What Does 'Slamming' Mean?

Esther Solomon is editor of the English edition of Haaretz.

Follow the dialogue:

@EstherSolomon

Australian Jews Exec Council: Congratulates Netanyahu, then (correctly) slams the far right Religious Zionism party who will sit in his coalition as 'populist extremist politicians with an openly racist, homophobic agenda' 'incompatible both with our religion and with Zionism'

The @ECAJewry's statement on the results of the Israeli elections, available on our website here: https://bit.ly/3E1TnY4

12:01  4 בנוב׳ 2022

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@ymedad

Can't wait until we slam them.

Then we'll see who can take it.

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@EstherSolomon

What does 'slamming' a major Diaspora Jewish community mean?

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@ymedad

I don't know.

You used the term:

"Australian Jews Exec Council: Congratulates Netanyahu, then (correctly) slams..."

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And then, silence. 

^

I Was Accused of Trolling

On Wednesday, I was accused of 'trolling' which appears to be a social media platform crime, a charge usually reserved for someone doing basically the same thing you are doing but from a different political viewpoint.

I noticed that Avi Scharf, editor of the English-language edition of Haaretz, had tweeted (by the way, you can learn so much following Israeli journalists on their Twitter feeds where they shed any modicum of objectivity or even fairness and lash out at each other, sometimes sarcastically but most times viciously) a tweet that read:

"Bibi is now channeling Kahane, whose party is projected to get 4 seats in the next Knesset"

and I retweeted that and added in commentary:

"Example how Haaretz English outdoes even the Hebrew edition at times is slanting, shaping, spinning, managing the news." 

Anyone who follows the English edition of Haaretz, and I suggest you check CAMERA's site as well as it's Israeli partner, Presspectiva, if you read Hebrew, knows that my assertion is not incorrect.  For five years I was Director of Israel Media's Watch and we also did studies, thanks to IMRA's Aaron Lerner's father, Dr. Joseph Lerner, that showed a particular venomous approach to the news if it dealt with issues of a right-wing/nationalist character from the period of the late David ("rape Israel") Landau and on to his successors. 

For example, recently they slyly "misconstrued" Netanyahu's Hebrew (here), intimating he was declaring 'Arabs want to annihilate us all' when he said "the Arabs who desire to kill us all", indicating a specific group.

For measure, I added

"If the Supreme Court allowed them to run, ipso facto they are not racist nor Kahanist"

After all, if the Left holds Israel’s High Court of Justice is esteem, their decision should be respected. But it seems that is true only if the court decides according to their world-view.

Scharf then responded

"You're full of crap. this is my personal tweet - not Haaretz English/Hebrew edition. Though it's def poss Haaretz editorial will have a say as well."

Even ignoring the lashing out and invective, I would fully accept that if his Tweeter bio had included a normative alert such as "my tweets are my personal opinion" or something similar that I would be in the wrong.

Scharf followed up with a clip of Netanyahu saying what he had quoted and added

And here's your supreme leader, calling out - IN ENGLISH - against elected Arab leaders - in the only democracy in the Middle East

I rejoined, if a bit sharply:

Using "supreme" only confirms my presumption that your journalism ethics course mark was F. Or that you run an ideological gazette rather than a newspaper. Next time, answer the point I made?

After all, I pointed out something quite a factual and logical: if the Supreme Court permitted Otzma Yehudit to participate in the democratic process of elections, they are, so to say, kosher. One may not like that. One can suggest no one vote for them. In fact, he was doing exactly what he was railing against what Netanyahu was doing, that is, attacking another political party. And in sharp and strident language.

His comeback?

you're a troll. feel free to unfollow

There it was. I am a troll. No argument about the rather nonsensical logic he was employing. Or the avoiding of countering my points. A simple slapdown and off he goes. I am unworthy. Bothersome.

The standards of newspaper editors these days.

^

Haaretz and the Balfour Declaration

If I had the time, one way to spend it would be to review in depth the Haaretz line-up this year for the centenary of the Balfour Declaration, and even include some from previous years, to show the paper's utter contempt for Zionism.

Take for example, this op-ed which bemoans

the racism of the British government 100 years ago, which disturbingly, continues to reverberate in the conflict to this day.

and that

The British government’s interest in the weapon of supposed Jewish power far outweighed their concern with the future of Zionism in the Holy Land.They did not engage in any wartime planning regarding the development of "a national home for the Jewish people." 

and

the Cabinet had no intention of giving Judaea to the Jews

and

British Orientalists saw the Palestinian population, instead, as an impure mix of different races, who were not 'authentic', 'racial' Arabs. This was why the Declaration invoked the phrase "non-Jewish communities" to describe the Arabs who constituted approximately 90% of the population.

If Ken Livingston and crew accuse Zionism of collaborating/cooperating with Nazism, well this predates Zionism's "sins".

In an earlier article, four years ago, the author, James Renton, a Senior Lecturer in History at Edge Hill University whose lectures  have been sponsored by anti-Zionists, wrote in Haaretz that

the Balfour Declaration of 1917 was based on miscalculations, anti-Semitism and propaganda

Some of the other articles this year included

The Curse of the Balfour Declaration

Balfour Declaration Wasn't About Israel

Balfour Declaration's Legacy Is Toxic for Both Israelis and Palestinians

Balfour's Original Sin

How India's Muslim Backlash, Led by Jinnah, Thwarted the Balfour Declaration

Britain Facilitated Palestine's Ethnic Cleansing. Today, Britain's Celebrating It

Britain's Broken Its Promises to the Palestinians From Balfour Onwards.

Now It Must Make Amends

(which uncritically quotes a Gazan Arab saying: 

“The Jewish people took their rights after Hitler 

committed massacres against them...

Britain gave our lands to the Israelis 

and they never cared to give us our rights.")

Oh, there were some good ones.  Here. Here. And here. Even here.

The paper, however, was negatively overloaded, and I am not inclduing the "news" stories on the events and how they spun out.

Zionist history, a la Haaretz.

^

Amira Hass: BDS Promoter in Ramallah

Here are extracts from a piece by Haaretz's Amira Hass, who resides in Ramallah, that illustrate the total nonsensible nature of the columnist/reporters there and their agenda-driven "journalism".

another thing I wonder about: Why must Palestinian men show their manhood by driving fast with their blinding bright headlights on, right in the middle of a narrow road, and not move aside for an oncoming vehicle? It’s clear. They know that the oncoming driver will move to the shoulder at the last minute praying that he or she won’t end up down in the wadi. The occupation is clearly to blame. Israel plans, built and builds separate roads in the West Bank so the Palestinians will be diverted from the wide roads (that gobble up private and public land), and Gush Etzion will be a neighborhood of Jerusalem on the south and Beit-El on the north. All the drivers – especially taxi drivers – have to make up for lost time and the length of the road by speeding, and to hell with fatal accidents. But why in God’s name in the middle of the road, and why blind the oncoming traffic at night?

Why the hell are some of my neighbors...too lazy to walk a few dozen meters up or down the street and throw their garbage in the bins that the municipality empties every dawn? Instead, they befoul the still open ground between the buildings...Too many people, here in the Palestinian enclave, treat the street, the roadsides, the area around the springs that the settlers haven’t yet stolen and the open fields as their private garbage can...I’ve read and heard theories, especially about the Palestinian alienation from the public sphere because of Israel’s domination (in 1948 and 1967 areas). But, as the owner of my neighborhood grocery store put it regarding the garbage bags rolling around in the street: “Not everything is because of the occupation.”

How is it that a young woman – a member of the Military Police or a security company – is stationed at a checkpoint and her line of cars is always longer than the nearby line, where a young man is stationed? The young women do everything intentionally more slowly. The most politically incorrect thing to say is that when the young woman checking the cars is of Ethiopian origin, the line gets even longer...The soldiers and security people stationed at the checkpoints must develop skills in the realm of racial doctrine and a canine sense of smell to distinguish between a Jew and an Arab...But leave it to the young women at the checkpoints. They’ll check the accent, slowly open the trunk or send the car for a check for explosives, stare with hostility at the occupants, all the while chewing gum with their mouths open, talking on their cellphone and giggling.

And the best one:

Why in blazes do the fine stores in Ramallah (I haven’t checked other cities) sell products from the settlement of Tekoa? I brought this up with a salesman. I said: “The settlement of Tekoa is stealing water and land from the neighboring villages.” He answered: “The Palestinians steal too, and I have customers who ask for these products.”...And how is it that the BDS and local anti-normalization activists, who are so good at scaring the municipality of Ramallah such that it cancels the screening of a Lebanese film, skip over the mushrooms from Tekoa? How is it that the Palestinian Agriculture Ministry, which from time to time comes to the markets and confiscates products from the settlements, misses these prestige stores? Because their customers are from the elite classes?

^

Haaretz's Interview Style

From the popular weekly column at the airport by Liat Elkayam as she interviews Christina Morente, 43, from Puebla, Mexico; arriving from Naples, Italy:

Hello, can I ask what you’ll be doing in Israel?

I am a devout Christian, and for me you are the Chosen People, and every time I land here my heart pounds – everything is super-wonderful.

Thank you, but you’re exaggerating.

Look how you’ve survived over the years, Am Israel hai! [The Jewish people lives!] I’ve been to 65 countries in my life, and Norway is my favorite among the normal countries. But Israel is not one of the normal countries. It’s supernatural.

We can agree on “not normal.”

The way to make friends for Israel.

^ 

Al-Jazeera? Why Not Ban Haaretz? Or, To Whom Belongs the Temple Mount?

No, I do not support banning newspapers.

Of course, it would be great if Haaretz would be more inclusive in representing various Israeli voices (it's English blogger section is all hard-line left). And if it would voluntarily cease employing Nazi-themed vocabulary by Rogel Alpher, Gideon Levy, etc.  And if it would publish op-eds a little bit more reasoned.

Take this one:

The Temple Mount "belongs" to the Muslims?

Why? Why does it "belong"?


Because Muslims conquered Jerusalem in 638 and then occupied it?

Because Jews were finally banned from the compound in the late 13th century (1266) after maintaining a presence therein, including a synagogue, even after losing political independence?

Because Muslims believe Abraham was really a Muslim and constructed there a mosque?

Because the Waqf officials and also Palestinian Authority officials believe Solomon' Temple never existed?

Because they belief Mohammed landed at the site on Al-Buraq, his winged horse?

Because they believe Jewish feet defile the area?

Because despite their Quran does not mention Jerusalem in that night's magic flight, they insist the "farthest mosque" means Jerusalem and not the other mosque near Medina?

Or because Muslims are willing to kill, murder, stab, run-over, bomb, shoot or otherwise threaten violence?

That's why?

^

Amos Schocken and I and Friends Tweeting

Over at my twitter feed, we had a doozy today.

The beginning is almost lost, but archived somewhere, but after I tweeted a dig, 

got a response:

and then it basically really took off with this:

And here it went on:

and on

and on

and on

and on

I appreciate Amos Schocken being probably one of the most accessible newspaper owners/publishers.

And the conversation may still be going on in some form still (it is). And more.

And on:

Thank you, Amos.

^

Haaretz Pundit Stokes Anti-Semitism Anti-Zionist Themism

One major theme that hard-core anti-Semitic anti-Zionists employ, from Christians to Muslims to Neturei Karta and from Communists to Progressives and to Conservatives, is that Zionism somehow is either Nazi in character or, at the very least, cooperates with Nazism.  It also fit in with Holocaust Denial.

Like as in Gaza is a Concentration Camp.

Lenni Brenner did it.  Ken Livingston did it recently. Neturei Karta do it. Other weirdos do it.

And now we have Anshel Pfeffer of Haaretz who has published in support of this thesis of his-:

Zionist leaders since Theodor Herzl have known that sometimes community interests mean turning a blind eye to hatred of Jews elsewhere.

that:

The left wing of the Zionist movement negotiated the “Transfer Agreement” with Nazi Germany in the early 1930s, and helped the Third Reich evade a worldwide Jewish boycott. The Revisionists attacked the agreement, but a few years later reached a deal for military training and arms from the anti-Semitic Polish government, which was interested in getting as many Jews as possible to leave Poland. 

Poland, anti-Semitic Poland, was not Nazi Poland even as we know its citizens killed many tens of thousands of Jews during the Holocaust, and from way before. 

Members of Betar fought anti-Semites, most famously at the 1936 pogrom (memorialized in S'brent) in Przytyk (See some testimony here and this: "March 9th 1936 was market day and the Jews set up their stalls in the main square as they did every market day. After a while, Polish hooligans showed up and overturned their stalls – which forced the stall owners to collect their merchandise as quickly as possible and lock up their shops. Members of the Jewish youth movements – the Mizrachi, the communists, Betar, Poaley Zion and the Bund – had been training to defend the Jews in precisely such situations. Chaim's brother Nachum was one of the commanders of Betar and he took his troops to do their duty. Skirmishes quickly developed and at a certain point, one of the Jewish youths, Laski, shot one of the Poles. The hooligans retreated, not before they had murdered the Minkowskis. Several Jewish youth were apprehended and indicted; eventually 7 or 8 were found guilty and sentenced to various terms in prison.") The local Betar leaders who participated in the self-defense action [pgs. 558-559] were Yitzchak Friedman who was sentenced to 5 years imprisonment and Eliezer Kirschenzweig who received jail time of 6 years.

And here is a typical recollection of Betar members in the 1930s in Poland, from Ostrolenska:

These are some pics of Betarim in military training in Poland:

Using one's ability to obtain crucial and sympathetic assistance from a regime, even one anti-Semitic, to further one's national goals, incidentally shared by that regime, to return to the national homeland after years in Exile subject to the whims of Jew-haters, is a worthy political act.

Pfeffer's juxtaposition of that with his other examples and with his overall theme is not only a pitiful attempt to besmirch other Jews but, ironically, providing aid and comfort to anti-Semitic anti-Zionists!!

If he wanted to employ Betar as an example, he should be calling on American Jewry to train and organize in self-defense units, in cooperation with local authorities or independently.

^

When Judea Became "Ancient Palestine"

Haaretz:

Caves in which Jewish rebels hid from Romans 2,000 years ago found in Galilee.As the First Jewish War raged in ancient Palestine, villagers would hide in impressively inaccessible cliffside caves as the Roman armies marched through.

Both the Jews and the Romans actually called the territory Judea, like in this Roman victory coin:

It reads the Judaea.

And "Palestine" as the name for the country came after 135 CE, some seven decades later.

But Haaretz knows better.

^

Mr. Schocken Erred.

Ari Shavit attacked the Left today, writing

Israel's radical left committed suicide, and now the right will kill us all

Some noticed that the original Hebrew headline simply read

Israel's radical left committed suicide

And they tweeted it with Eylon Aslan-Levy ‏noting

8 hours ago

Hebrew editors wrote "the left is committing suicide". English editors added some flavour.

I forwarded that to Amos Schocken who wrote:

@ymedad @EylonALevy Nonsense. The English headline is an exact quote from Shavit. Don't be losers: read full texts as well.

So, I did.  

The last sentence in Shavit's piece reads:

The radical left, having committed suicide, is now helping the right to kill us all.

Sorry, Mr. Schocken but that is not quite what the headline was conveying when it appears so:

Israel's radical left committed suicide, and now the right will kill us all

The word "helping" is gone.

Is that signifcant?

Well, yes.

Shavit is not only blaming the Left for stupidity but more.  He writes that the Left:

is disconnected from reality. 

it refused to admit the failure of the Oslo Accords, et. al.

it refused to recognize the withdrawal from the Gaza Strip led to rockets on Ashkelon, Ashdod and Tel Aviv

the left is therefore viewed in Israel as delusional, as daydreamers.

the left is disconnected from reality 

the left is disconnected from Israeli pride. 

the radical left committed suicide when it abnegated itself before the Palestinians. 

And, then, his last charge of a guilt is assisting the Right, a double blunder, in his opinion. 

So, the headline does not reflect the full text and is not quite an exact quotation.

Mr. Schocken, I would maintain, erred.

__________

P.S.

Mr. Schocken has now tweeted:

Good, at least you follow my advice.

But not one to yield or admit to fallibility, he now tweets:

 Another headlines genius: now Y Medad as well.

_____________

P.P.S.

Check this out.

^

Another Call for the Rape of Israel

Do we recall this 2007 incident?

Haaretz’s Chief Editor asked US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to “rape” Israel, using other unsavory terminology as well in his request for American pressure.

The comments were made during a confidential briefing by Rice on September 10...at the residence of US Ambassador Richard Jones. Some reported that [the late David] Landau's remarks were greeted with "blatant discomfort" by some of those present...Landau, who was seated next to Rice, referred to Israel as a “failed state” politically, and said that a US-imposed settlement is the only thing that can save it. He asked Rice to intervene, going so far as to say that the Israeli government wanted “to be raped” and that it would bring him much satisfaction to see this happen.

The comments were first revealed by Channel 2’s Arab-affairs expert Ehud Ya’ari, who refrained from naming who spoke them, but confirmed them with colleagues who were present and termed them “embarrassing” in his report. Former World Jewish Congress leader Isi Leibler then went public, saying it was Landau; he was joined by New York Jewish Week Editor Gary Rosenblatt, who criticized Landau in his weekly column.

Haaretz is still at it, demanding in an editorial a diplomatic rape of Israel:

Obama, support Abbas' UN resolution, no matter what Netanyahu says
Security Council members, especially the United States, must adopt this peace-advancing move and ignore the denunciations of the prime minister.

Haaretz Editorial | Apr. 9, 2016 

Abbas is expected to submit to the UN Security Council this month a draft resolution reflecting international consensus that could help to jump-start the stalled peace process...It would define the settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem as illegal and an obstacle to peace and condemn continued Israeli construction in the occupied territories, as well as any action whose purpose is to change the demographic balance in the area.

...Last month Obama admitted that he did not believe an Israeli-Palestinian agreement would be reached before he leaves office in January. But that should not prevent him from preparing the ground for a future international effort to advance the two-state solution he believes in.

A veto of the latest resolution, which does not include a single clause that contradicts U.S. policy, would constitute a diplomatic and moral renunciation of the peace process. It would give Israel permission to continue its settlement policy and would heighten the Palestinians’ frustration and despair, which feed the terror attacks.

P.S.

And now we can add B'tselem's Hagai El-Ad's UN appearance as well:

On behalf of B’Tselem, the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, I implore you today to take action. Anything short of decisive international action will achieve nothing but ushering in the second half of the first century of the occupation....Clearly, the occupation is internationally sustainable. It is so, because so far the world refuses to take effective action....So the reality facing the international community is this: absence of action not only effectively gives the oppressor a license to proceed without having to suffer too many repercussions, but also gives the oppressor the power to decide when will be the right time to start considering alternatives. “Wait,” demands Israel, “now is not the right time”. But “‘Wait’ has almost always meant ‘Never’,” responds Martin Luther King Jr. “The time is always right to do what is right.” That time is now: the time to, at long last, take action. The UN Security Council has more than just power: you have a moral responsibility – and a real opportunity – to act with a sense of urgency, before we reach the symbolic date of June 2017 and the second half of that first century begins, to send to the world, to Israelis and to Palestinians, a clear message, backed by international action: Israel cannot have it both ways...We need your help...The rights of Palestinians must be realized; the occupation must end; the UN Security Council must act; and the time is now.

^

Oh How They Pervert History

From a Haaretz puff piec on Menachem Klein:-

In 1927, nine years before he spearheaded Palestinian nationalism in the Arab Revolt,

Er, wait.  Before 1936 he didn't "spearhead" anything?

Didn't Haj Amin -El-Husseini, the above "he", get sentenced to 10 years imprisionment (from which he escaped across the Jordan) by the British for insitigating a violent pogrom on  Jerusalem's Jews in 1920?

Of course, Haaretz's versions of history are to be considered suspect.  Here is another report on the Mufti from last October:-

Born in Jerusalem near the turn of the 20th century, Husseini came from a prominent Palestinian family. In 1921, Palestine’s British rulers installed him as the grand mufti of Jerusalem, a religious leadership position.

It also skipped that little incident of Jew-killing.

Here's one summary of pre-1936:

In 1918, al-Husayni became president of the newly organized Arab Club (al-Nadi al-'Arabi), which advocated Arab unity, a union of Palestine and Syria, and an end to Jewish immigration into Palestine. He organized demonstrations in the winter of 1920 to denounce the 1917 Balfour Declaration (announcing British intention to permit the establishment of a Jewish national home in Palestine), to demand independence for Palestine, and to promote union with Syria. On April 4, 1920, the day of the al-Nabi Musa festival, Arab civilians initiated violent riots in the Jewish quarter of Jerusalem after listening to a number of speeches, including one given by al-Husayni, in which he called for the incorporation of Palestine into Syria. Four days of rioting and plunder left five Jews and four Arabs dead and 211 Jews and 33 Arabs wounded. Fearing arrest, al-Husayni fled to Syria. In late April, a British military tribunal convicted him in absentia for incitement to revolt and sentenced him to 10 years imprisonment. Al-Husayni was pardoned and returned to Jerusalem in autumn 1920...During the early 1930s, Al-Husayni developed and used his international renown and prestige to advocate more autonomy for Arab Palestine and more unity among the Arab states, and to vigorously oppose Jewish immigration into Palestine. Among the many groups in the Middle East with which al-Husayni established contact, was the Society of Muslim Brothers (Muslim Brotherhood), a fundamentalist Pan-Islamic group founded in Egypt. In August 1935, the Society dispatched two of its leaders on an official mission to Palestine, Syria, and Lebanon. In Palestine, they met with al-Husayni, who welcomed their support, and later provided them with an introduction to the leader of the Syrian-based Islamic Guidance Association...As Mufti of Jerusalem, al-Husayni sought assistance from FascistItaly and Nazi Germany beginning in 1933. Nazi Germany's anti-Jewish radicalism and hostility to the Western democracies (Britain and France) led the Mufti to perceive Germany to be a natural ally of Arab causes in Palestine. Al-Husayni approached German Foreign Office officials as early as 1933. 

What's really galling is that the reporter writes about Klein's new book that certain facts

are absent from both the Jewish and Palestinian national narratives,

By the way, another historical error is in here:

to the day the mufti left Jerusalem – in 1936, for fear he would be arrested by the British in connection with the ongoing revolt –

In truth, on July 17, 1937, al-Huseini fled to the sanctuary of the Dome of the Rock to avoid arrest by the British authorities and on the night of October 13-14, 1937, he used a rope to slide over the Haram's wall and from there to Jaffa and from there to Lebanon.  One account has him disguised as a Bedouin and another as a woman.

Haaretz's Amos Schocken: "EOZ Came to My Mind"

In a Twitter exchange regarding Amira Hass, Haaretz reporter and columnist, and her appearance in England when she used the demonic "Elders of Zion" card in her remarks, I asked her editor if he was aware.

He wasn't but he trusted her.

Pressed by another tweeter whether if she sought to include that phrase in an article in his paper, the eventual response was:

Money and Jews.

Jewish money and politics.

Jewish finances, politics and power.

Jewish power and a conspiracy theory of anti-Semitic origins.

That's Haaretz, Ha-Ha-Haaretz.

^

P.S.

Is this a bit of a backtrack?

Another update:-

^

Do you read Haaretz for its rational and intellectual discourse?

Do you?

1.

Exorcising Netanyahu out of office

The election pits Bibi vs. Netanyahu, Groucho Marx against the face looking out at him from the mirror, with defeat on the way for both candidates.

By Amir Oren

2.

On March 17, it will be a mitzvah to vote against Netanyahu the Toxic

Nine years into his rule, Benjamin Netanyahu has poisoned his country. Israel is broken and battered and weak with fear. He's taken serious problems, and made them into a miserable nation.

By Bradley Burston

3.

Netanyahu owes a hearty thanks to ISIS

The Israeli prime minister is about to win another term thanks to the rise of Islamic terror — and the paralysis of the center-left.

By Carlo Strenger

4.

A lifetime achievement – destruction of the State of Israel

Netanyahu the coward is sometimes even more dangerous than the diligent fool. After all, his speech to Congress showed he has the ‘courage’ to endanger Israel-U.S. relations.

By Niva Lanir

5.

Netanyahu's regime has turned into a massive whale

This deep sea monster sometimes beaches itself in efforts against Washington, sometimes beats its tail in the Golan Heights. One thing is clear: Its democratic awareness has sunken to the bottom of the sea.

By Uri Misgav

My question was rhetorical, of course.

^