Israel Assisted Suicide?

[maven]

A horrible new theory is beginning to dawn on me. After years of contempt by the Government of Israel for the views and feelings of the diaspora and an arrogant refusal to explain itself to the world by for example starting an international newschannel, Jews in the diaspora are more and more everyday jumping ship and beginning to see the possible end of the state of Israel as blessing in disguise; sick of having their schools and synagogues attacked after ever major incident between Israel and the Pals, and in the case of secularists sick of Jews being demonised over the world view of Israel. The sense of magic of Israel is dying for many in the diaspora.

To quote a previous post about Palestinians winning the propaganda war:

"Govt of Israel has to take a large share of the blame for this with it's arrogant refusal to communicate with the outside world apart from dragging poor Mark Regev out of his bed at all times of the night.

No one in their right mind would have chosen our current representative at the UN who is ugly, has no communication skills and has had a personality bypass. Israel's face to the world should be as engaging and photogenic as Dan Gillerman, Shimon Perez or dare I say Mark Regev.

The cabinets refusal to commission an International Newschannel to explain events, it's lack of interest in using Israel's great intellectual resources of psychologists and other experts to counter this propaganda is frankly idiotic.

If the Government of Israel wishes to continue its policy of conceeding the worldwide media to the Pals then they are themselves undermining the state of Israel, placing their own people in danger and making life hell for Jews in the Diaspora who have to put up with the resulting attacks on schools and Synagogues.

In an answer I received to an email to David Horovitz, editor of the JP, Mr Horvitz said that he "pleads at every opportunity for an international newschannel." If the cabinet will not listen to him then what hope for the advice of anyone else?

Pallywood in conjunction with the international left and much of the liberati is engaged in a successful international psychological war only because they are allowed to get away with it."

The British Jewish Leadership Council today issued a statement expressing concern at the atmosphere of “increasing delegitimisation of Israel in the UK”.

But the fearful thing is the large number of British and American Jews who are participating in that process, whether by joining groups like Peace Now, J Street, Stop the War, Viva Palestina and so on. Younger Jews are being drawn into the left in huge numbers and accepting the leftist plan for a "secular Palestinian state with equality for Muslims and Jews" In the UK people are marrying out in droves and denying by forgetting their Jewish identity and roots.

I am beginning to see the seeds of a coming crisis where Israel, one of the least known about countries on earth in terms of the lives of it's people (how many years is it since you last saw footage of even Tel Aviv on TV?) is seen entirely in terms of anger and strife and conflict and as the biggest obstacle to peace on the planet.

Government of Israel is conceeding all the cards to the enemy, it needs to wake up and smell the coffee.

[Yala]

It's always been like this. There have always been Jews like this throughout our history. Didn't you read about Jews opposing the state pre-statehood? You never watched The Chosen?

Israel has made mistakes, but it didn't matter because the Arabs and Europeans never liked Jews (come on you know it's true). Even Orwell wrote about it:

http://www.literaturecollection.com/a/orwell/466/


Sound familiar? Just replace Jew with Israel, what's the difference?

Here are some samples of anti-Semitic remarks that have been made to me during the past year or two:

Middle-aged office employee: “I generally come to work by bus. It takes longer, but I don’t care about using the Underground from Golders Green nowadays. There’s too many of the Chosen Race travelling on that line.”
Tobacconist (woman): “No, I’ve got no matches for you. I should try the lady down the street. She’s always got matches. One of the Chosen Race, you see.”

Young intellectual, Communist or near-Communist: “No, I do not like Jews. I’ve never made any secret of that. I can’t stick them. Mind you, I’m not anti-Semitic, of course.”

Middle-class woman: “Well, no one could call me anti-Semitic, but I do think the way these Jews behave is too absolutely stinking. The way they push their way to the head of queues, and so on. They’re so abominably selfish. I think they’re responsible for a lot of what happens to them.”

Milk roundsman: “A Jew don’t do no work, not the same as what an Englishman does. ’E’s too clever. We work with this ’ere” (flexes his biceps). “They work with that there” (taps his forehead).

Chartered accountant, intelligent, left-wing in an undirected way: “These bloody Yids are all pro-German. They’d change sides tomorrow if the Nazis got here. I see a lot of them in my business. They admire Hitler at the bottom of their hearts. They’ll always suck up to anyone who kicks them.”

Intelligent woman, on being offered a book dealing with anti-Semitism and German atrocities: “Don’t show it me, please don’t show it to me. It’ll only make me hate the Jews more than ever.”

The brief period of European acceptance of Jews roaming the earth after the Holocaust has gone away. Please don't tell me you're shocked.

[I am David 2]

Who needs 'em. Israel will always be stronger with Jews who support Zionism unconditionally, rather than the intermittent support of the gentile-pleasing Jews who need to be pandered to in order for them to support Israel at all.

[Aliyah1995]

Another issue Israel has with our failure to communicate to the rest of the world, is that the Israeli leaders seem to have an allergic reaction to an English speaking accent (SPECIFICALLY American accent). With the hundreds of thousands of native english speaking immigrants in Israel, many of whom are talented in writing and Journalism, Israel has the most natural resource for communicating our predicament to the rest of the world, yet refuses to tap into.

They would rather send people, who speak broken english at best with a personality about as charming as a mop, all over the world to plead our case when they could be sending people like Barbara Sofer, Caroline Glick, Joel Leyden, Sarah Honig, and countless others.

The attitude here seems to be that a Russian accent or French accent are nothing to be ashamed of, but, for some reason, you are considered to be from another planet if you have an American accent.

As long as this attitude persists, Israel is shooting herself in the foot with PR.

[curlyg]

Originally Posted by I am David 2

Who needs 'em. Israel will always be stronger with Jews who support Zionism unconditionally, rather than the intermittent support of the gentile-pleasing Jews who need to be pandered to in order for them to support Israel at all.

You're wrong. Israel is not just another democratic state, it is almost the dictionary definition of a nation-state. It is a state for the Jewish people. And when there is a significant portion of the Jewish people which no longer sees the need for their state, or worse begin to feel embarrassed or burdened by its existence or policies, that is a very severe blow to its legitimacy. We should not be so eager to see a major political schism in the global Jewish community - but that is exactly the direction in which we are heading. Efforts need to be made to bring the diaspora back into the fold, trying to build ties such as allowing Israelis overseas to vote in Israeli elections, involving diaspora communities in dialogues with Israeli diplomats and politicians, etc.

And though it may be unpopular to say so, a major cause of this situation is the change on global perception of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the longer we allow it to fester the greater this problem will become. The Goldstone report is indicative of the problem - no doubt many Jews will feel uncomfortable to publicly admit that they are Zionists who support Israel when it is a country which has been accused of war crimes. The same is true regarding the increasing criticism of Israel for some of its policies in the territories. A situation is developing wherein it is becoming increasingly difficult for a Jew to be able to identify himself with Israel, either because his own conscience simply does not permit it, or because of the hostility which he will face as a result in his country of residence.

[curlyg]

Originally Posted by Aliyah1995

Another issue Israel has with our failure to communicate to the rest of the world, is that the Israeli leaders seem to have an allergic reaction to an English speaking accent (SPECIFICALLY American accent). With the hundreds of thousands of native english speaking immigrants in Israel, many of whom are talented in writing and Journalism, Israel has the most natural resource for communicating our predicament to the rest of the world, yet refuses to tap into.

They would rather send people, who speak broken english at best with a personality about as charming as a mop, all over the world to plead our case when they could be sending people like Barbara Sofer, Caroline Glick, Joel Leyden, Sarah Honig, and countless others.

The attitude here seems to be that a Russian accent or French accent are nothing to be ashamed of, but, for some reason, you are considered to be from another planet if you have an American accent.

As long as this attitude persists, Israel is shooting herself in the foot with PR.

I agree here too. Tzipi Livni's english was appalling, but I guess now that Lieberman is our foreign minister I would be glad to have her back in that office. I think a law should be passed requiring that the foreign minister be a fluent english speaker. It's not so much a matter of accents (though, let's face it, it probably makes a difference) as being able to communicate your message clearly to an international audience which primarily speaks English.

Israel also needs better people in key positions like ambassador to the UN. As someone else has said, the current ambassador is a diplomatic disaster by comparison with Dan Gillerman, who was articulate and a gifted speaker. And with all due respect for Mark Regev, being an english speaker in and of itself is not enough - one must be able to be creative and persuasive, and I think he fails there. Simply, the government needs to start taking advantage of the massively talented human resources at its disposal. There is no reason why we cannot get the very best english-speaking orators arguing our case internationally. Consider, for example, the issue of some 3,500 lawsuits being filed against various Israeli officials overseas. There was recently an article on Ynet saying that there are a grand total of FOUR lawyers working on responses to these. FOUR LAWYERS - in a country with the most lawyers per capita on the entire planet. Is there ANY good reason why this should be the case? Lawyers in Israel are, like all other professionals, very underpaid by comparison with their Western counterparts - why not hire a larger team of lawyers? Even if NO MONEY whatsoever can possibly be spared for this, why not create voluntary pro bono schemes for law students and lawyers who wish to volunteer some time and effort to do some work to help?

Israel's government is utterly incompetent when it comes to this, and its inaction is costly.

[I am David 2]

Originally Posted by curlyg

You're wrong. Israel is not just another democratic state, it is almost the dictionary definition of a nation-state. It is a state for the Jewish people. And when there is a significant portion of the Jewish people which no longer sees the need for their state, or worse begin to feel embarrassed or burdened by its existence or policies, that is a very severe blow to its legitimacy. We should not be so eager to see a major political schism in the global Jewish community - but that is exactly the direction in which we are heading. Efforts need to be made to bring the diaspora back into the fold, trying to build ties such as allowing Israelis overseas to vote in Israeli elections, involving diaspora communities in dialogues with Israeli diplomats and politicians, etc.

I disagree. How Zionist can someone be when the simple allegation of war crimes will cause them to cower away and refrain from speaking positively of Israel or Zionism? Wait, make that not actually believe in Zionism and hate Israel. That makes a weak person. It's not like there is zero pro-Israeli media presence, and they hear nothing but anti-Israel rhetoric. Israel is defended regularly in the news. But there will always be allegations against Israel, and media slander, unless you can prevent that, some Jews will abandon Israel to please their local Gentiles of choice. These are not the type of people that will strengthen Israel, and the sniveling servile behavior necessary to sell out to these people would make the Israeli media presence unpalatable to the rest of us.

I agree with a stronger media presence and more activism for Israel too, but that doesn't mean we should pander to the emotional needs that determine these people's beliefs. There's a difference.

[GratefulFred]

Bibi Netanyahu's speech in the UN filled us all with pride. Perhaps some of his cabinet ministers aren't proficient in English but that doesn't mean Jews would leave us.

The facts are we are outnumbered and the Arab oil and influence is attacking us constantly.

Just because an enemy like J-Street has grown by decieving Jews don't write us off. Once Obama is gone, they will be gone too.

Being Israeli means having a fateful optimism. My teenage son and his rock band got picked to represent the Negev. Who cares about Iran, the US, Turkey, Goldstone, Hamas, Hezbollah, and all the other crazies when you got a true rocker in the family?

Who even cares about scaredy cat directors more than to do a spoof about?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cU75F3IZlA

[dayag]

Originally Posted by GratefulFred

...My teenage son and his rock band got picked to represent the Negev...

That's great, Fred! Mazel tov!