terrorists who beat them to death with stones. Because they were Jews.

(Continue to Full Post)

Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work. 

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Some thoughts, a few words about Gideon Levy - by Vic Rosenthal

...Technically, I could do what Gideon Levy does and even get paid for it. There is a market, a big one, for Jewish writers that are prepared to join the crusade against the Jewish state. The Jewish crusaders are the ones that write with the most venom. They are the ones that hate the most, as much or more than Arabs and Muslims. And they are the ones that are published in the mainstream media or are interviewed on television.
But...

Gideon Levy

Vic Rosenthal..
Abu Yehuda..
03 July '18..
Link: http://abuyehuda.com/2018/07/a-few-words-about-gideon-levy/

I’m a political writer. I put words together into arguments, structures that I hope will be persuasive, or at least encouraging to people who already share my point of view. I often wonder if my skills could be put to work for the other side, like Gideon Levy of Ha’aretz, about whom I’ve written that he gets up every morning and asks “how can I hurt the state of Israel?”

Oh, he claims that this isn’t what he does. He claims that he is objectively documenting the abuse and oppression of the Palestinians, which he attributes to our moral depravity.

He and his admirers, including his publisher Amos Schocken, see him as courageous, a hero fighting against an evil machine on behalf of its powerless victims. They believe that he is a force for good. They believe that his enterprise is to make ordinary Israelis (and foreigners who read Ha’aretz’s English edition on the web) understand what is being done in their name, and that once this happens they will take the appropriate steps to end “the occupation,” the Palestinians will be freed from their oppression, and there will be peace and justice in the land.

Levy is a wonderful rationalizer. He has an answer for everything. He only wants justice for everyone in “Palestine,” not just Jews. He even believes in Zionism, meaning “the Jewish people having the right to live in Palestine side by side with the Palestinians, doing anything possible to compensate the Palestinians for the terrible tragedy that they went through in 1948.” Levy’s Palestinians never have choices to make that could change their situation, they never initiate anything, they only respond. He fails to detect any moral failings on their part; if they display cruelty or viciousness, it is in reaction to the abuse they receive from us. Nothing is their fault.

He even wrote a column in 2013 explicitly calling for a violent Arab uprising to overthrow the state, which would then become “an Israel that isn’t an occupier, that is just and egalitarian … a different and infinitely better place to live.”

But I wonder about the last part. I suspect Levy understands quite well what Palestinians think ending “the occupation” is, and that if they get their – and his – wish, the 70-year experiment with Jewish sovereignty will be over. He cannot fail to understand this.

Monsters and a very incomplete list of children used as human shields in Gaza - by Elder of Ziyon

...Gideon Levy isn't crying about what sort of society would do such a monstrous thing. Because he doesn't really care about the dead children. He wants to do what Hamas does - use them as a weapon against Israel. Just like B'Tselem. Just like Amnesty. Just like Human Rights Watch. Which means that it is Gideon Levy and these NGOs who are the real monsters for not saying a word about - or worse, exonerating - Hamas and other Gaza armed groups for literally using their children as weapons in war.

Elder of Ziyon..
28 July '16..

Gideon Levy is outraged at Israelis:

One hundred and eighty babies and children up to the age of 5. One hundred and eighty helpless babies and toddlers that the Israel Defense Forces killed in Gaza in the 2014 Israel-Gaza conflict. In their sleep, in their play, as they fled; in their beds or in their parents’ arms.
Try to imagine – the army killed 546 children in the course of 50 days. More than 10 children a day, a classroom every three days. Try to imagine.
But these updated, verified figures, released by the B’Tselem NGO on the second anniversary of the killing, are hard to imagine. It’s easier to dismiss them with a shrug, a look in the other direction or the lame excuses of Israeli propaganda.
The figures that should have haunted Israeli society and keep it awake at night – that should have sparked a stormy public debate and shaken it– are of no interest at all. Any natural disaster at the end of the world would have evoked more human feelings here than this slaughter, which Israel committed an hour’s drive from Tel Aviv.

As usual, Levy is only telling a small part of the story.

Because most of these innocent children were human shields. It is Palestinian society which is so sick as to willingly put their own children (and many other family members) at risk in the hopes that Israel would not attack their terrorist relatives.

(Continue to Full Post)

Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work. 

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An Open Letter to Gideon Levy - by Paula Stern

...I know that the soldiers will mature, will go on to live productive lives, marry, have children and always remember that they are alive today because they didn’t listen to self-hating Jews who were ready to plan their funerals. Those soldiers will be strong and good citizens of our country. They will dedicate their lives to protecting this land and hoping that someday that strong stand will lead to a meaningful and real peace agreement. I can only wish that we could say the same about you.

Paula R. Stern..
A Soldier's Mother..
08 July '16..

Some background for those of you who don't know (probably most of the world). Gideon Levy has been writing for Haaretz for over 30 years, he is a bastion of the Israel left, valiantly rushing to defend the poor Palestinian agenda against all facts and truths. He is, what many of us term, a "self-hating Jew." Before I begin my letter, I’d like to take a second what that means. A self-hating person is someone who acts to harm himself, believing he is beneath contempt, without value or self-esteem. A self-hating Jew, however, is typically not so much concerned with bettering himself as ensuring that others live up to standards that are not only beyond the norm, but also self-defeating. A person who has a gun in their hands and is attacked by someone wielding a machete has little choice. Die or kill. A self-hating Jew will offer to arrange the funeral. The execution will take place, regardless of what choice the person takes. If they choose to die, the funeral will be physical and attended by many human rights activists, financed by the likes of George Soros, and hailed by the Obama administration.

If the Jew decides to use the gun, there will still be a funeral. This time, it will be in the media, attended by a world that would more than likely have used a bomb to kill the attacker, rather than only the gun that was in their hands. Gideon Levy, of course, decided to comment on a news story that touched me personally this week. A female terrorist attempted to stab two soldiers at a bus stop in the area where my son's unit is now stationed. The attack, in its entirety, was videotaped on a car camera as the driver saw the attack and pulled to the side. The camera rolls and documents. There is no excuse, no question that this was clearly a terror attack and the soldiers acted in their own defense and that of any innocent civilian in the area (there were, though they do not appear on the video). Gideon's attempt to twist what was there can be read here (wow, do I hate to link to Haaretz). From the misleading title onward, Levy attempts to spin the tail. He fails miserably, as his paper usually does. Here's why:


An Open Letter to Gideon Levy,

Dear Gideon,

It’s hard to write to you without wondering if I’ll have to cleanse my keyboard and computer; whether it will forever be tainted by having wasted this time and effort. This week, we were provided with the perfect scenario. Every soldier’s mother’s nightmare and every advocates dream. The video was very clear. The soldiers did not attack Jamila Jabbar, who wished to martyr herself on Allah’s bed of hatred. Jabbar attacked them.

The video is so amazingly clear, I’m surprised you didn’t take the more obvious option of claiming it was staged. Yes, Jabbar approaches the soldiers slowly. By her actions, we are all pretty sure slow is a good description not only for the pace she walks, but her mental capacity as well.

The soldiers back away from her. Even you…wow, even you admit the soldiers did all in their power to avoid the very confrontation she demanded. They backed away, calling to her to stop. She continued. And then, you contradict yourself. “In the blink of an eye”? Well, Gideon, if there was enough time for her to advance several meters, for the soldiers to react and pull back…clearly, that eye was doing more than blinking.

(Continue to Full Letter)

Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work. 
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A missed geography lesson. They haven’t noticed that Israel is located in the Middle East.

...The usual suspects, like Gideon Levy, think that the soldier (and the country) are “monsters.” They are wrong. They are making a mistake in geography. They haven’t noticed that Israel is located in the Middle East; or, having noticed, they would prefer it to be elsewhere, like Europe. But you see how well that has worked out for Europe!

Vic Rosenthal..
Abu Yehuda..
03 April '16..
Link: http://abuyehuda.com/2016/04/a-geography-lesson/

There is a groundswell of support in Israel for the soldier that shot a ‘neutralized’ terrorist as he lay on the ground. Although he has been arrested and may be tried for manslaughter or at least violating rules of engagement, the spirit of the country is with him.

The usual suspects, like Gideon Levy, think that the soldier (and the country) are “monsters.” They are wrong. They are making a mistake in geography. They haven’t noticed that Israel is located in the Middle East; or, having noticed, they would prefer it to be elsewhere, like Europe. But you see how well that has worked out for Europe!

Liberal American Jews make a similar mistake. They would like Israel to be in California. I don’t think that would work out so well, either.

Israel is a Middle-Eastern country. An exceptional one, with highly advanced science and technology and a decent economy and a relatively free and democratic system of governance. But Middle-Eastern nevertheless.

I don’t know why Levy and his ilk are so surprised. Half of the population has recent roots in Arab countries. Our religion and ethical principles developed here, even though they took something from the years of Diaspora. Since before the founding of our state, our neighbors have been teaching us about life in the Middle East the hard way.

Looking beyond the BBC’s trite and facile portrayal of Gush Etzion

...Unlike Gideon Levy, the BBC is obliged to provide its funding public with journalism which will enhance their “awareness and understanding of international issues”. The repeated promotion of the trite and facile narrative of ‘occupied land’ not only obviously defeats that object and hampers the ability of its audiences to reach informed opinions on the topic but also denies them insight into the complex and fascinating history of land purchased by Jews nearly a century ago, conquered by Jordan and then regained by Israel.

Hadar Sela..
BBC Watch..
07 March '16..

On February 25th the BBC News website produced an article which described a terror attack as having taken place “in the occupied West Bank” and went on to state:

“Gush Etzion, a bloc of Jewish settlements located between Jerusalem and Hebron, has been one of the focal points of a five-month surge in violence between Israelis and Palestinians.”

There is of course nothing novel about that portrayal of Gush Etzion as being located on “occupied” land and neither is the BBC’s presentation much different from the general trend seen in much of the Western media – or indeed some Israeli media outlets.

Last week Gideon Levy of Ha’aretz produced an article in which he described Gush Etzion Junction as having been “built forcibly on their [Palestinian] land”. That article – and that sentence in particular – prompted a response from Professor Asa Kasher on Facebook.

(Read Full Post)

Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work as well as a big vote to follow our good friend Kay Wilson on Twitter.

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Spreading His Anti-Israel Poison Abroad. Any Guesses?

Haaretz journalist Gideon Levy is a fringe radical who justifies terrorism, dismisses Palestinian genocidal rhetoric, promotes BDS and dreams of a one-state solution rather than a Jewish state. Having recently completed a cross-Canada speaking tour sponsored by a Canadian BDS organization and interviews on Canadian radio, Levy is an example of how Haaretz and its radical ideologues poison the public discourse by demonizing Israel.

Ricki Hollander..
CAMERA Media Analyses..
17 April '15..

The Israeli daily newspaper Haaretz has a minimal following in Israel. According to a recent Target Group Index (TGI) survey, Haaretz‘s readership amounted to only 5.8% of the news market. And even this minimal share is higher than it was last summer during the IDF's Operation Protective Edge to stop Hamas rocket fire. At that time, numbers were even lower due to a slew of cancellations that were prompted by columnist Gideon Levy's Op-Ed demonizing Israeli pilots for carrying out their military orders. The fact is, most Israelis recognize Haaretz for what it is, namely, an ideological newspaper with a far-left editorial policy that often appears more interested in advocacy than in objective news gathering.

Gideon Levy serves on Haaretz's editorial board, penning a weekly column, "Twilight Zone," as well as political editorials for the newspaper. He is known in Israel as an acrimonious, anti-Israel ideologue and activist, recently arrested for spitting and cursing at IDF soldiers, and who often invents his own facts to support his radical agenda. His fan base consists primarily of fellow Israel haters and activists, while mainstream Israelis and journalists dismiss him as a dishonest propagandist. (See, for example, "Colleague Takes Gideon Levy to Task" and "Former Editor Marmari Speaks Out On ‘Apartheid' Poll Scandal", as well as here .)

(Continue Reading)

Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work as well as a big vote to follow our good friend Kay Wilson on Twitter, 
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When Ex-Haaretz Readers Walk Out of Publisher's Event

...As members of the agitated audience left the room, those remaining heckled Schocken who admonished: "You were Haaretz subscribers, you can be ‘Haaretz unsubscribers’ but we can still talk like civilized people." The diminished crowd grew increasingly hostile as the publisher argued that Levy was had been proven right when he wrote a similar article in the past. Finally, Schocken gave up on the possibility of convincing many to renew their subscriptions, and the former Haaretz readers left the room.

A column by Gideon
Levy's during the
war led to a mass
cancellation

Gidon Shaviv..
CAMERA Snapshots..
21 September '14..

Last Friday (Sept. 12), Haaretz publisher Amos Schocken hosted an unusual meeting with more than 100 Israelis out of a reported total of 600 subscribers who recently cancelled their subscription to the daily paper. The mass cancellation was widely regarded by the Israeli media as a response to a July opinion piece by Haaretz columnist Gideon Levy attacking the morality of Israeli pilots participating in Operation Protective Edge:

I would like to meet the pilot or the operator of the drone who pushed the death button. How do you sleep at night, pilot? Did you see the pictures of the death and destruction you sowed – on television, and not just in the crosshairs? Did you see the crushed bodies, the bleeding wounded, the frightened children, the horrified women and the terrible destruction you sowed from your sophisticated plane? It’s all your doing, you excellent young man.

The Seventh Eye, an Israeli media watchdog, published a detailed account of the meeting, which ended in a mass walkout by the audience.

Things started smoothly enough, with the crowd granting a warm reception to both Schocken and Haaretz Editor Aluf Benn as the two described the paper's liberal policy. Benn reassured: "We are not the United Nations, we are Israelis, we live within Israeli society, and as such we covered the events that happened to the Israeli side."

Things quickly unraveled, however, once the floor was opened to questions from the audience. The Seventh Eye reported:

Zuzovsky says he was a Haaretz subscriber for a total of 60 years, and had canceled his subscription twice – both times because of Gideon Levy. His wife, Zuzovsky said, was the widow of an Air Force pilot, and he cannot bring home a newspaper comparing her grandchildren's grandfather to murderers.

The "Seventh Eye" describes how the atmosphere in the meeting slowly devolved from a high cultured social tête-à-tête to a no holds barred tit-for-tat:

The exchanges with the publisher shattered any sense of hierarchy in the room. “No one canceled his subscription because of Nehemia Strassler,” [a Haaretz economics writer] shouted someone in the hall. “Yes!” screamed other members of the audience [in agreement]. “There were those,” says Schocken. “There were not! None!” one shouted back.” “Let's try to keep the order," pleaded Schocken.

The Ever Evolving World of Gaza Conspiracy Tales

...I think we should draw up a list of the conspiracy tales radical/progressives, liberals, dupes, Hamas fellow-travelers and anti-Zionists (anti-Semites we can ignore) create and promote...Do you have any to add?

Yisrael Medad..
My Right Word..
12 August '14..

I think we should draw up a list of the conspiracy tales radical/progressives, liberals, dupes, Hamas fellow-travelers and anti-Zionists (anti-Semites we can ignore) create and promote. There is also Peter Beinart's list of myths but that only counts as one as he claims "establishment" Jews made it up as well as Barghouti's list and also Aaron David Miller's list of five.

There was the one about how Hamas wasn't involved directly in the kidnapping of the three teenagers in June.

Yesterday Jon Donnison of the BBC pulled the rug out from under the Israeli government’s pretext for the Gaza onslaught with a series of tweets about a conversation he’d had with Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld about the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teens in the West Bank in June. The boys were not killed by Hamas, Rosenfeld told Donnison, as he reported on Twitter:

That spun out to the next one, that Israel exploited Hamas' alleged uninvolvement to invade Gaza or this version:

Netanyahu exploited their kidnapping to achieve a political objective against Hamas and to undermine the recently inked unity deal between the two Palestinian rival factions, Hamas and Fatah (which was also a possible goal of those who carried out the kidnapping).

And 'better' stated here:

...it was soon clear that the Netanyahu government was actually using its incursions to try to stabilize the Palestinian Authority, by removing any challenge from Hamas activists in the West Bank and containing them in the Gaza Strip. It swiftly emerged that military, police and intelligence operations in the West Bank were exploiting the kidnappings as an opportunity for a kind of housecleaning operation in the West Bank of Hamas leadership and resources—bombing supposed headquarters, detaining and questioning activists and their families and rounding up previously released political prisoners.

Next was the real reason for invading Gaza wasn't just to kill Gazans, as Gideon Levy claimed,

Who Else? Haaretz Portrays Judaism as the Obstacle to Peace

...Doubtless, Burg’s message will resonate with those who, in another era, would have warmly endorsed Karl Marx’s maxim that “the emancipation of the Jews is the emancipation of mankind from Judaism.” The fact that we are still having this same conversation is precisely what should alarm us.

Ben Cohen..
Commentary Magazine..
07 July '14..

Israel’s Haaretz newspaper will tomorrow (today) host the grandly-named “Israel Conference on Peace” in Tel Aviv. In a crammed schedule across twelve hours, an intriguing array of speakers–Israelis, Arabs, Europeans, and Americans, left-wingers and right-wingers–will address economic development, human rights, access to water, the prospects for a diplomatic breakthrough, and other critical aspects of this particular Middle Eastern conflict.

As is often the case with such events, one can tell a great deal about the nature of this conference through what’s not being discussed, as well as who isn’t in attendance. Despite Israel’s location in one of the most violent and illiberal regions of the world, the conference does not deem the threat posed by Iran’s nuclear program, or the conquest of vast swathes of Syria and Iraq by the Islamists of ISIS, as worthy of a separate session–evidently, all that is secondary to the fate of the Palestinians. However, since two prominent Palestinian leaders, Palestinian Authority negotiator Saeb Erekat and businessman Munib al Masri, have already pulled out of the conference, citing as a reason “respect” for the “feelings of the Palestinian people” in the light of “the developments of the last few days,” one might legitimately wonder whether the Palestinians share the conviction of the Israeli left that in times of crisis, dialogue is of paramount importance.

Yet to portray this conference as a dialogue between Israelis and Palestinians–as UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon does, in an op-ed that praises “Israeli civil society” for “its vibrancy in speaking out against incitement,” while ignoring the integral role that incitement plays in the articulation of Palestinian goals­–rather misses the point. There is another agenda here, one that centers upon promoting the idea among Jews that racism and bigotry are inherent in the notion of a “Jewish state.”

That is why, in the collection of articles assembled by Haaretz to accompany the conference, you will find Gideon Levy, one of the paper’s resident anti-Zionists, declaring preposterously that “a Jewish state means a racist, nationalistic state, meant for Jews only.” You will find an official Haaretz editorial insisting that the murderers of the Palestinian teenager, Mohammed Abu Khdeir, are the “descendants and builders of a culture of hate and vengeance that is nurtured and fertilized by the guides of ‘the Jewish state.’” And you will find a longer meditation on the same theme by Avraham Burg, the scion of a leading Zionist family and the former Speaker of the Knesset, who concludes that the root of Israel’s problem lies (as he describes it) in the anti-gentile culture that distinguishes the Jewish faith.

To anyone familiar with the historical trajectory of anti-Zionism, this linkage between an antagonism towards non-Jews that is underscored by Jewish religious beliefs with the very existence of a Jewish state is nothing new. In “Judaism Without Embellishment,” a notorious anti-Semitic screed published by the Soviet Union in 1963, Trofim Kichko asserted that “all of Judaic ideology is impregnated with narrow practicality, with greed, the love of money, and the spirit of egoism.” The Jewish state, Kichko went on, expresses these values through its discrimination against non-Jews.

Kidnapping, Terror and the Truth About the Middle East

...It has become commonplace to find anti-Zionist rants in Haaretz’s pages but the notion of treating the captivity of Palestinians who have Israeli blood on their hands as morally equivalent to the kidnapping of children breaks new ground even for that intellectually bankrupt exercise in journalism.

Jonathan S. Tobin..
Commentary Magazine..
16 June '14..

For decades, even many friends of Israel have tamely accepted the idea that Israel’s presence in the West Bank is, in and of itself, a crime against the Palestinians. Thus, it is hardly remarkable that the mainstream media’s discussion of the kidnapping of three Jewish teenagers in the West Bank is being conducted from a frame of reference that views Palestinian terrorism as an understandable, if regrettable result of Israeli provocations. As Seth noted earlier, that was the clear upshot of a New York Times article about Israeli efforts to find the kidnapping victims. It is also a constant refrain on social media where the teens have been blasted not only for their poor judgment in hitchhiking in an area where attacks on Jews have been frequent but in the very idea that in some way Palestinian violence is justified.

That was the conceit of a particularly outrageous article published yesterday in Haaretz by columnist Gideon Levy in which this leftist extremist said the crime was the natural result of Israeli policy on settlements as well the country’s reluctance to release imprisoned terrorists. It has become commonplace to find anti-Zionist rants in Haaretz’s pages but the notion of treating the captivity of Palestinians who have Israeli blood on their hands as morally equivalent to the kidnapping of children breaks new ground even for that intellectually bankrupt exercise in journalism. While it would be easy to dismiss Levy as an outlier, his callous dismissal of Palestinian terror as merely Israel’s due is very much representative of much of the commentary that is published internationally about the peace process. But in a strange way, Levy got it right when he wrote the following:

If the Gaza Strip doesn’t fire Qassam rockets at Israel, the Gaza Strip doesn’t exist. And if, in the West Bank, yeshiva students aren’t abducted, then the West Bank disappears from Israel’s consciousness.

Levy believes such that such efforts are justified because he claims Israelis have blocked all other paths for the Palestinians except violence. This is, to put it bluntly, a lie. It is the Palestinian Arabs who have consistently and repeatedly rejected offers of peace and statehood from the United Nations partition resolution of 1947 through the Palestinian Authority’s four “no’s” over the last 15 years. But where Levy is right is when he writes of the Palestinians seeing their existence as inextricably tied to the war against Israel. Palestinian national identity has become inextricably tied to terror, whether in the form of missile barrages, kidnappings, or suicide bombings aimed at maiming and killing as many Jews as possible.

Zionism, moral and necessary - Gideon Levy, Haaretz, the opposite

...Not only is a Zionist state morally acceptable, it is necessary: in the case of some ethnic groups, particularly the Jews, the world’s nations have historically denied their civil rights. One of the driving forces of Zionism has been the unhappy fact that Jewish rights cannot be guaranteed except in the framework of a Jewish state, one whose reason for being is in part to ensure that these rights will always be preserved.

Fresnozionism.org..
18 March '14..





Gideon Levy of Ha’aretz, like Abbas Zaki of Fatah, comes out and says what he thinks, no matter how ugly. Here he asserts that Zionism is Naziism:

This kind of talk could only take place in darkness; in beer cellars, at violent fringe demonstrations or at the headquarters of outlawed organizations. Only the extreme, fascist, neo-Nazi, anti-Semitic and xenophobic right would dare to breathe a word of it. Only skinheads and their masters would dare to speak of national purity and of defining their country based on ethnicity, religion, race, nationality or heredity.

No one would dare to say France for the French, America is all-American, Germany is a German state or Italy is a Catholic one. Anyone who did so wouldn’t be considered credible. These countries are democracies of all their citizens; their character is determined by the components of the entire population. Living in each are minorities, their numbers growing in this era of globalization and migration. No one speaks of a nation-state, of a state of one religion, of one racial group. …

This time it’s not the goyim’s fault, it’s Israel that yearns to live in a ghetto. It’s an old-new obsession, and history laughs its bitter laugh. The new Jews, the Israelis, embrace the methods and the standards of the Nazis, may their name and memory be erased. The Israelis check their bloodlines and then put them in a ghetto. …

It’s “no entry” to Middle Eastern culture, to Arab art and history, to African asylum seekers, to anyone who isn’t a Jew. Every Israeli knows the mantra “a Jewish state,” but it’s doubtful anyone knows what it means. Is it a halakha state run in accordance with Jewish law? Is it a theocracy with no civil marriages, no public transportation on the Sabbath and a mezuzah on nearly every doorpost?

That’s a Jewish state. And would Israel be non-Jewish without these traditions? Would it be non-Jewish with 50,000 asylum seekers and Jewish without them? We haven’t yet decided whether Judaism is a religion or a nationality, or even who is a Jew. The main thing is that we want a Jewish state, the kind Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will recognize forever.

Some of my correspondents think I shouldn’t waste time on such as Levy. But he raises some issues that are highly relevant to today’s diplomacy in a clear way (and he’s just as clearly wrong about them).

He asserts, first, that nationalism must be fascism. This is a poor argument which depends on a conflation between civil rights and national expression. Full civil rights for minorities — voting and representation, all state economic benefits, the same degree of freedom of speech, religion, assembly, etc. as the majority, are generally recognized as something a national government is required to provide. National expression — a flag, a national anthem, even a dedication to the preservation of a particular group and its culture, is not necessary for life and is not automatically due to everyone in a diverse society.

The Nazis, of course, systematically deprived Jews and other ‘undesirable’ groups of their civil rights, including the right to life. Israel, on the other hand, is committed to providing full civil rights to all of its citizens, while it defines itself as the state of the Jewish people. The difference is immense.

Can You Imagine? Press Council: Gideon Levy Must Apologize

...It said that Levy had broken the code of ethics that requires a journalist to check facts, to be accurate, and to refrain from referring to the ethnic backgrounds of people unless it is relevant to the subject. Likewise, Haaretz itself should have verified the article’s content and its accuracy, the council asserted.

TS..
CAMERA Snapshots..
17 November '13..

Times of Israel reports:

The Israel Press Council reprimanded the Haaretz newspaper and its columnist Gideon Levy for an opinion piece earlier this year in which Levy suggested that a former border policeman had learned from his service dealing with Palestinians that “killing innocent civilians can go unpunished” and as a result shot dead four people in a Beersheba bank.

The tribunal demanded that both Levy and Haaretz issue an apology, Haaretz reported on Thursday. . . .

The Israel Police lodged a complaint with the Press Council after the opinion piece was published. In its decision, the council rejected a claim by Haaretz and Levy that the article was an acceptable expression of opinion and should therefore be allowed.

It said that Levy had broken the code of ethics that requires a journalist to check facts, to be accurate, and to refrain from referring to the ethnic backgrounds of people unless it is relevant to the subject. Likewise, Haaretz itself should have verified the article’s content and its accuracy, the council asserted.

As an example, it noted that Alon, the shooter, had only served in the Border Police for one year in 1995-1996, that during that time he conducted joint patrols with Palestinian security forces, and that he had not been involved in any incidents that could be construed as causing him to commit the assault in the bank 17 years later. Likewise, there was no basis for the claim that in the Border Police Alon learned to “kill innocent civilians without being punished,” the council concluded.

For more on Gideon Levy's shoddy journalism, please see here.

Link: http://blog.camera.org/archives/2013/11/press_council_gideon_levy_must.html

Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Check-it out! 
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Will the Boycott Also Apply to Israel's King of Slanderers?

...For years, Levy has been dining out as the go-to Israeli for Europeans in search of an authentic voice to denounce the Jewish State. No one has been a more reliable expositor of their preconceptions than Levy, who can always be counted upon to tell readers just how monstrous and racist his fellow Jews are.

James Kirchick..
Haaretz..
16 July '13..

“Anyone who really fears for the future of the country needs to be in favor at this point of boycotting it economically,” Gideon Levy wrote in these pages over the weekend.

I have a question for Levy, the self-appointed conscience of the State of Israel: Will the boycott apply to you?

For years, Levy has been dining out as the go-to Israeli for Europeans in search of an authentic voice to denounce the Jewish State. No one has been a more reliable expositor of their preconceptions than Levy, who can always be counted upon to tell readers just how monstrous and racist his fellow Jews are.

Yet, presumably under the full-scale boycott Levy champions, he would not be permitted to step foot in the very same European countries that have showered him with prizes and speaking engagements. He would not be able to bask in the praise of figures like the disgraced former columnist for the United Kingdom’s Independent newspaper Johann Hari, who, in addition to lauding Levy as “heroic,” ruminates on how Israel “discreetly ignores the smell of her own stale shit.” Boycotts, by definition, do not allow for exceptions, even for self-righteous left-wingers who consider themselves above their fellow citizens, “too brainwashed with nationalism to come to their senses.”

Levy dispenses with a limited boycott of the settlements – a path advocated by that other great friend of Israel Peter Beinart – in favor of boycotting the Jewish state itself. “All of Israel is immersed in the settlement enterprise, so all of Israel must take responsibility for it and pay the price for it,” Levy declares. “We are all settlers.”

Democratic allies tend not to boycott one another as a method of persuasion. That is the sort of measure reserved for dictatorships; countries that are ruled by a clique, not a polity. So the notion that Europe, never mind the United States, would institute a boycott against the Jewish State - with all of the fraught moral issues such a selective act would conjure - is remote. (Actually, not so remote at all. Y)

Gideon Levy, Still Crazy After All These Years

Elder of Ziyon..
07 July '13..

Gideon Levy, one of the most self-loathing people on the planet, does it again in Haaretz (Hebrew only so far):

One day the Palestinian people will rise up against their occupiers. I hope this day comes soon.

It’s true that this scenario seems unrealistic right now. The Palestinians are still bleeding from the second intifada, which only brought disaster upon them (and the Israelis). They are divided and torn, with no real leadership and lacking a fighting spirit, and the world has tired of their distress. The Israeli occupation seems as strong and established as ever, the settlements are growing, and the military is in complete control, with all the world’s governments silent and indifferent.

On the other hand, it is impossible to imagine that this scenario will not materialize. To our south, the Egyptian people are struggling over the nature of their regime, in a way that can only inspire awe. To the north, the Syrian people are also doing this, albeit in a much crueler fashion. Could it be that only the Palestinian people will forever bow their heads, submissively and obediently, to the Israeli jackboot? Don't make the minister of history laugh.

(Continue)

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Gideon Levy, dream on – but don’t inflict your nightmare on us

Gideon Levy’s dream is the triumph of hope over experience. The 650,000 Jews ( Sephardi and Mizrahi) who sought a haven in Israel and now form a 52 percent Jewish majority – some 300,000 others went to the West – did not escape violence and repression in Arab states in order to find themselves once more under Arab-Muslim dominion. Been there for 14 centuries, done that, got the blood-stained T-shirt.

Lyn Julius..
Times of Israel..
28 April '13..




Gideon Levy may be the most hated man in Israel, or the most heroic, but the controversial Haaretz columnist has a dream. Recently, he expressed his enthusiasm for turning Israel into ‘one just state for two peoples.’

One state for two peoples? It has already existed for a while now. More than two peoples live in it – Jews and Arabs; ultra-Orthodox Jews; religious Zionist and secular Jews; Jews of Middle-Eastern descent and Jews of European descent; settlers and Palestinians. (…) This, though, is how an imaginary, just state would appear: It would grant everyone the right to vote, and have a democratic constitution that would protect the rights of all communities and minorities – including an immigration policy like that of all other nations.Such a state would have a legislature that would reflect the mosaic of the country, and an elected government formed by a coalition of the communities and the two peoples’ representatives. Yes, a Jewish prime minister with an Arab deputy, or vice versa.

Levy’s Utopian ‘state of all its citizens’ will replace Zionism with ‘something infinitely more just and sustainable.’ In his dream, the lion will lie down with the lamb and all threats will dissipate. Foreign aid will flood into this cross-confessional nirvana.

One can assume that ‘an immigration policy like all other nations’ will not privilege Jews over Arabs. Very quickly, Arabs would become a majority, Hatikva would cease to be the national anthem, and the Jews will be forced to give up their national state.

Levy’s solution has already been tried. It has failed. Lebanon was a mosaic state, but following a bloody civil war, it is little more than a precarious collection of quarreling sects on the edge of another precipice. The Maronite Christians have become a beleaguered minority, prefiguring what will happen to the Jews of Israel. Who said the definition of insanity is proposing the same solution but expecting different results every time?

Gideon Levy’s dream is the triumph of hope over experience. The 650,000 Jews ( Sephardi and Mizrahi) who sought a haven in Israel and now form a 52 percent Jewish majority – some 300,000 others went to the West – did not escape violence and repression in Arab states in order to find themselves once more under Arab-Muslim dominion.

Been there for 14 centuries, done that, got the blood-stained T-shirt.

To all intents and purposes, the Arab world is now judenrein. The fewer the Jews in the Arab world, the greater the Jew-hatred.

To B’Tselem's Michaeli and Haaretz's Levy - An Open Letter

Times of Israel..







From Maurice Ostroff

April 2, 2013

Dear Sarit Michaeli and Gideon Levy

I am writing to seek your advice.

In the March 31 Jerusalem Post article “IDF releases video of Hebron kids throwing stones” you, (Ms. Michaeli) are quoted as saying

“Even if they [minors under 12] are throwing stones, they cannot be arrested.. there are other ways to deal with children that throw stones“.[emphasis added]

And Mr. Levy, there is a serious contradiction in your Haaretz article under the headline “Aged eight, wearing a Mickey Mouse sweatshirt, and placed in Israeli custody“. which first states that the arrests were made INDISCRIMINATELY and later states that when handed over to the Palestinian police and asked who had participated in the stone throwing all raised their hands in affirmative, from which it is obvious that the arrests were NOT INDISCRIMINATE

Similarly, the allegation on B’Tselem’s web site that there was mass detention of youths for unspecified suspicions is highly irresponsible and unsustainable.

More importantly, the Israelis showed due consideration to the ages of the youths. As you point out, most of the young children were released within a few hours and handed over to the Palestinian police who called the parents to come and collect them.

Not only I, but I’m sure the Israel government and the IDF would be very grateful to learn your secret about how to effectively deal with hate-indoctrinated kids who hurl rocks and stones like those thrown last Thursday at a car near Ariel, critically injuring an Israeli mother and her baby who is still fighting for her life as well as the rocks that injured another motorist on the same day near Na’alin.

I was initially alarmed when I saw the headline on B’Tselem web site “Mass arrest of Palestinian children on their way to school..” fearing that “mass” meant huge numbers but I was relieved to learn that 27 were arrested and that of these only seven were actually held for questioning, none of whom were minors and I hope you will agree that in the circumstances the description “mass arrests” by both B’Tselem and Levy is an unjustified inciting exaggeration..

Gideon Levy, Haaretz - Winner of the 2012 Dishonest Reporter:

Gideon Levy

Pesach Benson..
Honest Reporting..
17 December '12..

In a break with tradition for HonestReporting readers, this year’s Dishonest Reporter winner is not a member of the international media but someone disturbingly close to home.

It’s no secret that some of the most critical stories concerning Israel in the international press are lifted straight from the pages of Israel’s very own Haaretz newspaper, and all the more so thanks to its English language website.

While Haaretz is entitled to fulfill its role as a critical domestic judge of Israel and its government’s policies, what happened when it published a story that was — quite simply — dishonest?

Gideon Levy’s front page article ”Most Israelis support an apartheid regime in Israel,” backed by a survey, made headlines around the world:

Israeli back discrimination against Arabs: poll (Sydney Morning Herald)

Israeli poll finds majority would be in favour of ‘apartheid’ policies (The Guardian)

Israelis approve discrimination if West Bank annexed: poll (AFP)

Levy regularly demonizes the Jewish state to foreign audiences and in his own newspaper columns. He regularly goes beyond legitimate criticism of Israel, crossing red lines and allying himself with those who refer to Israel as a racist “apartheid state”, promote boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) and wish to see the very destruction of Israel.

(Continue)

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Haaretz, ‘apartheid,’ and Twitter - Progression of a lie

Gilead Ini..
Times of Israel..
11 November '12..

They say a lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes. And with communication technology like Facebook and Twitter, this has never been more true than today.

But what happens once the truth is fully dressed? What if, to take the travel analogy a bit further, the lie continues to circulate unhindered because the truth lives in an unpopular, under-served neighborhood, which discriminatory taxi drivers prefer to avoid?

This is what seemed to happen after the Israeli newspaper Haaretz published a widely criticized and inaccurate article about a public opinion poll about Israeli attitudes. Journalists on Twitter were quick to spread misinformation about the poll, but did not appear to think the facts that quickly emerged were worth sharing .

Prominent among the many problems with the Haaretz article, written by anti-Israel columnist Gideon Levy, was its outrageous and false headline: “Survey: Most Israeli Jews support apartheid regime in Israel.” As many observers quickly pointed out, the survey contained no such finding  — the headline was a complete lie.

Indeed, notwithstanding spin by the author and the false headline, which Haaretz would eventually change after conceding that it “did not accurately reflect” the survey’s findings, a reader looking through the article for evidence of a poll question about support for apartheid would find nothing at all.

(Read full "...Progression of a lie")

Link: http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/apartheid-and-ethics-on-twitter/

Gilead Ini is a senior research analyst at CAMERA, where his writing on media coverage of the Arab-Israeli conflict highlights how one-sided and inaccurate reporting can distort understanding of the Middle East

Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook.
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