The mystery of Danny Rubinstein

Maybe one of my Israeli readers can explain this to me, because I don’t get it.

Danny RubinsteinAs everyone knows, Danny Rubinstein, Ha’aretz Arab affairs editor and member of the editorial board, spoke at the viciously anti-Israel UN ‘International Conference of Civil Society in Support of Israeli-Palestinian Peace‘:

Rubinstein, speaking before 350 guests at the European Union’s Brussels parliament building, said: “Today Israel is an apartheid state with different status for four different Palestinian groups: those in Gaza, East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Israeli Palestinians,” the UN report on the conference says…

The ramifications of branding Israel as apartheid were outlined in several other sessions of the conference, which called for global sanctions and boycotts of the Jewish state. Rubinstein also spoke out in favor of recognizing Hamas’s election victory and against the “Partition Wall.” (IsraelNN)

Rubinstein, whose columns in Ha’aretz I have read with interest from time to time, is certainly of the left-wing persuasion. But he has never before shown signs of insanity.

The damage that Rubinstein has done is enormous, given his reputation and credentials. The word ‘apartheid’ — which manifestly does not apply to Israel — is code today for “treat Israel like South Africa; delegitimize it and punish it economically by boycotts and sanctions until the regime falls”. This is precisely the ‘Durban program‘ set in motion at the 2001 UN conference against racism held in Durban, South Africa.

Although some Neturei Karta lunatics also spoke at the conference (they also attended Ahmadinejad’s Holocaust denial convention) and received an ovation for saying that Zionism was antisemitism, they did not damage Israel as much as Rubinstein, because everyone knows that they are crazy and on the Arabs’ payroll.

Pro-Israel observers who attended the Brussels event — titled “International Conference of Civil Society in Support of Israeli-Palestine Peace” and held in the European Parliament — say it lived up to their worst expectations and was anything but a peace meeting.

Rubinstein shared the dais with British lawmaker Clare Short, who along with several other participants called for a boycott against Israel and said apartheid was worse in Israel than it had been in South Africa…

Speaker after speaker in Brussels decried Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians and called for action against the Jewish state. Palestinian terrorism never received a mention, according to Jewish organizations who monitored the conference, including B’nai B’rith International.

[Speaking in England at the New London synagogue] Rubinstein denied knowing anything about the U.N. committee’s bias. — (JTA)

A member of the Ha’aretz editorial board hasn’t noticed the bias against Israel among UN NGOs? And he slept through all of the presentations mentioned above?

No, it seems to me that he has internalized the point of view expressed by Israel’s critics. Apparently this is the way they talk at the cocktail parties and editorial meetings that he attends:

“People do use the word apartheid in my circles. My newspaper increasingly uses that word. This is nothing new.”

Something is really, really wrong here.

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2 Responses to “The mystery of Danny Rubinstein”

  1. Haaretz presents a wide political spectrum, Rubinstein being on the extreme wing of blindly pro-Palestinian side. Re his exceptionally revolting behavior – do not expect a justification from this party here. Explanation? Maybe he wanted to flow with the current there… He is a jerk.

  2. Shalom Freedman says:

    Rubinstein has been an advocate of the Palestinian cause for over forty years. Nothing he says or in fact nothing the editorial board of ‘Haaretz’ would say in condemnation of Israel surprises me. This is really a remarkable and shameful fact of life.’ Haaretz’ is in its features by far the best Hebrew newspaper, perhaps in a sense the only real one. That its political line and its major columnists are strongly anti- Israel( And I do not think this needs qualification) is something so outrageous, so crazy that one wonders where any trace of responsible Israeli leadership,(Within the business and media community capable of creating an alternative newspaper) is.
    Now today on the streets of Israel there is a paper funded by Sheldon Adelson ‘Israel Today’ be given away for free. I would suggest that if Mr. Adelson really cares he not give a tabloid minus paper away for free , but put some serious money on the line in hiring serious people to create an Israeli paper of substance which is objective, fair and may I daresay, pro- Israel.