I wish I had written such a post, but instead I happened upon it via an e-mail sent from a relative. And it was at HuffPo, of all places.
Rarely have I seen someone hit the hypocrisy of the anti-Israel movement the way David Suissa does in Israel’s Never Looked So Good.
Here’s a taste of Suissa’s post, but you really do need to read the whole thing, and imagine Rick Santelli shouting it out loud:
“Has there ever been a greater abuse of the English language in international diplomacy than calling the Israeli-Palestinian conflict the “Middle East peace process?” As if there were only two countries in the Middle East.
Even if you absolutely believe in the imperative of creating a Palestinian state, you can’t tell me that the single-minded and global obsession with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at the expense of the enormous ills in the rest of the Middle East hasn’t been idiotic, if not criminally negligent.
While tens of millions of Arabs have been suffering for decades from brutal oppression, while gays have been tortured and writers jailed and women humiliated and dissidents killed, the world — yes, the world — has obsessed with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
As if Palestinians — the same coddled victims on whom the world has spent billions and who have rejected one peace offer after another — were the only victims in the Middle East.
As if the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has anything to do with the 1,000-year-old bloody conflict between Sunni and Shiite Muslims, or the desire of brutal Arab dictators to stay in power, or the desire of Islamist radicals to bring back the Caliphate, or the economic despair of millions, or simply the absence of free speech or basic human rights throughout the Arab world.
While self-righteous Israel bashers have scrutinized every flaw in Israel’s democracy — some waxing hysterical that the Jewish democratic experiment in the world’s nastiest neighborhood had turned into an embarrassment — they kept their big mouths shut about the oppression of millions of Arabs throughout the Middle East.”
Good stuff, huh? It gets better:
“Think of the ridiculous amount of media ink and diplomatic attention that has been poured onto the Israel-Palestinian conflict over the years, while much of the Arab world was suffering and smoldering, and tell me this is not criminal negligence. Do you ever recall seeing a UN resolution or an international conference in support of Middle Eastern Arabs not named Palestinians?
Of course, now that the Arab volcano has finally erupted, all those chronic Israel bashers have suddenly discovered a new cause: Freedom for the poor oppressed Arabs of the Middle East!”
And then the finale:
“Maybe it’s just easier to beat up on a free and open society like Israel.
Well, now that the cesspool of human oppression in the Arab world has been opened for all to see, how bad is Israel’s democracy looking? Don’t you wish the Arab world had a modicum of Israel’s civil society? Would you still be worrying about “stability in the Middle East?”
You can preach to me all you want about the great Jewish tradition of self-criticism — which I believe in — but right now, when I see poor Arab souls being murdered for the simple act of protesting on the street, I’ve never felt more proud of being a supporter of the Jewish state.”
I don’t know about you, but this certainly motivates me to renew my efforts to counter the obsessive Israel-bashing of the likes of Juan Cole, M.J. Rosenthal, Glenn Greenwald, Philip Weiss, George Bisharat, Greta Berlin, Max Blumenthal, Pallywood, and all the other useful idiots.
Damn, I wish I had written that post.
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Comments
Israel is a pretty good litmus test for a number of things. As a side note–and thanks for bringing this excellent writing to our attention–it is significant that the left, which claims to be all for the rights of gays and women, should by such measure be wildly pro-Israel. Instead it is wildly anti-Israel, which shows that whatever the left is about it is not about it's claimed values.
I am Jewish and an active Zionist. But I'd support Israel even if the Israelis were Vietnamese, or for that matter Taiwanese.
This was in the Huffington Post?!?! No, I'm not questioning you – I just clicked on the link and saw it for myself. I'm just amazed.
Flabbergasted.
Gobsmacked.
I expect the public flogging of David Suissa will begin in 3… 2… 1….
Thank you for bringing this article to our attention. The HuffPo is such a cesspool to begin with your discovery has saved my beloved rubber boots.
Great post. Keep up the fight! It is worth it. To stand for the truth, for what is right, for those who are wrongly maligned – that is our worthy cause.
Brilliant! So simple even morons should be able to grasp the concept. And even if they won't admit it, they will find it more difficult to spin, spin, spin.
And while Hillary "It takes taxpayer money for that village" Clinton redistributes $900 million dollars that someone else had to earn on her last visit to Egypt for Gaza, don't think that bribes don't matter. Foreign aid is just another term for earmark or shipping jobs overseas. Do you really think that those in Egypt don't realize the squeaky wheel that is the Muslim Brotherhood offshoot across the way in Gaza are not living it up through force, murder, and charter genocide against Jews and Israel?
We can all admit that 30 years on Mubarak has to go with true free elections in Egypt but would the Muslim Brotherhood hold so much sway if not for the images from the Gaza shopping mall?
http://www.tomgrossmedia.com/mideastdispatches/archives/001127.html
According to The Guardian, the Mall is part of an entertainment "circuit" for wealthy Gazans, which includes seaside cafes, swimming at the Crazy Water Park and riding at the Faisal Equestrian Club. But as Gross notes:
“When leading news outlets mention the so-called humanitarian flotillas from Turkey, why do they omit the fact that life expectancy and literacy rates are higher, and infant mortality rates are lower in Gaza than corresponding rates in Turkey? Have they considered that perhaps the humanitarian flotillas ought to be going in the other direction, towards Turkey?”