Archive for February, 2010

An assault of illogic

Saturday, February 6th, 2010

The flap over Im Tirtzu’s exposé of the New Israel Fund’s (NIF) support of left-wing Israeli organizations that contributed to the slanderous Goldstone report gets bigger every day.

It’s hard to exaggerate the feelings of most Israelis about the Goldstone report, which many see as a modern-day blood libel. Even many members of the so-called ‘peace camp’ feel that the report goes too far in crediting Palestinian accusations against Israel for alleged ‘war crimes’ in Gaza, while downplaying and ignoring real crimes perpetrated by  Hamas. So when Im Tirtzu pointed out that the 16 Israeli groups that produced a large majority of the anti-IDF ‘documentation’ — most of which is clearly false — were all grantees of the NIF, there was immediate outrage against the US-based fund.

Supporters of the fund in Israel and the US struck back with an assault of illogic, red herrings, ad hominem arguments and manufactured outrage at Im Tirtzu’s advertisments, but did little to refute the content of its criticism.

For example, David Saperstein of the US Reform Movement complained that

In their twisted attribution of blame for the Goldstone Report to the NIF, these attackers are trying to delegitimize the New Israel Fund in much the same way that the Goldstone Report is being used to delegitimize Israel in the eyes of the world.  It is ironic, to say the least, that those pointing to the danger of the Goldstone Report are using the same tactics of half-truths, hyperbole and sweeping generalizations they criticize in it to delegitimize the New Israel Fund.

But Im Tirtzu did not present half-truths or generalizations about the citations in the Goldstone report. They counted them. Saperstein, like many of Im Tirtzu’s critics, claims that they left out all of the ‘good things’ that NIF grantees do. But this is beside the point, which is to show that many of the NGOs that they support do the work of Israel’s enemies. And speaking of hyperbole, the Goldstone report accused Israel of deliberate murder of a civilian population, of war crimes; this is hardly the same as an analysis of the uses to which NIF money is put.

Other critics relied on tenuous chains of guilt by association. Im Tirtzu received grants from something called the “Central Fund of Israel”. Now, follow this: the Central Fund also supports an organization called Honenu, which has provided funds for the legal defense of settlers who were (rather brutally) removed from outposts by police, for soldiers accused of harming Palestinians, and for some right-wing extremists (who nevertheless are entitled to legal representation). How this proves that Im Tirtzu is itself an extremist group, and how it has any bearing on its findings about the NIF escapes me.

They also trumpet the fact that Im Tirtzu got $100,000 from Christians United for Israel (CUFI), which has raised huge amounts of money for such things as bomb shelters in Sderot, as well as making grants to local Jewish Federations in the US to direct to Israel. CUFI is unpopular as a result of the socially conservative views of its founder, Pastor John Hagee, but its largess has been distributed mostly to noncontroversial pro-Israel causes.

Other critics claimed that Im Tirtzu’s cartoon showing Naomi Chazan wearing an unflattering rhinoceros horn was outrageous and antisemitic. This too is entirely irrelevant to their charges.

Finally, many of the attacks take the form of saying that Im Tirtzu wishes to ‘muzzle’ free speech and democratic criticism of Israeli policy. This is so absurd that it beggars description. The NIF, with its  huge resources — it received $40 million in grants from the Ford Foundation alone — and its powerful friends, like the Reform movement in America, is clearly a Goliath in media presence compared to the tiny student organization that is Im Tirtzu. But since they couldn’t refute Im Tirtzu’s facts, they chose to accuse it of “McCarthyism.”

The 16 NGOs mentioned by Im Tirtzu are Adalah, Breaking the Silence, B’Tselem, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, the Center for the Defense of the Individual, the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel, Yesh Din, [Physicians] for Human Rights [ — Israel], Gisha, Bimkom, Rabbis for Human Rights, Itach, Other Voice, New Profile, Machsom Watch and Who Profits from the Occupation.

It’s important to realize that these groups have done far more than contribute to the Goldstone report. Some of them are Israeli Arab (oops, ‘Palestinians living in Israel’) groups supposedly working for civil rights for Arab citizens but actually pushing an agenda to change Israel from a Jewish state to a bi-national “state of its citizens” with a new flag and national anthem, and in which the Arab minority would have veto power of government decisions.

Breaking the Silence is a group of former Israeli soldiers who have toured the US delivering ‘testimonies’ to the mistreatment of Palestinians by the IDF. When their more serious allegations have been investigated, they are almost always found to be based on hearsay. And even when stories of harassment are true, they are presented entirely without context, without explanations, for example, that incidents have taken place at checkpoints where Palestinian terrorists regularly try to smuggle bombs into Israel.

B’Tselem has been deeply involved in supporting the demonstrations against the security barrier in the villages off Bi’ilin and Ni’ilin, in which Palestinians, left-wing Israeli extremists and international supporters attempt to destroy the barrier and to provoke police and soldiers protecting it.

NGO monitor, anything but ‘extremist’, summarized the way the NIF uses its huge resources:

NIF-funded NGOs regularly engage in public relations blitzes, often facilitated by professional media consultants. They hold press conferences, issue glossy publications in multiple languages, and contribute regular op-eds and articles to high-profile media outlets such as Ma’ariv, Haaretz, The New York Times, and Huffington Post. They regularly submit reports at the UN and send representatives to conferences in Europe and America. B’Tselem has a growing lobbying office in Washington and a representative in the UK.

NGO Monitor researchers have analyzed NIF funding practices for years. While the organization does some positive work in Israel that should be applauded, it refuses to engage in debate regarding several of its grantees that demonize Israel at the UN, support boycott and divestment campaigns, promote “lawfare” cases against Israeli officials, and even advocate erasing the Jewish character of the state. Significantly, many NIF donors are unaware of these activities. NIF has rebuffed all of NGO Monitor’s attempts to discuss appropriate “red lines” for the groups they fund.

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BDS campaign comes to Davis

Friday, February 5th, 2010

Recently I discussed the Boycott, Divestiture and Sanctions campaign against Israel. Now anti-Zionist activists have brought it to Davis, California, where they are circulating a petition to force a food co-op to stop stocking Israeli products:

The Co-op is owned and operated by 10,000 shareholders. Its bylaws allow members to decide what to vote on during annual elections.

Five percent of this governing body must sign the petition in order for it to appear on the store’s May ballot. The Davis Committee for Palestinian Rights has been collecting signatures since Jan. 1…

“The Co-op does not support or endorse this boycott and wants to make clear it is being organized by members using their rights given in the bylaws,” said Co-op General Manager Eric Stromberg. — The California Aggie

The BDS movement tries to portray support for Palestinian irredentism as a human rights question, which everyone should support, sort of like environmentalism. The fact is that BDS is a nonviolent part of the mostly violent 100-year old campaign to eliminate Jewish sovereignty in the Mideast.

Local pro-Israel activists have asked for support. So, if you live in Davis or can travel there:

  1. Go to the Davis Co-op at 620 G Street, and show Israel some love on Sunday, Feb. 14 for Valentine’s day.
  2. Buy a whole bunch of Israeli products (if they are off the shelf, maybe someone else read this and bought the entire stock– so go to the store manager and tell him/her they need to buy more!) Israeli wine, couscous and feta cheese are available at the Co-op.
  3. Tell the store manager to keep stocking these products because you really like them!
  4. Also tell the store manager that we’ve declared Feb. 14 as the “Day to Buy Israeli Products” so they can be prepared. And please pass the couscous.

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Israel’s enemies choose war

Friday, February 5th, 2010

Recently, I wrote about Ahmadinejad’s bragging that Iran was already the predominant power in the region. There is no doubt that US influence has declined radically in the last few years, but Ahmadinejad is counting gestational chickens.

The biggest obstacle in his way is tiny Israel, remarkably. The conservative Arab regimes of Saudi Arabia and Egypt are paper tigers militarily and politically. Israel, with all of its problems, still projects Western power in the region (would that the West, and particularly the US administration understood this).

The Iranian strategy is to weaken Israel in every way possible, particularly by conventional warfare between it and Hizballah and perhaps Syria. Hamas is also a threat to a lesser extent. Many recent events point to a resumption of hostilities in the North in the near future, which would serve Iranian interests in multiple ways, including giving the regime more time to proceed with its atomic weapons program.

Iran and its clients believe that they are in a much better position than in 2006, and are confident of success. They believe that they will be able to fire rockets into all parts of Israel at will, and kill thousands.  They believe that the IDF will be powerless to overcome Hizballah’s fortifications and will suffer massive casualties. They believe that their secure communications system is impenetrable. They believe that Israel will be surprised by advanced weapons that Hizballah has secretly received from Iran. They believe that the Israeli leadership will dither ineffectively as happened in 2006.

They are so wrong.

Israel suffered a huge trauma in 2006, when the ground branches IDF were entirely unprepared for the conflict, and the leadership was incompetent to manage a war. But the lesson was learned. The IDF embarked on a massive shakeup, returning to the values that made it so effective in the past. Careful planning, preparation and attention to detail have become paramount again.

The IDF knows how the rocket launchers are hidden and fortified and where they are. It knows what weapons the Hizballah forces will deploy and how to counter them. It has built models of villages, bunkers and missile launchers and its soldiers have been training intensively on them. There is good intelligence, human and otherwise, on Hizballah and Syria’s plans and capabilities. And regarding the ‘impenetrable’ command and control system, Hizballah’s Nasrallah can’t order a pizza in Beirut without the IDF being aware of it.

There are contingency plans for almost any eventuality, and decisions will be made quickly. The leadership team of PM Netanyahu, Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Chief of Staff Gaby Ashkenazi are all highly qualified military men who come from the IDF’s ground forces. The contrast with the 2006 team of Olmert, Peretz and Halutz is sharp.

Syria’s Assad, Nasrallah and Ahmadinejad have been strutting, threatening and bragging in a way that is reminiscent of Nasser’s pre-1967 hubris. Israel does not desire yet another conflict; Ehud Barak recently emphasized Israel’s commitment to peace by offering yet again (to my distress) to return the Golan Heights to Syria in return for a peace agreement. But Assad responded that Syria would agree only to take the land back; discussions about peace would have to wait.

There are many question marks. What will Iran do? What will the US do? Russia? Will someone take action against Iranian nuclear facilities? I’m happy that I’m not the PM of Israel.

Israel’s enemies, as always, are overconfident. And as always, they are going to pay the price. What a pity for everyone involved that they won’t take the other road.

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Funds, horns and a thumbs-up from Hell

Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010

In my last post, I wrote about how a Zionist student group in Israel called Im Tirtzu exposed the way a ‘progressive’ American foundation, the New Israel Fund (NIF), supported the Israeli non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that provided 92% of the negative citations from Israeli sources in the Goldstone report.

Im Tirtzu held a demonstration in front of the home of the NIF President, former Meretz MK Naomi Chazan, and bought full-page ads in Israeli newspapers showing Chazan wearing a rhinoceros-like horn (the Hebrew word for ‘fund’ and ‘horn’ are the same, keren).

Here is the English version that ran in the Jerusalem Post:

Im Tirtzu's full page ad showing Naomi Chazan wearing a horn, er, fund.

Im Tirtzu's full page ad showing Naomi Chazan wearing a horn, er, fund.

NIF and friends are furious. NIF called it a “particularly despicable attack.”  Rabbi Brant Rosen, a proud supporter of the anti-Zionist J Street and Jewish Voice for Peace, calls Im Tirtzu a “right-wing ultra-nationalist group”  and describes the ad as having “anti-Semitic overtones”. J Street itself said the ad was “reminiscent of propaganda from the darkest days of recent Jewish experience.” Americans for Peace Now uses almost identical language, saying that the campaign is “reminiscent of dark times in our people’s history.” Even the center-left Ron Kampeas said

Call it keren, call it horn, this is an anti-Semitic ad. No getting around it. This makes Naomi Chazan looks like she eats babies for breakfast. For lunch. And dinner. And snacks.

Sorry, but all of these accusations of antisemitism strike me as remarkably stupid.

In deciding whether something is antisemitic, intention is relevant. After all, I have displayed antisemitic cartoons from Arab and Iranian newspapers in order to make a point about their regimes. Does this make me antisemitic?

Im Tirtzu doesn’t hate Jews. Their ad does not try to make the viewer hate Jews. The caricature doesn’t make Chazan look evil, like the well-known ones of Ariel Sharon eating babies; it makes her look like a fool, which is the point. Displaying an image that is “reminiscent” of “dark times” possibly serves to suggest that dark times are coming again. It certainly doesn’t suggest that Jews are beasts with horns.

So what are they so angry about?

In my opinion just that Im Tirtzu has effectively exposed the activities of the NIF, and has revealed the progressive community that supports it and its grantees to be ‘useful idiots‘ at best.

Don’t get me wrong. Everyone who was irritated by Im Tirtzu’s ads does not desire the destruction of the Jewish state. Some of them, like Chazan herself, probably think that ending ‘the occupation’ is necessary for the survival of the state, and they view the actions of the NIF and the NGOs that it supports as helping to bring this about.

But even the moderate Left understands that the Goldstone report is poison — an attempt to delegitimize Israel and attenuate its power  to defend itself. They understand that the Goldstone project is part of the war against Israel, no less so than Hamas’ rockets. And they are furious that they have been made fools of, that as a matter of fact their money or other support has gone to aid Israel’s enemies.

They won’t admit this, of course. They’ll stick by the NIF because — just like the Communists who continued to believe into the 1950’s that Stalin was a saint rather than a psychotic mass murderer — they’ll believe almost anything rather than admit to having been duped.

So they respond the usual way. They call Im Trtzu names like ‘neo-cons’, ‘ultra-conservatives’, ‘right-wing-ultra-nationalists’, ‘right-wing hooligans’, etc. They say that it is trying to “quell dissenting voices in Israeli society,” and suggest a potential for murderous violence. Here’s a particularly egregious example, from the absolutely inimitable Richard Silverstein:

A few months ago, a distinguished Hebrew University professor opened his apartment door to a bomb blast that could have killed him.  The bomb was planted by Jack Teitel, according to Israeli authorities.  If Teitel could, from his prison cell, he’d give a thumbs up to those who are maligning Naomi Hazan and NIF.  Who knows, the next Jack Teitel may be lurking in the crowd outside her home.

Who knows? Maybe Yasser Arafat would give J Street a thumbs up from Hell, if he could. The possibilities of this kind of reasoning are limitless! Meanwhile, let’s see where the real antisemitism comes from:

Courtesy of Mr. Dry Bones

Courtesy of Mr. Dry Bones

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