June 7, 2010, Page 2

EDITOR: Fascist leader to visit London

Mr. Lieberman, that great supporter of freedom (for Jews) and ethnic cleansing (for Palestinians) is about to honour London with a visit. He plans to raise funds for the JNF. My own view is that the JNF is deluded if they think this nightclub bouncer will raise funds for them, but JNF knows best, of course. It seems that JNF is trying to raise funds for ethnic cleansing – I cannot think of another reason for choosing Lieberman.

Mr. Liberman has been providing excellent material for the new section of this website: Mad Israelis, and will no doubt continue to provide much material in the future, at least until the ICC catches up with him.

We should all welcome him to the capital, of course.

Israeli politician who advocates ‘transfer’ of Arabs due in London: Jewish Chronicle

By Shelly Paz, May 30, 2008
One of Israel’s most controversial politicians, former deputy prime minister Avigdor Lieberman, has been invited to London next month by Keren Kayemet L’Yisrael and the Israel Business Club, in an attempt to spark debate that will assist fundraising.
“Many of the members of the Israeli and the Jewish community in London, who are likely to donate money, do actually agree with Lieberman’s opinions,” said Dubi Bergman, KKL’s representative in London.

Avigdor Lieberman: visit planned to spark political debate
The comments of the Russian-born Knesset member, now head of the right-wing Yisrael Beiteinu party, such as his idea to transfer to the Palestinian territories Israeli Arabs who do not feel a connection with Israel, to give them a “loyalty test”, and a remark about Arab MKs being “collaborators”, have turned him into a controversial figure.
But Mr Bergman said: “The goal of this visit is to bring influential Israeli and British people together and to let Mr Lieberman tell them about Israel’s political and security condition today and the solutions as he sees them.
“We hope his visit will bring a fruitful debate. It’s easy to bring someone that everyone agrees with. Personally, I would like to bring [Arab MK] Ahmed Tibi here some day.
“I don’t agree with his opinions, but I enjoy listening to him.”
Mr Lieberman is due in London for a three-day visit between June 19 and 22. Malka Leon, director of the IBC in London, said: “We try to bring a variety of Israeli figures to speak. This way we can hear the extreme right- and left-wing politicians, academics, artists and opinion-makers.
“In the past, we hosted in London [Defence Minister] Ehud Barak, Prof Uzi Arad from the Interdisciplinary Centre in Herzliya, [former Education Minister, MK] Limor Livnat, and more than a decade ago we had a representative of the PLO in London.”
Mr Lieberman openly declares that yielding territories for peace has failed.
He resigned from Ariel Sharon’s government before the Gaza disengagement in 2005, and opposes the suggestion that Israel might give the Golan Heights to the Syrians in exchange for peace. Instead, he strongly backs the idea of exchanging settled territories in an attempt to reach regional peace.
A few months after the second Lebanon war, Mr Lieberman and his party joined Ehud Olmert’s government, explaining at the time that the IDF and the Israeli government needed to be strengthened by political unity.
But this January, he pulled Yisrael Beiteinu, the fourth-largest party in the Knesset, from the government. This time he objected to preliminary negotiations with the Palestinians on the core issues of Jerusalem, the “right of return” and the permanent borders of Israel and a Palestinian state.

EDITOR: Israel will investigate itself…

No, this is not the satirical page, unfortunately.

IDF appoints team to conduct internal probe of Gaza flotilla raid: Haaretz

General (res.) Giora Eiland charged with heading investigation into lessons and failures of raid; Netanyahu to announce separate state panel of inquiry.

The Israel Defense Forces announced on Monday that it would conduct an internal military investigation into the Israel Navy’s deadly raid of a humanitarian aid convoy bound for the Gaza Strip.

IDF Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi has appointed General [res.] Giora Eiland to head the investigative team. The team has been charged with studying the failures and lessons of the commando raid on a Turkish-flagged ship last week that left nine activists dead and several people wounded.

Eiland and his team will consider internal navy testimonies already gathered in the week since the raid and will open a series of fresh investigations as well. They are due to report their findings to the General Staff by July 4.

Ashkenazi decided to appoint an investigative team due to the “great importance with which the IDF views a comprehensive clarification of the facts related to its operational activities,” the army said in a statement.

Hours before the IDF’s announcement, Haaretz learned that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had decided to appoint a state panel of inquiry to investigate the Israel Navy raid.

A senior source in Jerusalem said the panel would comprise top justices experienced in matters of international and marine law. Two international justices – at least one of them American – would be invited to participate as observers, said the source.

In addition to investigating the circumstances surrounding the Israel Navy’s seizure of the Turkish-flagged Mavi Marmara, the committee will also be charged with looking into the legality of Israel’s closure of the Gaza Strip and its naval blockade.

Netanyahu’s forum of top seven ministers decided to create the internal investigative panel on Monday, after days of deliberation. An official announcement on the matter was awaiting approval from the attorney general – to ensure that there were no conflicts of interest among the potential members of the committee – as well as a green light from President Barack Obama’s administration.

The forum of seven ruled in its decision that the panel would not be allowed to interrogate soldiers or officers who took part in the commando raid, which left nine Turkish activists dead and several people wounded. It was not yet clear whether senior Israel Defense Forces officials – including IDF Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi and Israel Navy Commader Eliezer “Chiney” Marom – would be investigated by the panel.

The ministers’ decision comes on the heels of a United Nations proposal to establish an international committee comprising representatives of Israel, the U.S. and Turkey to investigate the incident.

Despite growing international pressure, Netanyahu had balked at the proposal, claiming Israel has the right to investigate itself.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak told Knesset on Monday, in response to a no-confidence motion submitted by the opposition with regard to the raid, that Israel would examine ways to minimize friction in enforcing its blockade of Hamas-ruled Gaza.

“We intend to achieve an investigation of the events,” Barak said, without giving details about the format of the probe.

He did say that the state panel would serve in addition to the separate military investigation, and that it would seek to establish whether Israel’s four-year blockade of Gaza and its raid “met with the standards of international law”.

“We will draw lessons at the political level [and] in the security establishment,” Barak said. “Since the event we have heard and read mountains of talk and questions and without a doubt in the coming months we shall discuss lessons … perhaps additional ways to achieve the same goals of the blockade, by reducing as far as possible the potential for friction.”

Instead of another ignored report: Haaretz

It would be best to make the flotilla saga a turning point in Israel’s policy governing the Gaza blockade and the continued occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
By Akiva Eldar
In the same week the diplomatic tsunami caused by the fatal raid of the Mavi Marmara left those trying to steer Israel’s ship of state high and dry, two leaders of other countries, one in the Far East and one in the West, both resigned their posts.

In Germany, Horst Koehler stepped down as president, penalizing himself for saying that German military deployments abroad serve the country’s economic interests. And Yukio Hatoyama resigned as prime minister of Japan after breaking a promise to move an American military base off the island of Okinawa.

In Israel, meanwhile, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak are evading responsibility for the disastrous thinking that led to the flotilla raid, and using their purported faith in the commandos who carried it out as a way of keeping that disastrous thinking under wraps.

Netanyahu and Barak are right: There is no need for an inquiry. It’s clear that their risk-reward assessment was faulty, since Netanyahu was getting ready to head to the White House as the commandos were firing on the passengers of the aid ship.

No political or military official who was involved in the decision to mount a forcible takeover of the ships says that any option was considered other than the vessels either being captured or reaching the Gaza port.

Two dozen cabinet members – who are collectively responsible for the crisis – say they first heard about the incident on the radio.

Not only is it unnecessary to appoint an inquiry committee to examine the problematic takeover of the Mavi Marmara, but doing so is likely to detract attention from the far-reaching strategic ramifications of the Gaza blockade and its implementation.

Syrian President Bashar Assad wasn’t exaggerating when he described the flotilla as a turning point in the Arab-Israeli conflict, by which he presumably meant that the incident dragged the Israeli government into the losing sphere of ethics and human rights.

In this assymetric struggle between the occupier and the occupied, military supremacy not only fails to ensure victory, but easily becomes a hindrance.

In the absence of a genuine peace process, the flotilla saga caused the moderate Arab center, led by Egypt and Saudi Arabia, to lose what momentum it had. Now the momentum is with the radical Islamists on the fringes, led by Iran.

There’s no need to bother a retired judge just so he can rule that the decision-makers should have been aware of the race for Middle East supremacy.

And there’s nothing that any expert in maritime law has to say that will prevent the Arab-speaking public from pressuring Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to open the Rafah crossing.

We don’t need an inquiry committee to know that the blockade keeping cilantro and cement out of Gaza has turned Tehran’s deniers of the Jewish genocide and Ankara’s deniers of the Armenian genocide into standard-bearers for assistance to the unfortunate children of Gaza.

At the same time, Hamas is laughing all the way from the smuggling tunnels to the bank. The blockade has transformed Hamas, which the United States and Europe classify as a terror organization, into a victim of Israeli aggression.

You don’t have to be an expert on the Middle East to realize that every day in which Israel drags its feet on peace talks with the Palestinians bolsters Hamas’ position in Gaza. All you had to do was see Iran’s ally to Israel’s north licking its lips in pleasure in order to realize the price of the standstill on the Syrian track.

Even the best of Israel’s friends in the world have a hard time understanding the Netanyahu-Barak government, not to mention justifying its actions. Anthony Cordesman, a military expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a foreign policy think tank in Washington, wrote in an article last week that “the depth of America’s moral commitment does not justify or excuse actions by an Israeli government that unnecessarily make Israel a strategic liability when it should remain an asset.”

Cordesman, who previously served as director of intelligence assessment in the Pentagon, also said America’s commitment to Israel “does not mean that the United States should extend support to an Israeli government when that government fails to credibly pursue peace with its neighbors.”

Instead of just shoving one more report in the drawer, it would be best to make the flotilla saga a turning point in Israel’s policy governing the Gaza blockade and the continued occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Floating along in the direction we’ve been going will just get us into hot water.

Zoabi: “Israel’s ‘house of democracy’ is turning into a house of racism and incitement”: IOA

Haneen Zoabi press release – 7 June 2010
[Haneen Zoabi] stated that the Knesset committee has taken decisions in retaliation against her, and virtually every Knesset Member is calling for more extreme measures, including calls for her dismissal from the Knesset, to revoke her citizenship, to expel her from the country, and imprisonment. Thus, these MKs consider the committee’s decisions to be just a first step of more punitive measures to come. “Our response will be to defy them. We will continue on our path of upholding human values and human rights, calling for equality, justice and the end of occupation and racism despite all their incitement and threats.”

Press Release The National Democratic Assembly MK Haneen Zoabi – Parliamentary Office 7 June 2010
Knesset House Committee voted to revoke the parliamentary rights of MK Haneen Zoabi
Zoabi: “Israel’s ‘house of democracy’ is turning into a house of racism and incitement”
On Monday, 7 June 2010, the Knesset House Committee voted by a seven-to-one majority to revoke the parliamentary rights of (MK) Haneen Zoabi. The vote came in the wake of her participation in the “Gaza Freedom Flotilla” which aimed to break the siege on the Gaza Strip imposed by Israel since 2007. The Committee decision still needs to be approved by the Knesset plenum. Arab parties collectively decided to boycott the Committee session in protest of the attack and the escalating levels of incitement that MK Zoabi and Arab MKs in general have faced.
In addition to demands for her to be brought to account as a “terrorist” and for her party, the National Democratic Assembly (Balad), to be outlawed, the incitement against MK Zoabi sank even lower than the depths it reached in the Knesset session held last Wednesday. During today’s session a female MK resorted to abusive language so obscene that the chair of session Yaron Levin demanded that it be deleted from the official record. The incitement also descended into personal attacks against Zoabi and targeted her as a woman.
The committee recommended that Zoabi should be stripped of three rights usually enjoyed by members of the Israeli Knesset. First, she should be prevented from travelling in case she is on her way “to commit an offence”. Second, her diplomatic passport should be
revoked, and, third, she should no longer be entitled to legal expenses from the Knesset in case she is put on trial.
The session was held in the Knesset and headed by Yariv Levin (Likud). He quoted statements made by MK Zoabi about the Freedom Flotilla and what she described as the “oppressive siege on the Gaza Strip”. He also raised remarks she had made about Israel’s nuclear capabilities, referring to her statement that Israel must not be allowed to remain the sole nuclear power in the Middle East. Levin also described political positions adopted by Zoabi that he claimed posed a threat to the State of Israel: he showed clips from her interviews with journalists and with Arab satellite channels in which she rejected the Jewish nature of the state, called for a state of all its citizens, demanded an end to the occupation, and called for Israeli war crimes to be exposed and for those responsible to be held to account. These political positions, granted by freedom of speech in a normal democractic environment, let alone to an MK, were viewed by head of the committee and the majority of its members as crimes that justifiy stripping Zoabi of her rights as an MK.
Yoel Hasson of Kadima said that “Haneen Zoabi has crossed the line. The goal of Haneen Zoabi was to tarnish Israel’s image in the international community.” Nissim Cohen railed against Zoabi, stating that in a war there are those who support it and that “there were terrorists aboard the ship and Zoabi must be held accountable as a terrorist.”
Following the session, MK Haneen Zoabi stated that “Israel still denies its responsibility towards the killing of civilians on the Mavi Marmara, its responsibility for the starvation of the people of Gaza, and the international outrage caused by its actions. Unable to deal with this, it chose to regard me as a scape goat”. She added that “the session occurred within an atmosphere of violent incitement in which the MKs have incited the Israeli public to use violence” against her.
MK Zoabi stated that “Israel, following the international reaction to its bloody attack on humanitarian flotilla, is embarrassed and confused. Unable to deal with the shock and anger of the international community, I have become their punching bag.”
Zoabi added that “there is no democracy in Israel, we are operating within the margins of democracy, and even this narrow margin Israel is trying to eliminate. Israel is trying to portray this as ‘Arabs versus Jews’; however I don’t represent only Arabs, I also represent Jewish groups, however marginal, who are against blockade on Gaza; and in particular I represent international consensus on this issue.” She added that “Israel’s true image has been revealed — they are confused and embarrassed and want to retaliate. I have become their easy prey.”
She stated that the Knesset committee has taken decisions in retaliation against her, and virtually every Knesset Member is calling for more extreme measures, including calls for her dismissal from the Knesset, to revoke her citizenship, to expel her from the country, and imprisonment. Thus, these MKs consider the committee’s decisions to be just a first step of more punitive measures to come. “Our response will be to defy them. We will continue on our path of upholding human values and human rights, calling for equality, justice and the end of occupation and racism despite all their incitement and threats.”

Mad Israelis Section

The contributors to this section are marked in red, just to warn readers that they are on a nutter article…

EDITOR: New contributor to this section, but by no way is he a new face on Israeli Nutterdom. Mr. Segal is a man of simple ideas, and even simpler solutions. The problem is not that Israel kills many people all the time – the problem is that people know about it… and he has a solution!

Shut down al-Jazeera: YNet

Only a nation with zero will to survive issues press cards to its enemies
Hagai Segal
Published: 06.07.10, 00:46
The Gaza-bound flotilla was eventually stopped, yet the al-Jazeera warship continues to sail as usual. The network’s photos from the battle scene at sea again made it first to satellite dishes worldwide. As usual, the images were accompanied by a soundtrack of lies, incitement, and hatred for Israel.

Our government pledged to apply all the lessons it learned in the Marmara raid ahead of future flotillas, yet one lesson can be applied at this time already: Kick al-Jazeera out of Israel. Shut down their offices here tomorrow morning and confiscate their equipment. Of course, also revoke their reporters’ and photographers’ press cards.

The attorney general will find the proper clause that would allow us to undertake such move. He may even designate the network as a terrorist organization. After all, al-Jazeera assists Hamas to a much greater extent than all the organization’s television and radio stations combined. Would we allow Hamas to maintain official studios here?

The Olmert government already took a decision in the past to boycott al-Jazeera, but it did not find the courage to truly boycott it. The Qatar-based network continues to broadcast from here, while sinking us in waves of venom.

Hornets’ nest
Every time the network turns on a camera or a microphone in this country, tens of millions of viewers worldwide get another proof that Israel lost its desire to live. Only a nation with zero will to survive issues press cards to its enemies. The time has come to prove to everyone that we choose life after all.

International media organizations will raise a hue and cry and argue that the move is tantamount to silencing divergent opinions, etc. etc. Yet this will be no more than hypocritical nonsense that we shall somehow have to tolerate.

Indeed, shutting down al-Jazeera’s broadcasts from Israel will undermine the freedom of expression to the same extent that shutting down a brothel undermines one freedom to make a living.
As far as it applies to Israel, al-Jazeera is not a media outlet; rather, it is a hornets’ nest. How long will we wait before we dispatch a police team over there with a closure order?

EDITOR: Another new contributor to Mad Israelis is making her debut…

You are our children: YNet

People known as ‘IDF troops’ are our children, the sum of our hopes, dreams
Merav Batito
Published: 06.03.10, 18:45
It was my child who was grabbed by his legs and thrown off the upper deck of the ship; who was brutally beaten up; who had a stun grenade hurled at him; who was stabbed in the stomach; who had his arm broken.

It was my child who was stunned to discover that the peace activists, the cool youngsters on board the ship – the ones who must be wearing a Che Guevara t-shirt and listening to Bob Marley music – are in fact a bunch of wolves posing as little red riding hood.

It was my child who was willing to put himself through demanding physical training starting in 10th grade already in order to become a Navy commando; who was as happy as can be when he completed a course that only few manage to survive through. It is my child who arrives home on Fridays just to hug and kiss me because I remembered to make the schnitzel he loves so much.

It was my child who found himself attacked with bats and stun grenades, after he was equipped with a paintball gun and was told a thousand times to be gentle with the peace sailors, lest everything get out of control and the whole world will rise up against us.

It was my child, the one I gave birth to, educated, and sent to the IDF, who truly felt this is an important national mission, and that he should be doing everything in order not to disappoint his commanders, his friends, his army chief, his defense minister, and his mother.

Just like an unexpected slap to the face of a passerby at a dark alley came this recognition. Just like the first rain after a year of drought. These people we got used to referring to as “IDF soldiers” are our children. We gave birth to them in our image, and they’re us.

They are the sum of all our hopes, aspirations, and dreams. This is exactly what we wanted, this is what we prayed for, and they are the people who made us so proud.

I think this is quite enough, but please feel free to enjoy the madness in full, by using the link above.

The last contributor for today is Mr. Assaf Wohl, who writes most poetically.

Thank you, 1st sergeant A.: YNet

Assaf Wohl writes to our Navy Seals, who bear Jewish history’s burden on their shoulders
Assaf Wohl
Published: 06.01.10, 23:49
Dear First Sergeant A.

You’ve become famous, my brother. I know you didn’t want to. You prefer the dark waters of the night. Yet suddenly we can see you on every self-respecting news channel – CNN, BBC, NBC.

There you are, quickly gliding down to the deck of the vessel. The audience at home watches with concern. Not all of us get the chance to jump off a helicopter in the middle of the night straight into an ocean of hatred and the knives held by bloodthirsty “peace activists.”

I know that at such moments, there is only one thing that truly scares you: Your mother finding out who you hang out with at night. Perhaps this is why your face is covered. Nonetheless, you show no hesitation and glide down. I think you may be doing it not only because your friends need you on that deck, or because of the heavy weight of the equipment you’re carrying. You may dismiss my words with a smile, but I believe another force pulled you down.

It’s a rather heavy burden, First Sergeant A. The burden of the Jewish people. It sounds bombastic, right? “History” and “ideals” are bad words in the post-Israeli discourse. Even to me it sounds a little schmaltzy. Our precious elites, which at this time engage in constant self-flagellation, managed to entrench within us the weakness of spirit and a sense of cynicism.

However, this burden exists. Perhaps it managed to find its way to your shoulders back when you were born. You are a citizen of the Jewish State, First Sergeant A., and your medical profile makes you fit to be a combat soldier. Hence, you have been destined to glide down from helicopters at late hours of night and take the spiting of the whole enlightened world. This world also expects you not to respond, even when someone fires at you.

I think this is quite enough, but there is more where this came from – please feel free to enjoy the madness in full, by using the link above.

And the best part – a report by the excellent Max Blumenthal on Israeli madness, with a clip to illustrate it:

Pro-IDF, Anti-Turkish Rally in Tel Aviv (or a Glimpse Into Collective Israeli Derangement): Max Blumenthal

June 7, 2010

On June 1, 2010, thousands of Israelis gathered spontaneously in front of the Turkish Embassy in Tel Aviv to demonstrate in support of the Israeli Naval commando unit that killed nine passengers on the Mavi Marmara, a Turkish-backed boat from the Gaza Freedom Flotilla. Egged on by the Israeli government and media, the demonstrators lashed out at Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan for his support of the Marmara, accusing him and passengers on the ship of terrorist ties. Besides with the massacre of Turkish aid workers, the spectacle of massive Israeli protests against Turkey threatens to permanently rupture Israel’s ties to its closest Muslim ally and further isolate the country on the world stage.

The rally provided a clear window into the mentality of many Israelis after the raid. International condemnation has deepened the public’s siege mentality, leading many demonstrators to claim that anti-Semitism best explained the world’s motives. The belief that the Mavi Marmara was a terrorist ship with support from an assortment of Islamic evildoers including Al Qaida was nearly unanimous, and was offered by rally participants as an excuse for their killing. Many viewed the incident out in the shadow of the Holocaust, convinced that Marmara passengers had shouted at the commandos, “Go back to Auschwitz!”

Such convictions were understandable in light of the aggressive propaganda campaign the Israeli Defense Forces and Israeli Foreign Ministry have waged in the wake of the flotilla raid. The IDF has claimed that it discovered 40 “Al Qaeda mercenaries” on the Mavi Marmara and blasted out an audio clip purporting to show flotilla passengers proclaiming to the IDF, “Go back to Auschwitz!” Even though the IDF retracted its claim about Al Qaida operatives and was forced to concede that its “Auschwitz” audio clip was doctored, Israeli and American media outlets that reported the army’s claims have not corrected their stories. Consequently, many Israelis are accepting their government’s view without a second thought. As one demonstrator said, “I believe every word our soldiers. Every word!”

The rally was organized through Israeli Facebook groups and by the notoriously anti-Arab football club Betar Jerusalem. It was only one of many spontaneous outbursts of extreme nationalism that have erupted across Israel since the flotilla raid. Many participants in the rally remarked that they had not seen the public so thoroughly united behind the government in all their lives. As one demonstrator put it, “I’m very happy [about] what happened because it united the country, and not all the Israelis, all the Jewish [sic]; all united for a cause, and it’s against the civil war that we always had.”

Israel apologises for spoof video mocking Gaza flotilla: BBC

Page last updated at 11:03 GMT, Monday, 7 June 2010 12:03 UK
E-mail this to a friendPrintable version The video parodies the 1985 charity single We Are the World
The Israeli government has apologised after its press office emailed to journalists a spoof video about the flotilla which tried to dock in Gaza.

The video shows people dressed as peace activists singing “we con the world” to the tune of We Are the World.
A spokesman said the video did not represent the Israeli government’s view.
The video contains real footage of the Israeli raid on the flotilla in which nine activists died

‘Bluff’
In the clip, which parodies the video made for the 1985 charity song, the singers are dressed up in costumes representing the captain of the flotilla, western peace activists, and Arabs wearing keffiyeh scarves.

“There’s no people dying, so the best that we can do, is create the greatest bluff of all”, they sing.

“I thought it was funny. It is what Israelis feel, but the government has nothing to do with it”
Mark Regev
Israeli government spokesman
“We are peaceful travellers, we’re waving our own knives,” the song goes.
The song builds to a chorus of “we con the world, we con the people. We’ll make them all believe the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) is Jack the Ripper.”
At one point the singer dressed as the flotilla captain sings “Ithbah al-Yahud” which means “slaughter the Jews” in Arabic.
The video is interspersed with footage from the Israeli commando raid on the Mavi Marmara, the Turkish lead vessel of the flotilla which tried to break an Israeli and Egyptian blockade on Gaza last week.

‘Funny’
Nine passengers on board were killed during the Israeli commando raid on the ship.
The ships were towed to the port of Ashdod and the activists deported.
Mark Regev, spokesman for the Israeli Prime Minister’s office, told the UK’s Guardian newspaper: “I called my kids in to watch it because I thought it was funny. It is what Israelis feel. But the government has nothing to do with it.”

The video was made by the Hebrew satirical website Latma.co.il, run by Jerusalem Post deputy editor Caroline Glick.
On her website she said the clip featured “the Turkish-Hamas ‘love boat’ captain, crew and passengers in a musical explanation of how they con the world.”
“We think this is an important Israeli contribution to the discussion of recent events,” Ms Glick wrote.
But there has also been condemnation of the spoof.
“The video is a repulsive attempt to use satire to make Israel’s case on Flotilla debacle,” Didi Remez of the Coteret blog said.

June 7, 2010

EDITOR: Even lying needs to be done professionally…

You would have thought that Israel would be the world expert in lying and creative fictions. It seems, however, that like the rest of their operations in the last decade, the lying operations have also got less and less professional. It will be impossible to enumerate here all the lies spouted by the Creative Writing dept. of the IOF, but one by one, the chickens come home to roost. One of the more disgusting fictions was the cooking of the Mavi Marmara recording, to include the line “Go back to Auschwitz”. That someone thought that this was either acceptable to lie like that, or that it would be accepted, id in itself a mark of the moral and social degradation of this criminalised and militarised society, and its deeply psychotic behaviour.

Israel is adept at inventing antisemitism in situation where it is not on offer freely. This time, it exceeded itself – Israel is actually acting to produce antisemitism the world over, not just by its continuing and escalating war-crimes, but also by the ‘efficient’ Habara – the lie machine; by exposing more and more of the lies and false accusations, Israel is producing an atmosphere in which Jews will automatically be identified with those crimes and their coverup by foul means. This poses grave danger to Jewish communities everywhere, a danger they are not yet fully cognisant of, or prefer to ignore for the time being.

For Israel, this emerging anti-Israel sentiment, which can easily become antisemitic if used by right wing elements, is most welcome. After all, Zionism is based on the single premise that Jews cannot, and should not, live amongst non-Jews. No doubt some Zionist leaders in Israel are looking forward to the increase in immigration to Israel as a result of the rise in antisemitism. Antisemitism has always been the Recruiting Sergeant for Zionism.

Israel forced to apologise for YouTube spoof of Gaza flotilla: The Guardian

Israeli government press office distributed video link featuring Arabs and activists singing
The Israeli government has been forced to apologise for circulating a spoof video mocking activists aboard the Gaza flotilla, nine of who were shot dead by Israeli forces last week.

The YouTube clip, set to the tune of the 1985 charity single We Are the World, features Israelis dressed as Arabs and activists, waving weapons while singing: “We con the world, we con the people. We’ll make them all believe the IDF (Israel Defence Force) is Jack the Ripper.”

It continues: “There’s no people dying, so the best that we can do is create the biggest bluff of all.”

The Israeli government press office distributed the video link to foreign journalists at the weekend, but within hours emailed them an apology, saying it had been an error. Press office director Danny Seaman said the video did not reflect official state opinion, but in his personal capacity he thought it was “fantastic”.

Government spokesman Mark Regev said the video reflected how Israelis felt about the incident. “I called my kids in to watch it because I thought it was funny,” he said. “It is what Israelis feel. But the government has nothing to do with it.”

The clip features a group led by the Jerusalem Post’s deputy managing editor Caroline Glick, wearing keffiyehs and calling themselves the Flotilla Choir. The footage is interspersed with clips from the recent Israeli raid on the Gaza-bound aid ship, the Mavi Marmara.

The clip has been praised in Israel, where the mass-circulation daily Yediot Aharonot said the singers “defended Israel better than any of the experts”.

But Didi Remez, an Israeli who runs the liberal-left news analysis blog Coteret, said the clip was “repulsive” and reflected how out of touch Israeli opinion was with the rest of the world. “It shows a complete lack of understanding of how the incident is being perceived abroad,” he said. Award-winning Israeli journalist Meron Rapoport said the clip demonstrated prejudice against Muslims. “It’s roughly done, not very sophisticated, anti-Muslim – and childish for the government to be behind such a clip,” he said.

A similar press office email was sent to foreign journalists two weeks ago, recommending a gourmet restaurant and Olympic-sized swimming pool in Gaza to highlight Israel’s claim there is no humanitarian crisis there. Journalists who complained the email was in poor taste were told they had “no sense of humour”.

Last week, the Israel Defence Force had to issue a retraction over an audio clip it had claimed was a conversation between Israeli naval officials and people on the Mavi Marmara, in which an activist told soldiers to “go back to Auschwitz”. The clip was carried by Israeli and international press, but today the army released a “clarification/correction”, explaining that it had edited the footage and that it was not clear who had made the comment.

The Israeli army also backed down last week from an earlier claim that soldiers were attacked by al-Qaida “mercenaries” aboard the Gaza flotilla. An article appearing on the IDF spokesperson’s website with the headline: “Attackers of the IDF soldiers found to be al-Qaida mercenaries”, was later changed to “Attackers of the IDF Soldiers found without identification papers,” with the information about al-Qaida removed from the main article. An army spokesperson told the Guardian there was no evidence proving such a link to the terror organisation.

While the debate over accounts of the flotilla raid continues, Israel is facing more boycotting. In the past week, three international acts, including the US rock band the Pixies, have cancelled concerts in Tel Aviv.

Best-settling authors Alice Walker and Iain Banks have backed the boycott campaign, with Banks announcing his books won’t be translated into Hebrew. Dockworker unions in Sweden and South Africa have refused to handle Israeli ships, while the UK’s Unite union just passed a motion to boycott Israeli companies.

• This article was amended on 7 June 2010. The original referred to Didi Remez as a female. This has been corrected.

Israel and the aid convoy: How to make enemies: The Guardian

Israel’s defiant reaction to the raid on the Gaza aid convoy is almost as appalling as the attack itself
When sovereign states make mistakes, they promise impartial inquiries, they express remorse to the families of the bereaved, they apologise. Not Binyamin Netanyahu’s government. Almost as appalling as the commando raid itself, in which nine pro-Palestinian activists were killed on an aid convoy bound for Gaza, has been Israel’s official reaction to it. The policy was to shoot first and discredit the victims later. On a video posted online by the Jerusalem Post, Mr Netanyahu said: “This wasn’t a love boat. This was a hate boat. These weren’t pacifists, they weren’t peace activists, these were violent supporters of terrorism.” The government press office emailed foreign journalists a satirical clip entitled “Flotilla Choir presents: We Con the World”, before withdrawing it and saying the film’s content did not reflect the official stance of Israel. To cap it all, the Israeli prime minister yesterday rejected calls for an international inquiry.

The format of the inquiry proposed by the UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon would have favoured Israel, because Israeli and US representatives would have sat alongside Turkish ones, whose nationals were the commando raid’s principal victims. The proposed chairman of the inquiry would have been the former prime minister of New Zealand, Geoffrey Palmer, an expert on maritime law. No Richard Goldstone he. But even this proposal was too much for Mr Netanyahu, who along with his defence minister Ehud Barak, refused point blank to allow any foreigner to interrogate Israeli officers and soldiers.

As the Winograd commission showed in its investigation into the 2006 Lebanese war, Israeli judges are more than capable of bringing their politicians and military to book. But this is not an internal Israeli matter. The commando raid was carried out in international waters, 77 miles off the coast of Gaza, where Israel has no legal entitlement. Its fatal victims were eight Turkish and one US national, and 30 other nationalities were involved as well.

There are real questions to answer, such as testimony that shots were fired before the commandos hit the deck of the Mavi Marmara, that the victims had multiple gunshot wounds to the head, apparently contradicting the claim that commandos only fired in self-defence. There is also testimony that backs the claim that soldiers were seized and stripped of their weapons before others stormed aboard. This evidence is unlikely to be tested by an Israeli inquiry and the rest of the world, particularly the Muslim one, will conclude that it is because Israeli commanders have something to hide.

Turkey is unlikely to take the shooting of its citizens lying down. Even less so, now that the Israeli foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman has branded the Turkish prime minister Reccep Erdogan an Islamic extremist. This week Istanbul will host a Eurasian security summit, attended by eight presidents, which will rapidly turn into an international forum for condemning Israel and its illegal siege of Gaza. Alienating not only 72 million Turks, but the only Muslim member of Nato, will have repercussions for Israel that spread far and wide. Day by day, Israel is isolating itself both from international law and world opinion.

The cost of underwriting the self-destructive behaviour of its strategic partner in the Middle East is starting to mount exponentially in Washington. Both Barack Obama and General David Petraeus have adversely linked the Arab-Israeli conflict to America’s own security interests. First came Mr Netanyahu’s refusal to stop construction in Arab East Jerusalem; now Israel has picked a fight with a key Muslim ally. Israel’s refusal to accept an international inquiry will only add weight to the view that it has become a strategic liability to the interests of the country that guarantees its survival. Mr Netanyahu would be foolish to assume that Mr Obama is not drawing the same conclusion.

Israel rejects multinational inquiry into flotilla attack: The Guardian

UN-proposed commission into flotilla raid is dismissed as global pressure grows for Israel to ease its blockade of Gaza
Israeli soldiers stand behind a Turkish flag, held by activists during a protest against the Israeli naval commando raid on a flotilla attempting to break the blockade on Gaza. Photograph: Abed Al Hashlamoun/EPA
Israel’s prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, today dismissed a UN proposal for an international commission to investigate last week’s assault on a flotilla of aid ships.

Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary general, proposed a commission of inquiry headed by the former New Zealand prime minister Geoffrey Palmer, who is an expert in maritime law. The commission would include representatives of Israel, the US and Turkey. All nine activists killed in the operation were Turkish; one held joint US citizenship.

Ban discussed the plan with Netanyahu, who later briefed party colleagues on the call, saying: “We need to consider the issue carefully and level-headedly while monitoring Israel’s national interests.”

Israel would not react or take decisions under the pressure of events, an official who was present at the meeting said.

Israel’s ambassador to the United States, Michael Oren, was more explicit: “We are rejecting an international commission. We are discussing with the Obama administration a way in which our inquiry will take place,” he said.

Despite global condemnation of last week’s raid and demands for a thorough and impartial investigation and an easing of Israel’s blockade on Gaza, there was no discussion of the issues at today’s cabinet meeting.

Important decisions relating to security issues are usually taken by a smaller security council, rather than full Israeli cabinet. However, according to the official, there are no firm plans for the smaller group to meet.

Israel is also pursuing compromise measures to deflect growing pressure to relax the blockade. Significantly, the US has added its voice to calls for a new policy, with the secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, describing the current siege as “unsustainable”.

Signs of divergent views within the cabinet came from Israel’s welfare minister, Isaac Herzog, who called for the siege policy to be reconsidered. “The time has come to do away with the blockade, ease the restrictions on the inhabitants and find another alternative,” he said.

The government claims it has indicated a willingness for greater flexibility in the amount and type of aid it allows into Gaza through land crossings, but insists it will maintain its naval blockade for security reasons.

“The policy was not static. It was moving anyway [before the flotilla] and we will continue to move,” an official said.

Aid agencies say any relaxation of the blockade has been minimal and the current situation is totally inadequate to meet the needs of the 80% of Gazans dependent on international aid.

Britain’s shadow foreign secretary, David Miliband, described the isolation of Gaza as “a stain on policy right across the Middle East”. “I think there have been a series of deadly and self-defeating actions by successive Israeli governments in respect of Gaza,” he told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show.

The UK today announced a £19m donation of aid to Gaza.

Israel’s hard line on future shipping aid convoys could be as tested as early as this week after two organisations pledged to send boats carrying aid to Gaza in the next few days. Reporters Without Borders was attempting to assemble 25 European activists and 50 journalists for a boat leaving Beirut. The Free Palestine Movement was planning a similar operation.

The Turkish prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan – who was the subject of fresh vitriol in the Israeli media today – had raised the idea of personally joining an aid ship to Gaza, according to Lebanese media reports. Turkey last week recalled its ambassador to Israel.

Israel’s foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, today insisted that “it is inconceivable that we should apologise to the Turkish government”. He hinted that Turkey was heading in the same direction as Iran, saying Iran had been a “good friend” to Israel in the 1970s. This was echoed by his deputy, Danny Ayalon, who said: “If they sever relations, it is clear they are switching sides in the direction of extremist Islam.”

The 19 passengers and crew who were on board the aid ship the Rachel Corrie when it was forcibly diverted to the Israeli port of Ashdod are due to arrive in Ireland tomorrow after being deported from Israel.

The Israeli government, still battling for the dominance of its version of events surrounding the flotilla assault, attempted to draw a distinction between the Rachel Corrie and the Mavi Marmara, the Turkish vessel that was the scene of last week’s bloodshed. “The entire world saw the difference between a humanitarian flotilla and a hate flotilla by violent, terrorism supporting extremists,” Netanyahu told party colleagues.

The US rock band Pixies cancelled a concert in Tel Aviv in protest at last week’s bloodshed. The decision followed similar moves by Klaxons and Gorillaz. Authors Alice Walker and Iain Banks have backed the boycott, with Banks saying his books will not be translated into Hebrew.

Dockworker unions in Sweden and South Africa have refused to handle Israeli ships, while the UK’s Unite union passed a motion to boycott Israeli companies.

EDITOR: A voice in the wilderness…

The editorials in Haaretz have become more and more desperate, and more radical than ever. Unfortunately, this exception proves the rule – the Israeli media is, on the whole, servile and unprofessional, and accepts the IDF’s pronouncements as facts, when most of the time those are crude fabrications. In time, this attitude of the Israeli media, like that of the rest of the social elites, will bring about its decomposition and breakdown. For now, the flag-waving is going on.

Dangerous incitement: Haaretz Editorial

Arab citizens may be the direct victims of government policy and the atmosphere in the Knesset, but all of society will pay the price of the devastation that will result.

Of all the damage done by the botched takeover of the Mavi Marmara, one aspect is particularly serious: the further erosion of the relationship between the State of Israel and its Arab citizens, and between Jews and Arabs in Israel in general.
While decisions were made concerning the flotilla to Gaza, the prime minister, his ministers and his spokesmen knew that on board the Mavi Marmara were a number of Arab Israeli public figures, including a Knesset member and a political-religious leader. However, they took no particular precautions. Apparently, no voice of reason was heard, asking that MK Hanin Zuabi and Sheikh Ra’ad Salah not be turned into heroes. But the intimidation and incitement against them were even more egregious.

Even sworn opponents of Zuabi and her political path should be deeply concerned by Interior Minister Eli Yishai’s proposal to revoke her citizenship and by the formulation of a bill demanding her expulsion from the legislature. The very wording of the bill – calling for “ousting a sitting Knesset member if the member was involved in the action of an enemy country or in incitement against the State of Israel” – shows ignorance with regard to the limits of protest in a democracy (Turkey is not an enemy country; political critique is not incitement ) and, at worst, reflects a trend aimed specifically at silencing Arabs.

This trend is surfacing in most of the parties in the Knesset, with the enthusiastic encouragement of most ministers, above all Yishai, who continually lashes out against Arabs. Some of the unrestrained statements by lawmakers on the right and the center and their distorted initiatives – such as the attempt to deny pensions to Arab MKs who are seen as “betraying the state,” even if they were not tried – are enough to persuade one that the flotilla debacle served those people as a pretext to ratchet up the delegitimization of Israel’s Arab citizens and brand them as traitors.

Avigdor Lieberman is not alone: His work, of inciting against Israel’s Arab community, is now being done by many of the MKs who signed the “Zuabi bill.” In addition to the dubious loyalty legislation that has been proposed, this instance of incitement brings Israel to an unprecedented low. Arab citizens may be the direct victims of government policy and the atmosphere in the Knesset, but all of society will pay the price of the devastation that will result.

Continue reading June 7, 2010