The Ministry of Truth Does Not Approve!

[eumelia]

Wow, do I have some stuff to share.

Okay so I don't want to make this a huge links post and rant but damn! The weekend was just non-stop with the amount of WTF's that seemed to bleed into the News and I can't not share it with you dear readers.

I hope those of you who are more than just interested in the Occupation and Israeli policy in Palestine did not miss Professor Neve Gordon's Op-Ed in the LA Times: Boycott Israel: An Israeli comes to the painful conclusion that it's the only way to save his country, which came online on Thursday the 20th of August.

It's a whopper and a very important read.

However, it wouldn't be a News day if someone didn't condemn those filthy dirty anti-Zionist Jews with self-hate.
Have you ever notice that only other Zionists accuse us of hating ourselves. What's up with that?

On Friday, the Los Angeles Jewish Community began to mull over boycotting Ben-Gurion University is Israel, which is the Uni in which Prof. Gordon teaches Poli-Sci. Funny Diaspora reaction aside the really special moment and quote comes from the LA Israeli Consulate Mr. Yaakov (Yaki) Dayan:

"I believe that the definitive answer to anti-Zionist lecturers like Gordon is to set up a center for Zionist studies, which unfortunately does not exist in Israeli academia," [Dayan] continued. "This center would help dispel the lies disseminated by Gordon in the name of your university."

Oh my God, my eyes could not have rolled farther into my skull without giving me brain damage.
I just... *sigh*.
As I said, a very special moment.

That's not all. Oh no, not even close. There is more Israeli craziness in store.

Who hasn't heard of the controversial Swedish newspaper article accusing the IDF of murdering Palestinians in order to harvest their organs.
I gotta say, it smacks of hyperbole, but that's not my point.
As controversial as the article may be, I think the Israeli Government's reaction was just beyond out of proportion.
And defensive of course.
PM Netanyahu is set to request, nay, demand that the Swedish government condemn the article.

After the article was published, it would appear Israel did not appreciate the Swedish government's reaction... which was to be quiet about it.

On Friday, the Israeli Ambassador to Sweden Benny Dagan met with Deputy Foreign Minister of the Scandinavian country and urged his government to issue a denunciation of the article. Deputy Foreign Minister Frank Belfrage emphasized his country's freedom of speech and how it limits the ability of the government to respond to articles in the media.
[...]
A Netanyahu aide said that "Israel does not wish to infringe upon the freedom of the press in Sweden. However, as much as the Swedish press is entitled to freedom, the Swedish government should enjoy the freedom of denouncing such reports."

The desk is well acquainted with my head, because really, of a government is nosing into the media, it's no longer a free press.

The Swedish Jewish Community's reaction to this is pretty interesting; one of the head's of the community, Lena Posner, says that until Israel got involved, it was a non-issue:

Posner told Ynet, "The article was published here on Monday, but no one paid any attention to it. It wasn't a news report and was buried in the back pages of a tabloid. The writer is known to many of us as anti-Israel, and so it the entire paper. This is why no one took it seriously – until Israel got involved."

Read this one, it's pretty good and manages to show Lieberman as the paranoid maniac that he is because beyond accusing Sweden of Antisemitism and saying that this silence over the matter is equivalent to their silence during the Holocaust (Godwin! Hello!) - he's gone on to accuse Norway of promoting Antisemitism, here's why:

"I remember that in the Durban-II conference," Lieberman said, referring to last April's UN anti-racism summit which was criticized as allegedly biased against Israel. "The Norwegian representatives were among the few who didn't walk out, and today I realize it's not a coincidence. How low can you go?"

How low indeed.

So... anybody got any good jokes?

Comments

[esizzle.livejournal.com]

i read the first article u mentioned. all was going well till he started talkin about two-state solution. i started to feel like i dunno, he was an.. anti-zionist zionist .. ?

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

I'm not so sure.
I think he was laying out the ideological facts, as he said, the mixing of Jews and Arabs cannot be undone, nor should it, but when it comes to political ideology very few Israelis and not enough Palestinians support the One State Solution.

That's what I understood from what he was saying at the end.

[esizzle.livejournal.com]

it's different when palestinians don't support it than when israelis don't support it. i don't want to presume why israelis wouldn't support it but for palestinians, it's sometimes because it's the only offer being given right now. i think if u ask a palesitnian if they'd agree to having one state where they can live in whatever city they want, maybe even return to their grandparents home.. i don't know why they would say no to that. they might not necessarily move, but why would they reject that option for the rest of their people.

[esizzle.livejournal.com]

oops i don't mean to say that two-state-solution is even bein offered to pal.'s right now. u know what i meant.

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

Yeah, no worries.

Oh, and just to add. I think Gordon was primarily writing towards Israeli Jews and/or Israel supporting Jews in the Diaspora and that's why he was giving a more Zionist sounding spiel.

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

Yes, you're right. Sorry, I was in Israeli Mentality there.

I've heard Palestinians give arguments for both options and Israelis give arguments for both sides. They were definitely different.

[shelestel.livejournal.com]

If Israeli prof calls for a boycott, and, as a result, his university is being boycotted, then it seems like he has accomplished the goal, no?

The Israeli consul - whatever. I mean what do you expect a person who is Israel's consul in LA to say (or to know. WTF is "zionist studies"?)? But the denouncement of Gordon by the president of Ben-Gurion kind of sucks.

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

Point 1 - Pretty much.

Point 2 - I agree, the denouncement does kind of suck.