Humor column lampooning Arab-Israeli relations using Facebook -- Ray Hanania

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Permalink Reply by Paul RETI on July 3, 2009 at 5:12am

Yes. :-)

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Permalink Reply by Eyal Raviv إيال راڤيڤ אייל רביב on July 3, 2009 at 2:19pm

Beautiful, thank you for sharing! I wish you had mentioned mepeace.org as an alternative.

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Permalink Reply by Ray Hanania on July 3, 2009 at 2:30pm

I am amazed at how many rightwing Israelis love the "humor" but hate the reality ... now I have been inundated with Israelis who want to be "friends" but who don't know what the meaning of friendship is all about ... the fact is that criticism of Israel is REQUIRED in a democratic society and that people who can't take any criticism do not deserve to be allowed to engage in any dialogues ... and the criticism should be focused on issues not people, but every person who challenged me on the arrest and hijacking of Cynthia McKinney and my argument that there is a US media blackout on the story -- so little is being reported -- is attracting personal attacks against me instead of a discussion of the issues. Pathetic, really.

How can moderate Palestinians ever stand up if the debate is manipulated and managed to only focus on one-side, criticism of the Palestinians and Hamas, but no criticism of Israelis. I am SHOCKED at how little criticism there is of Israel's GOVERNMENT actions by Israelis themselves. When israel's government does wrong, there is a knee-jeerk reaction among many Israelis to just shurg their shoulders, ignore the facts and justify whatever they do.

I thought Israel is claiming they withdrew from Gaza and using that as a reason why theys houldn't withdraw from the West Bank. They didn't withdraw. They are still in control of Gaza except not from within, but from without. That is still an occupation in my book.

Ray Hanania
www.RadioChicagoland.com

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Permalink Reply by Basil Keilani on July 3, 2009 at 5:07pm

Ray,

You have been around the block a time or two, you know the score, I am sure. Israel is sheltered in the American media in a way it is not even in Canada, where the CBC will show you images you just won't see in the U.S. Europe will give you more of the story.

You do know that back in 2000 during Camp David, if there was a sense of balance in the media people would have heard adequately from Peace Now, Jewish Leftists, Palestinians, Finkelstein, Chomsky, Ilan Pappe et al.
However, there was basically a black-out, so that the Palestinians could be blamed for everything. This was nine years ago, Ray. It isn't really new, so I am not shocked.

In your state of Illinois, Norman Finkelstein was denied tenure, when Alan Dershowitz, who is prominent at Harvard, went on a witch hunt of Finkelstein who is pro-Palestinian and humiliated Dershowitz on a programme. De Paul University then denied Finkelstein tenure, even though Finkelstein's students really liked him. I can understand some might think Finkelstein's blunt, aggressive style is not appealing, but Dershowitz is pretty blunt, too, so he should be kicked out of Harvard using his own logic. But, no, since he is pro-Israeli and Finkelstein is not, different rules apply.

As you in said in your satire, Jews are not united, and Arabs might be even less together. There is no united American Jewish action on Palestine. If there were, then Palestinians would be in better shape, because most American Jews oppose the settlements while 46% of Israelis, according to a recent Haaretz poll, support more settlements even if it means clashing with the US. Well, we need the support of American Jews and for them to do what's right. They stood against segregation in the US South, they helped so many Americans get the labor laws they enjoy, and we need their support to end the tragedy of Israelis occupying Palestinians. For heaven's sake, it's so sad what's happening down there. The blindness is just insane.

It's much easier for Israel to make certain claims, but it is not very, very effective in the end, because more Gaza type operations will just alienate more Europeans and Americans. Israel has lost lots of support amongst the Jewish community from its brutal invasion of Lebanon and lost more due to Gaza and more Americans, though they are not pro-Palestinian, are not crazy about Israel. Palestinians are not viewed favorably partially due to the actions of Hamas. They didn't help the Palestinian image.

Frankly, I want the conflict to end big time. It's not because I am of Palestinian descent like you, Ray.
It's because I want Jewish and Arab lives spared. I also think we have serious pressing environmental and world issues to deal with, and we can't afford to focus so much time on the Arab-Israeli issue. This conflict needs
to end. We need peace for the sake of the world. The world is facing potential crises in the future.

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