Update: Max Blumenthal crossed posted this video and story on The Huffington Post. Even though HuffPo promoted it this morning over their Twitter feed, it has been taken down without explanation. We'll post more as we get the details.
Max Blumenthal writes:
On May 27, journalist Jesse Rosenfeld and I set out on the streets of Tel Aviv to probe the political opinions of young local residents. We started the day filming at Tel Aviv University, where a group of Jewish and Palestinian Israeli students gathered to protest a proposed law that would criminalize public observance of the Nakba, or the mass expulsion and killing of Palestinians by Zionist militias in 1948. There, we interviewed Palestinian Israeli students about the rising climate of repression, then spoke to another group of students who gathered nearby to heckle their Arab classmates and demand their deportation. A few hundred meters away, two genial business students expressed support for the so-called Nakba law, remarking to us, “If you want to keep democracy, you can’t let people protest against the independence of the country.”
That evening, Jesse and I took our camera to central Tel Aviv, where thousands were taking part in the annual all-night festival known as White Night. Some revelers took an intermission from the partying to express to us their hatred for the Iranian people. And a group of teenagers launched into a virtually unprompted diatribe against Barack Obama, referring to him as a Nazi, a Muslim, and a “Cushi,” which is Hebrew slang for “nigger.” When questioned about the source of his opinions, one teenager proudly declared himself a “gezan,” or a racist.
This video, entitled “Feeling the Hate in Tel Aviv,” is the sequel to a piece the Israeli blogger Joseph Dana and I released in June called “Feeling the Hate in Jerusalem.” That video, which featured a cast of mostly American Jews in Jerusalem leveling racist vitriol at Obama, stirred immediate controversy, prompting the Huffington Post to remove it on the grounds that it was not “newsworthy.” As the “not newsworthy” video began climbing towards 400,000 hits on YouTube, and before YouTube and Vimeo banned it without explanation and without offering me any legal recourse, the Israeli media weighed in. (“Feeling the Hate” has been reposted here).
Benjamin Hartman, a young correspondent for Ha’aretz who had moved to Israel from his hometown of Austin, Texas, wrote that my video was “circling the internet at a critical velocity on a mission to humiliate the Jewish people.” Hartman concluded that I was “speaking to the wrong crowd at the wrong time of night,” a meme that would comprise the key talking point for bloggers and organized Jewish groups (including the Israeli chapter of Democrats Abroad) seeking to discredit and ultimately suppress the video.
Hartman then offered me advice on where to find the right crowd, and at which time of night they might be on their best behavior:
“I hope Blumenthal films his next segment in Tel Aviv, though the results would probably be far less salacious. On a balcony in Florentin, he would ask the drum circle what they think of Obama and through the purple haze would hear only praise for the president, before being forced to listen to a 30-minute account of a recent trip to Nepal.”
Unbeknownst to Hartman, who only attempted to interview me days after publishing his review and then published a piece questioning whether I had been “fueling anti-Semitism,” I had already filmed my next segment in Tel Aviv. (And I had already spent an evening, sans camera, with an Israeli hippie on a balcony in Florentin, though he told me through the purple haze that the Palestinian people do not exist and should be immediately transferred to Jordan).
Now that I have released my footage from Tel Aviv, I wonder what Hartman and other, even more insecure critics of my first “Feeling the Hate” video will do to ensure that the sequel does not “humiliate the Jewish people.” Will they rely on the same old hasbara?
Can they still claim that clean-cut students at Tel Aviv University were “the wrong crowd?” Was filming during the afternoon, or during the evening at an officially sanctioned festival still “the wrong time?” And could I have heard similarly racist opinions in “an American college town,” as Hartman suggested? Perhaps for my next video I should ask frat brothers at South Dakota University if they would like their Native American classmates to be jailed for three years for observing the massacre of Wounded Knee. Or I could ask Anglo students at the University of Texas, located in Hartman’s hometown, if they want the US government to round up every single Latino student on campus -- especially those who are US citizens -- and deport them to somewhere south of the border. Call me an idealist, but for some reason I don’t think this project would go anywhere.
If Hartman chooses to review the sequel, I hope he will explain how he has so stringently avoided any exposure to the crude racism, bellicose nationalism and anti-democratic sentiments I heard expressed on a daily basis by young, seemingly cosmopolitan Jewish Israelis during the month I spent living in the so-called “bubble city” of Tel Aviv. Or perhaps Hartman has been exposed to it, but believes racism in Tel Aviv must be concealed from the goyim to avoid tribal humiliation. Harvard University Yiddish literature professor Ruth Wisse has promoted this mentality, telling a group of young Jewish journalists in 2007 that they should not act as independent-minded critics but rather as “soldiers” for Israel, “armed with pens instead of Uzis," as Eric Alterman recalled.
Gershom Gorenberg, the writer American opinion pages so often turn to for a supposedly progressive Israeli perspective, attacked “Feeling the Hate in Jerusalem” as “an argument for old media,” claiming the video did not pass journalistic muster because I didn’t interview enough “real” Israelis.
Have I now met Gorenberg’s threshold for Israeli interview subjects? If Gorenberg, who recently took to the pages of the neocon Weekly Standard to pontificate on “The Missing Mahatma in Palestine," has any further advice on improving my reporting chops, I hope he will help readers locate the Israeli MLK as well. He can start with the Tel Aviv U student who confuses Martin Luther King with Rodney King, then proceeds to mock his optimistic philosophy.
Uncomfortable as is may be for many to confront, Israeli resentment of Arabs, minorities and designated foreign enemies ranging from the Iranian people to Barack Obama is not a phenomenon exclusive to the denizens of fanatical settlements in the West Bank. The trend now hovers well above the surface in the mainstream of Israeli society, including throughout Tel Aviv. It is reflected most apparently in the almost total national support for Israel’s brutal, maximalist war on the civilian population of the Gaza Strip in December 2008-January 2009, the subsequent election of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the ascent of Avigdor Lieberman and his proto-fascist Yisrael Beiteynu party.
It is also reflected in unreported daily indignities against members of the country’s Arab population, like the detention and interrogation I witnessed in the Florentin district of two Palestinian Israeli men by Tel Aviv police officers. Their crime, I learned, was speaking Arabic on a city bus. “The police are always on my dick,” one of the men told me after he was released. “But that’s what it’s like being Palestinian in Tel Aviv, so I’ve gotten used to it.”
The proposed bills that have flooded the Knesset since the election which seek to criminalize the speech of Palestinian Israelis and demand they make loyalty oaths under threat of deportation, along with the constant raids and repressive actions by Israeli authorities against anti-occupation activists, reveal a country careening rapidly and perhaps irrevocably towards authoritarianism. Just as Hamas reflects the genuine national aspirations of Palestinians, the far-right coalition government of Israel embodies the mood of Israeli society. This is not a momentary aberration.
“I don’t think there is a qualitative change [in Israeli society], I think there’s a deepening of trends,” former Knesset member and New Israel Fund President Naomi Chazan told me. “One day it’s the Arabs, the next day it’s going to be the secular people, the next day it’s going to be women. You know where the repression starts but you have no idea where it ends.”
Blumenthal is author of the forthcoming Republican Gomorrah.
Correction to video. Blumenthal: "We have reviewed footage of the Tel Aviv U student identified as a 'Jewish-Druze Israeli.' He describes himself over and over (and quite defensively) as a Jew while several of his friends identify him as a Jew with mixed Druze heritage. While it is very rare for Jews and the Druze to intermarry in Israel, the description by the student and his friends accounts for the student's designation, one that some commenters have challenged."
Jewish hate is transnational: Hub of the World (Zionist Conspiracy).
Wow.
Max Blumenthal's pathetic "article" and "journalism" can make any thinking person puke. Max is simply attempting to stir up hatred for Israelis and Jews, with unfounded slander throughout. Max says: "Some revelers took an intermission from the partying to express to us their hatred for the Iranian people." This is the opposite of the reality (a Max Bluementhal trademark and calling card for MondoLies). In reality, the people of Israel and Iran actually would like to be friends but the govt of Iran wants only everlasting (and nuclear) Jihad with all Infidels. Contrast this with Egypt, where the govt has (almost) civil relations with Israel but the Egyptian people hate Jews with a passion. And former MK Naomi Chazan is a certified loon! I'm not surprised you rely on her statements. Her party, Meretz, is the PREMIERE HATER in Israeli politics, hating Jews and religious people but screeching all the time about the dangers of hatred – which they foment for political purposes. Just like Max Bluementhal and MondoLies.
Your "reporting" is so sub-standard, it should embarass you. That you aren't embarassed tells us lots about your low standards.
More Americans and Western Europeans need to watch this to get rid of any delusions they have about this so called outpost of 'Western Civilisation'. And to say Tel Aviv is one of the few places in Israel to have more liberal views towards the Arabs and Palestinians. telling a group of young Jewish journalists in 2007 that they should not act as independent-minded critics but rather as “soldiers” for Israel, “armed with pens instead of Uzis," Deja vu
oh please, Jake, he even interviewed one of the confused Druze, who defend Israel at every turn, even while Israeli Jews hate them as much as they hate the rest of the Arab population of Israel.
Max: spot one mate. Well done. I particularly liked how you ripped into that sanctamonious tit Gorenberg.
What does Max Blumenthal want? Does he want his particular version of Israel supported by his particular version of the United States? Does he wish to see the Palestinians and the U.S. taxpayers, economic and political systems made whole again at the expense of Israeli and Jewish interests? Does he wish to tear down Zionism and political Judaism, or does he just wish to put a friendly MLK-recognizing face on them? BTW, why would Israeli Jews produce an MLK figure? Would that be up to the Palestinians, who are the VICTIMS in this case?
Hi Max, I don't know, this smells a bit of selective interviewingediting. It's one thing to interview smart, articulate Palestinian students and then put them up against drunk arsim on Rothschild St. That's like going to the U.S. to do a film about abortion, and filming an intelligent, liberal professor from Columbia, and putting him up against some white trash from Alabama. Not fair, is it? You should have gone to Ramallah as well and asked some passers-by about Israelis, I don't know if you'd feel comfortable with the answers. So, in answer to your question to Gorenborg – you have not met his threshold. Unfortunately, you took a good idea (getting the voice from the street, trying to show racism in Israel – which I agree there is plenty of) and executed it extremely poorly. Hope you do better next time.
I disagree. The first half of the video was shot during the day (and presumably during the same day seeing as they were reacting to the protest by the Arab-Israelis). Most of the people interviewed during this part of the video was students at the University. The second half of the video was not meant to be in comparison with the Arab-Israeli students but just to show what Israeli attitudes to Obama and Iran are in general. They weren't drunk this time and even if they were, you wouldn't expect them to start calling people 'negroes'.
"That's like going to the U.S. to do a film about abortion, and filming an intelligent, liberal professor from Columbia, and putting him up against some white trash from Alabama. " Let me guess, you are more like the intelligent, liberal, and non-bigoted professor from Columbia? I'm sure you would offer a great solution to just about any problem involving group conflict!
"trying to show racism in Israel – which I agree there is plenty of) and executed it extremely poorly." He showed racism in Israel, plain for all to see, second time around now. I call that good execution, Ami. You're calling for 'balance', eh? What balance might that be? The balance between the oppressors and the oppressed? Between the occupiers and the occupied?
And BTW, it's extremely telling that there are Israelis who disapprove of Obama on the grounds that 'he's a Muslim'. Double whammy really: these nutters believe in the self-serving and demonstrable lie that Obama is a Muslim and on these grounds feel it's OK to hate him. Tell me again how Islamophobia isn't a problem: thanks faux War of Terror and now maybe also thanks Israel, that 'outpost of Western democracy in the ME' and 'first bulwark against Islamofascism'…
1. I was in Iran and saw/heard first hand from numerous Iranians from youngsters in parks in Tehran to grad student artists in galleries to mullahs in madrasas in Shiraz (liberal), Mashad (ultra-conservative) and Qom (the Harvard/Vatican of Islam in Iran). Iranians feel very protective of the Jewish people. Iranians remember, even if Jews try to forget and minimize, that Persia protected Jews, gave them leave to return to Jerusalem (although the majority of Nebuchadnezzar's exiles chose to remain in Babylon), paid for Yehuds to rebuild their temple and a wall around Jerusalem, and subsidized Yehud for over 200 years, even as Persia was engaged in defensive wars. Nobody in the Iran where I travelled for three weeks and 2000 miles had anything even vaguely negative to say about Jews. The mullah who showed us through a shrine at Qom was forthright in saying that the Iranian government is opposed to the policies of the government of Israel. Temper your rhetoric with facts and reality, Jake. 2. When Khomeini came to power, Iran's Jewish community feared for their safety (with good reason: Israel had been raiding the Iranian treasury and spying on every level of the Shah's government for thirty years; Iran was Israel's cash cow.) Leaders of the Jewish community in Iran asked Khomeini to ensure the safety of the Jewish people and of their property. Khomeini issued a fatwa to that effect. That fatwa is considered sacrosanct by Iranian Muslims. You can't have it both ways: You can't argue that the government of Iran is governed by theocrats (ie. leaders who comply with religious fatwas) and that the government of Iran wants everlasting and nuclear jihad with the infidels — which would violate the fatwa.
Ami Kaufman says Max's editing is selectively unfair. Ami, alas, knows not what the pulse is discourse is like in Israel (and why Gorenberg is so not getting it). If anything, max's video is an understatement. After all, when asked in English, people have to choose their words. The nice people of the US (Jews included) just like the nice Gorenberg intellectual can't even begin to wrap their arms around the extent of racist ugly discourse that's taking the country of Israel back to biblical times. That's why I always recommend that the well meaning visitor to Israel take an [honest] hebrew speaking native with them as they try to gauge the feeling in the streets. On second thought, I fear americans – being mostly nice (ie the well meaning kind) may not be able to withtand the shock of revelation, and may never recover from the shock. BTW, my theory is that it's all because they teach the bible (tanach) to very young children. In israeli schoold it's taught day in day out in its full gory detail, with strictly jewish interpretation. That book should be restricted to mature audiences, IMHO. Way too much hate preaching and war mongering.
I have a couple of general questions. I have asked these on the Haaretz forums, but never received any response. I ask these as a middle-aged American who was involved in a small way in the civil rights movement of the 60's. 1) in the 60's many (I'm not saying most) American students identified with the struggles of african-americans, and there was a general "youth culture" which supported generalized activities against the status-quo. Is there any such movement in Israel, and how widespread is it? 2) are there any neighborhoods/towns in Israel where Jews and Arabs live alongside each other, socialize together, go to school together?
Israelis are filth
Israel's supporters hate to have Israel show its real face to the world. It's double-cayote ugly.
You'll be saying that after Israel kill thousands more innocents, steals more land etc etc. Anytime anyone reports on Israeli racism it's always the fault of the reporter. I think you should recognize that Israelis and their supporters stir up hatred for themselves quite well, thank you very much. Jake – your just another racist zionist claptrap….
1) Yes, but to say they're a rarity would be an understatement. They're known as the Shministim, high-school students that have refused to do service in the IDF because of its role in occupying other countries and oppressing their people. They are willing to do the service on the condition that they stay only in Israel proper. They include a daughter of the head of Mossad, who secretly made a a trip to the West Bank to see what it was like for the Palestinians herself. 2) No. In Israel, from what I know, Arabs and Jews simply don't live alongside each other. There are a couple of mixed schools but you could count them on one hand. There is one such school in Jerusalem: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7879...
You are repeating some of Georges Tamarind's analysis from the 60s. I have to qualify that heavy Bible study is relatively new for Rabbinic Jews. Before the 1830s Rabbinic Jews rarely studied the Biblical text outside of Leviticus and passages that appeared in the Siddur. Reform tended to favor more attention to the Bible, but a Bible-oriented Jewish curriculum did not make much headway among Jews before the government of the State of Israel made Zionism-oriented Bible study a priority in the 50s.
Thanks for answering. As an American, I tend to ask those questions from an American POV, likening Israeli society to American society. I knew, and know, better, but just thought I'd ask. I have always understood of course that the US, for its many faults, has taken a far different approach to diversity and multiculturalism than Israel. Unlike the Israeli government, the US federal govt.–sometimes–dragged the rest of society–kicking and screaming as it may be–into at least some pro forma application of Enlightenment ideals of human rights.
Stirring up hatred for Jews It is to laugh. The people of the world look at the Middle East and see Jews gloating atop a pile of the innocent dead and making sarcastic remarks over those they have murdered, proclaiming "We are Jews, you better love us or else". Not hard to perceive who's stirring hatred.
I should add— A personal observation on the distinction between Israeli and American society: I was born and raised in the South in the 50's and 60's. While there was certainly much hatred by whites against blacks, no one, absolutely no one, thought that african-americans weren't "American", that they had no right to live in the US. Blacks were considered as much a part of the South and of America as their white neighbors. They were disliked, but not thought of as foreign at all. Not trying to sugarcoat the segregation era in the US, just to state that even the most virulent racist never thought of African-Americans as a foreign people.
That is why it is imperative for American and European Jews to COMPLETELY dissociate ourselves from the vermin of Israel. They must be identified as a heretical sect we have nothing to do with. Otherwise, they will drag ALL Jews to hell with them and anti-Semitism will become a moral imperative. That is where we are heading.
This kind of statement is unhelpful. Please "erase it from the pages of time."
Printing a pamphlet of comments by Jake in Jerusalem and distributing them to Americans would be described as attempting to stir up hatred of Israelis and Jews, yet new comments are posted by Jake almost every day.
I learn so much reading blogs! It occurs to me that Israeli society has numerous diverse, and conflicting, components. As I understand it, Israel's religious factions would make Sunni-Shiite spats seem tame, and the patchwork of cultural/ethnicities who have made their way to Israel over time are a composition of oil and water, with Sephardim feeling superior over Ashkenazi, Middle Eastern Jews superior over European Jews, Russians who called themselves Jews to benefit from a change in climate, Ethiopian Jews invited in to assuage the Israeli conscience, etc. Once Israel gets its Israel-Arab act together, there will be a lot of fence mending that will have to take place within Israeli society itself.
living in Israel, I think I know the discourse. I often blog about it. And about racism in Israel. And I still think this video is extremely unproffesional. Sorry.
Max you are doing amazing work. Many have addressed the racism in Israel and amongst American Jews but very few of these challenges make the MSM. I witnessed this type of racism towards Palestinians at a conference at Ohio State University several years ago. The conference was about the I/P conflict. A racist and out of control Rabbi stood outside screaming "murderer" at every individual going into the conference. Ohio State Jewish students that I talked with sounded very similar to some of the young people you are interviewing, Racist extremist. We are going to witness the heat being turned up on Iran by the Israelii lobby this fall, We are going to hear unsubstantiated claims about Iran being endlessly repeated. Folks need to challenge the newspapers, talk show host (Terri Gross has repeated unsubstantiated claims about Iran many many times). People need to challenge those who are more than willing to repeat lies about Iran
I'm not justifying the racist comments. they were disgusting. just saying the video was poorly done, an selective.
Dear Todd, you guessed wrong. I only wish my intelligence was as high as the arrogance shown in your response.
Gert, please read my blog to see that I actually do my part, occasionally to end the occupation. All I'm saying, is that this video has been selective. nothing else. :)
Comment by a Jewish liberal Professor who teaches in Tennessee. >…I saw it. You can see the contradiction in the Kikar scene where one of the young guys pointed to himself and talked about not liking people who are dark skinned. One thing that the video does not do a good job is showing the context for these ideas, which are very complicated. Part of it has to do with the lack of international education and awareness, part of it has to do with the attacks that Israelis have suffered from since the beginning of the Second Intifada. This is a big factor. I remember being in Tel Aviv during the First Intifada and even in 1993 – when most Tel Avivis were of the mind set – the Intifada isn't against me and I'm not against the Intifada. Also I don't think that Max Blumenthal knows Arabic. I was on the web just last night and I was watching a youtube video of a Yemeni Jewish dance and the comments in Arabic were completely anti-Semitic, stating that the Jews weren't real Yeminis and that they were Zionists, that the women were whores. Last December one Rabbi in Yemen was murdered and it now looks like the very last Jews in Yemen are leaving. There were also anti-Semitic attacks in Europe, in Spain, in France, in Holland. One guy was tortured for 3 weeks and then murdered. This is not being reported by the mainstream international press, but it is being reported in Israel. South Africa is a leader in the Boycott Israel movement and calling for the replacement of Israel with a secular Palestinian state. There was a record number of immigrants to Israel from there in December. The economy in Israel is really awful 1/3 of Israeli children go hunger, the welfare state has been almost destroyed, people are still immigrating because of this rise in anti-Semitism. What you are seeing is a cycle of anti-Semitism fueling racism, extremism fueling extremism. All of this on top of the on-going Israeli Occupation, and that is also on top of a general feeling that Israel's right to exist is being attacked, and Israelis are in danger of having bombs dropped on them and the rest of the world doesn't care. Such a situation is not one conducive to promoting liberal enlightened ideas.
But it is still legal for Palestinians to celebrate the holocaust and the murder and expulsion of Jews by Palestinians during the Palestinian civil war and the later 1948 Arab war.
For what it's worth seems to me these sorts of things have to be approached with some substantial caution and thinking before being accepted as having any significant validity. In the first place one has to ask as specifically as possible what such videos are asking you to believe, and in this instance, roughly stated, it seems to me it is that the kinds of nasty sentiments heard from jewish Israelis therein are not uncommon over there. Well of course even if the author of these things seems to have some integrity and one can have some faith that the interviewees weren't selectively chosen and that the post-interview editing wasn't selectively made (which seems to be the case here to some degree at least), the number of the sample/interviewees still makes it statistically insignificant almost. Thus I feel the big contingency that has to be addressed before one can have some faith in these things is the answer to the question of whether there is some substantial amount of *other* evidence that what's being pushed by such videos is true. For instance here one big question to me is whether the kind of talk shown on the video is the same kind of casual talk and attitudes others commonly report hearing from jewish Israelis? And perhaps the biggest question is whether Israel or the Israelis *conduct* themselves in such a way that it can be inferred that the attitudes and beliefs shown in the video are fairly common?
And witty to boot! I apologize, Ami, you aren't a bigot at all.
Accepted! :-))))
The video is good, but altogether redundant. We know from Israeli polls that 94% of the population supported the Gaza massacre. Israel is a country of Nazis and any suggestion to the contrary is just preposterous at this late date.
For God's sake, we don't need any videos to confirm Israeli Jewish racism. We've only got to listen to their cabinet ministers. See here. Anyway, Max Blumenthal does a great job of exposing not only racism in Israel, but also the media's tactics of demonization of anyone who dares to note the emperor's nakedness.
The US subsidizes Israel's racism. The US does not subsidize Yemen's racism.
What do you actually know about Israel? only because you spent one short month here you think you know what life and people are like?! it's so pathatic that you didn't even know that THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A JEWISH DRUIZE ISRAELI!! Next time do your research before you shoot a movie.
Accepted :-)
How about a HUMAN Israeli? Are there any of those, Charlotte? Stay in your Nazi rat hole. Don't come here. Nobody wants you.
By the way, do you remember calling my German friend a racist and a Nazi because she did not agree with your views on women rights in Arab countries? You proved to be exactly what you accuse the Israelis of- a demagogue who insults others although he has no clue what he is talking about.
Amy advises Max you took a good idea (getting the voice from the street, trying to show racism in Israel – which I agree there is plenty of If it such a good idea and Max botched it, perhaps you should give it a shot. Actually, the level of racism among the Israeli people was quite shocking to me when I was first made aware of it just a few years back and I know that very few Americans know this about Israel. We all know that the Palestinians hate Jews, hell we have been fed that story non-stop for 60 years. But this visceral Israeli racism is something the Americans do not understand. Amy this is your chance to do some good — help educate the American people.
Max, another good video. No matter what you do, there are going to be people who say, "This is not representative." These are people either in deep denial or they hang with a fairly liberal crowd. So the guys you interviewed with Arsim. Do you know how many Arsim Israel has? Sure most Israelis don't say, "Fuck Obama," but most Israelis don't like him. And most Americans do. So just think of a country that is made up mostly of neocons and liberal hawks (among the educated) and out and out bigots (among the less educated), and you have Israel. It's not just your video. It's the polls. It's the people.
I would agree with your sentiments but the point I think Max is making is that Isareli society is becoming more racist.
Actually, it's Ami. With an "I". syvanen, I feel no need to educate Americans on racism – they're experts already. Also, educating Americans on racism in Israel is actually what I write about in my blog. Maybe you should take a look, and see how I do it.
Those who object that this piece is “unbalanced” or “staged” completely ignore how unbalanced and staged the MSM coverage of the I-P issue is in the States, and has been for decades. Their type doesn’t object to bias when it is favorable to Zionism, and they simply can’t stand it when Jews are subjected to the same ploys that Zionists routinely use on everyone else. I think Blumenthal is engaged in a healthy bit of irony at the expense of the Jewish supremacist cohort, which is so arrogant and pathologically self-absorbed it believes it can manipulate the goy into perpetuity with no backlash whatsoever. Blumenthal is actually doing this type of Jew a favor by rubbing their nose in it a bit because they’ve become overly chutzpah-prone based on the false consciousness of the post-Holocaust moral “pass” granted by the West, which is quickly timing out.
You seem to know nothing about Druze nor Israelis. The Druze serve faithfully in the IDF. Indeed, Bedouin and Druze Arabs in the IDF reflect the hatred they have for "Palestineans". How your MondoReporter, searching for hate, seems to have missed this inter-Arab hate is a curious question. Please be more informed when next commenting.
Piney, beware of Shingo's propaganda. Shingo is not simply a bigot, but an ignorant bigot. There are plenty of Arab/Jewish towns, e.g. Abu Ghosh. http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3308173... http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3308173... There are many others, as well. Shingo the ignorant, lying bigot – demonstrably so.
Correction, al-Shafiq the bigot. Just like Shingo. They're both the same… Maybe they are the same person???
Conflating Jews and Zionists
Perhaps you misread me. The PEOPLE of Iran are not enemies of Israel but the GOVERNMENT of Iran is. Emphatically so. This contrasts with the Egyptian case, which is reversed: the GOVT is not an enemy but the PEOPLE hate Jews and Israelis. As for fatwas, there is no problem in parts of Islam (and it is questionable who is crazier, Shi'a or Sunni) in deliberately violating Sharia law in the pursuit of Everlasting Jihad. e.g. suicide, forbidden by Sharia but glorified by Jihadis.
Stevie, you make a joke of yourself. Tel Aviv is so veeeery pro-Palestinean. If Max thinks that TA is full of "hate", then this is propaganda, not journalism. His sources are so loony and biased as to make a mockery of himself, too. That's all I said. MondoLies has done this before, "interviewing" an Arab in Tel Aviv who told them he was arrested – for an imaginary crime. And your not so humble MondoReporters believed it! These are goofballs. If you fall for this stuff, you are too.
Tommy, I post only facts and logic. Nothing else. Not surprisingly, MondoLies isn't my kind of place. Of course, if you prefer propaganda to truth, then you'll be quite happy wallowing here in MondoLies. Have fun.
'…go to school together? ' pineywoodslim, please go watch this documentary on the subject recently on PBS… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ev9rfThkmXM
Tribal Jews and Zionists are the only ones truly upset with Max. He's lampooning them and their 'bubble' mentality. When rational people observe them in their natural habitat, Zionists panic.
Ambitious looking blog you have there. But it looks like multiple links to Reuters and some AP stories. I really did not see any writing by you about racism in Israel. But it is a big site.
Dear Dana, Luckily there are plenty of not so nice people in the US — rather, people who have had not such nice lives and know the extent of racism in the US — murderous, vile, relentless, deeply rooted, and so it is not a great jump to understand that it is murderous and ugly beyond what many understand, in Israel. I have been dumped on as a not white enough Jew my whole life, so I have no illusions. I have seen the fear and shame in my survivor relatives turn to fear of those who had nothing to do with it. Why are they so racist here in the US? Bible, sure. But it all pays off. It has from the first. Land, timber, fish, fur, water, fertle fields. Got that from the native americans. Labor from Africans. Immigrants. Women. It pays off for the comfy to hate. And they do it royally. In the US. In Israel. It doesn't work for me. Thanks for caring about this. Anya
We have reviewed the footage over and over because this was an issue. The guy and his friends identify him as a Jew with mixed Druze heritage. I know this is rare but that is what the record shows.
Your facts and logic would stir up hatred of Israelis and Jews if broadcast to the general public as the voice of a Zionist. If your facts and logic were broadcast as the voice of an evangelical, then many would just think you came from San Antonio.
Actually Ami, living in israel can make one (not necessarily you) totally blind to the discourse. That's why I liked max's swipe at Gorenberg. Quite apropos. More blind sometimes than one coming in from the outside. Why is that? probably because being inside the box it's hard to see that the outliers (ie, those engaging in racist discourse) are, in fact, the insiders. Israel is an extremely clanish country (despite the many claims to it being a "melting pot"). One is always surrounded with the like minded. The religious to one side, the secular to the other. The Russians here – the anglos there. neither getting much respect from the "sabras". if you live there, as you say, then you know all that. To me the atmosphere in israel is reminiscent of the one in a well-to-do fine suburban american high school. High performing, exclusive, and, of course, totally conformist. It's funny how israelis consider themselves to be highly "individualistic" – that is, until one tries to really break out of the consensus (like the Profile members, or ta'ayush). I especially enjoy hearing how well treated arabs are in israel – why – they are even allowed to demonstrate at TAU! And so civilized too! surely unlike their more primitive bretherns over in Ramallah(your implication, not mine). So here is recent comment for you – one i just heard from an ex- israeli (or is an expatriate?) returning from a month long visit: upon seeing young Arab women in scarves at the mall (the men are harder to identify, I guess) she said how impressed she was seeing them shop like everyone else, which proves that "there's no apartheid in israel". Some were quite good looking too (!) – her words. I reminded her that growing up in Israel in the late 50's and 60's meant she never actually had a chance to meet any Arabs at all – ever. certainly not young ones. And – the unspoken truth – who could have guessed that there are "normal looking" or even "good looking" arabs out there. Imagine the shock! Not implying you are in any way racist. Just pointing out that most of your fellow country people are, in fact, just that. The video of max may not be as professionally produced as CNN would. But in its uncensored (if edited0, it probably captures the truth beneath the surface. Just watch again the final segment with the well spoken israeli young lady – just as civilized as the young demonstrating arabs, no? so what's wrong with what she is saying? But then, what do i know – just another ex-israeli who made aliyah to the US (and still working hard to make this the promised land I have every expectation it'll some day be – despite the likes of Ed here, whop keeps trying to turn me into a fellow [libertarian] pessimist).
Your work here is terrific. Still, I would like to see more about these bills to outlaw speech about the Nakba and the other bills to erode the rights of Palestinians who are Israeli citizens. Who introduces these bills? How much support do they get? Apparently they are not getting passed into law, but how serious is this threat? It is bad enough that they can be considered at all. There can be no excuse for it, and even if they go nowhere legislatively they promote hate in the larger polis — is that simply the goal? Still… just as a practical matter I am curious to know more about these, and as a practical matter how much of a threat are they?
RE: "Uncomfortable as is may be for many to confront, Israeli resentment of Arabs, minorities and designated foreign enemies ranging from the Iranian people to Barack Obama is not a phenomenon exclusive to the denizens of fanatical settlements in the West Bank. The trend now hovers well above the surface in the mainstream of Israeli society, including throughout Tel Aviv. " MY COMMENT: Perhaps a belief in racial superiority is an essential ingredient of today's Zionism.
Maybe you should read the blog instead of just Googling it.
You plainly know nothing about Israel. So much for your bigoted hatred of things Jewish and Israeli. Arabs have lived in Israel even before 1967. Haifa is a very Arab town. Jaffa, now part of Tel Aviv, is very Arab. Oh, Arabs are well-known for crime, too, but you don't want to hear about that. It is telling that when an Israeli points out that Arabs are free to wander wherevery they like in Israel and go shopping in Israeli malls, that YOU think this shows how racist they are. What a bigoted fool you are. How about Jews wandering around in Arab shopping malls? IT DOESN'T HAPPEN. Just last week the Jordanian embassy warned Jews not to bring Jewish religious items like prayerbooks when visiting Jordan. And if Jews have a "Jewish appearance" they will not be allowed into Jordan at all. Happens here every day. You wouldn't recognize Arab bigotry if it blew up your office block. But you protest Jewish bigotry even when it doesn't exist. This just makes you out to be the real bigot. And an ignorant one, at that.
Tommy, MondoLies IS public. I found it on the Internet. Not available in China, perhaps… and in some Arab countries, which also limit freedoms of speech, press, internet, etc. Your posting makes no sense. You are sooo MondoLies…
Max, you have been hoodwinked by Arab liars so often in the past that you have no credibility. You fall for every story they drop on you. Thanks for the laughs!
As an American Israeli, I agree with almost everything you say. In fact, i would go even further and say that Israel is probably one of the most racist countries in the world today. Something I'm not proud of. But I think they just might be surpassed by Palestinians…. just might… My main issue is this: The selective interviewing. Let me make it clear, by a theoretic example. Let's say I'm the one making the film, and I go out to Tel Aviv, and interview 100 people. Let's say 50 are right wing, 50 are left wing. In my film, both sides would be shown. But let's say the numbers are against us, and the bad guys win. Let's say only 10 percent are sane, liberal left wingers, and 90 others are right winger racists. SHouldn't those 10 percent be shown? And furthermore, what are the real odds of NOT seeing any left wingers, sane people, with normal views, while touring through Tel AViv? And this film, the way it was edited, makes people feel that wherever you turn, no matter what city, this is what you'll see, and I don't think that's fair. It's NOT reality. It's selective.
I'm not sure if you've seen it yet, Ami, but Max and Joseph made a great video called "Israelis to Obama: 'Save Us From Ourselves!'". It can be found here. They're clearly not trying to strike a "balance" in each one of their videos, but nor are they obligated to. They seem to be attempting to capture elements of Israeli society in each video, not trying to create a "broad picture" of the ideological makeup of the country in one eight-minute clip, which I'm sure you'd agree would end up futile and disappointing.
I spent 10 min perusing your site. Perhaps you could give us a link to some of your articles that discuss anti-muslim racism.
Exactly!!! they're not obligated to be balanced, but they are obligated to show to the viewer that this is their objective: to find racism in Israel. For example, if they DID find normal, sane views, they wouldn't be put in the film (which is fine), it's like Leno not putting a smart guy on Jaywalking clips, because that wouldn't be funny, would it?
Peruse away, dude…. Peruse away………
Jews of a Zionist persuasion cannot separate the Transcendental from the Mundane. In antiquity, within a half a century, the Jews turned against Persia and in the Book of Esther (Hadarsal) King Artaxerxes is painted as a drunken and lecherous fool. He ruled from 485 B.C.-465 B.C. Truman was trumpeted as the new Cryrus of Persia in 1948, and Carter, despite seducing Egypt and Jordan to make love with Israel on Uncle Sam's dime all these years, is now the Zionist model for the Treacherous Fool who "abandoned" Israel. Zionists seem to deal in superlatives–no relative values. They cannot allow themselves or the US Gentiles to see that President Truman was a US politician, needing Jewish key block votes and giant money bags to win his election. To the Zionists Truman was heralded as Messianic Savior chosen by Destiny. They can't see that a virtuous POTUS is beset by global problems and it is necessary to curb Israel's excesses and mistreatment of the Palestinians lest it bring on ever more global disorder. Read George Ball's article back in the day. I'm not sure the Esther model is the one to hope for. Esther got her Gentile King drunk, then wheedled his signet ring and sent out an order to the Jews–so they slew 75,000 innocent Persians (Esther 9:16). The Book of Esther is not history. It is parody. The Ahasuerus of Esther is probably the Seleucid King Antiochus IV Epiphanes (165 B.C.) and Mordechai is probably a symbol for Judas Maccabeus. Esther represents the beautiful dream of a Messianic Jewish State. There is a lesson nevertheless in this immoral and violent story. A political marriage of any political power with Messianic Zionism has and will continue to produce disaster
Yet they don't live side-by-side (which was the original question) – you have seperate Arab areas and you have seperate Jewish areas. If more Israelis lived together with the Arabs, maybe they wouldn't be so bigoted and racist
Just to be clear, I think all three videos (although they've made many more) are important: "Feeling the Hate in Jerusalem" explores the issues of dual loyalty, or loyalty to Israel over the U.S., of American Jews, and the shallowness of the Birthright program: weak Zionist indoctrination of entitlement, ignorance and vilification of the Palestinians, and the revelation that anyone deemed in opposition to the current Israeli regime's policies, even if the opposition comes from one's own home government, is now a sworn enemy. "Save Us From Ourselves" shows there is hope in a segment of Jewish Israeli political citizenry that has not bought into the fear-mongering and racism of Likud, Labour, Shas, Yisrael Beitenu et. al., a segment that intends to fight until the end for what it deems a just Israel should look like and be doing, and for a meaningful peace with the Palestinians. "Feeling the Hate in Tel-Aviv" proves that even in this city which is often pointed to as a fig leaf in the face of criticism about racism within Israeli society, these most "enlightened" young students of TAU, when they see a demonstration about the Nakba right in front of them, can't shake their biases and feelings of superiority. The two graduate students were particularly disheartening to me, speaking calmly and eloquently, but the content of what they said and agreed upon was basically this, and in a society that prides itself as "the only democracy in the Middle East": we cherish freedom of speech, so long as it's not Arabs speaking out against the founding of the State of the Jewish People — that needs to be stopped at all costs, in order to preserve democracy.
The difference between Israel and the US stems from their creation. The US was created as a refuge for people suffering from persecution in Europe – everyone was welcome. Israel on the other hand was created solely for Jews. This means that they see every non Jew as a foreigner, even the indigenous ones.
So Arabs have liven in Israel even before 1967? Duh. For how many generations before 1948? They keep trying to get that across to Uncle Sam and Uncle Izzie. And Arabs are well known for crime just like African Americans? Duh. And so? And no Jews wandering around in Arab shopping malls? What American thinks any Arab country is an oasis of democracy in the Middle East worthy of endless donations from the American taxpayer sans any conditions, in contrast to a necessary and conditional cheap oil access partner? Does the Jordan government refuse any children within its control crayons? Jake, you take the kosher cake. Just don't be surprise if we think it tastes like crap.
Thanks for clarifying that. I have to admit, it looked odd when I saw the description. ———– Jake calls this slander but then repeats the same bigotted views over and over again. He repeats the same propaganda against Arabs that you used to hear against black people and before them, Jews – that they're all liars, thieves and criminals.
Not fair, within the larger public opinion of USA MSM boilerplate that Israel represents our values? Ami, you must be related to Richard Witty. You both think you're writing samisdat while you are both writing boilerplate hasbara under the pretext of objectivity, which has been USA government and MSM status quo for over a half century.
All true, and now the new USA regime as replaced the white hate with the hate of white males (women are needed, so the new oppressive regime never mentions the role of white females in the old oppression). The white king is dead, long live the brown king!
as=has
And the Nazi is dead, long live the Zionazi!
Not woth the time. It is a cluttered mess mostly to links I have seen before.
Zionism posits unconditionally that all the (non-Jewish) world hates the Jews, and this, simply because they (few converts) were born Jews. This neurotic mind set prevails, even in the USA where Jews are the most influential and comfortable group here. Jewish Americans who think differently from their own experience are reduced to silence in the norm–because Germany was once the height of progressive Western Civilization and it also produced the Shoah. Similarly, blacks still mostly feel the USA is latently Jim Crow, even with 40 plus years of reverse discrimination by our government, federal and local, and now with a brown POTUS and a brown explicit fellow racist about to join the US supreme Court, and with 12 million Mexicans about to get legalized even as they already milk tax payer benefits without being citizens.
OH you mean murder it. Like the Bolsheviks did, or as it evolved in the USSR and as in how the German wall fell?
may very well be, even though the jews are not a race according to any common understanding of the word
Well, all "common understandings" of the word race are unscientific bullonium, so… But there is simply no better word to describe these attitudes. "Group-based exclusionist discrimination" is a little awkward.
There is more than a little wisdom here; looking at world history, I just see a future repeat in essence. The reality of this tribal ethic maintained globally is singular, and will continue to recycle accordingly to the maxim, "Fool me once…" on both sides of the equation. In the end personal experience will always have a say and the world gets increasingly interdependent and educated. Feudal never dies but merely morphs into new forms.
ethnocentrism…
No tenured professor lives in the world most of us live in. Further, how many Americans know that an IDF soldier was kidnapped? Compare this to how many know 11,000 Palestinian Arabs have been kidnapped–those that have not simply been murdered by Israeli OPs, including elected Palestinian leaders? Per capita US tax dollars go way more to Israeli Jews than to Gentile Americans; Israel has a national health system, while the US does not. Israel is also guaranteed oil by the US. South Africa has been raping, murdering, and robbing S African white Gentiles for decades now. Israel slowly starves and continually cripples Palestinians, keeps stealing their land–attacks them with latest free US weapons at will.
riddle me this, Jake: Is it the PEOPLE of Israel or the GOVERNMENT of Israel that the GOVERNMENT of Iran is enemies with? If Iran got nukes, would it target the PEOPLE of Israel or the GOVERNMENT of Israel? If Israel preemptively attacked Iran in order to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, would Israel target the PEOPLE of Iran or the GOVERNMENT of Iran? When Israel works to destabilize Iran by choking off Iran's ability to function in the international financial arena, to build automobile factories, or to develop oil and gas fields, is Israel harming the PEOPLE of Iran or the GOVERNMENT of Iran?
The Palestinians did not take part in the european holocaust. There was no civil war in the former Mandate, but rather a continued colonial occupation by world Jewry of the natives' land.
Correct. The Druize are non-Jewish Israelis who serve in the IDF (usually as scouts). As a reward they recently had their water turned off in their villages at the same time Israeli was trumpeting their patriotism. Can't let those Jewish Israeli swimming pools down.
We all know Germans secretly hate Jews–why should they differ from any other Goy?
Haifa, Beersheba.
"Your "reporting" is so sub-standard, it should embarass you. " Translation: The report is hugely embarrassing for Israeli propagandists and coz Blumental is Jewish, we can't cry antiSemitism and we really hate that.
Indeed, it was a Druze who served the IDF so well that after emptying 2 clips of bullets into a 13 year old Palestinian girl minding her own business, he was found not guilty of any wrongdoing.