Sarah Honig is the darling of Jerusalem Post readers, if the comments and ratings to her op-eds are any indication.
Her latest, Another Tack: Nessie and why Obama can't, says that "Israeli-Arab peace" is a Loch Ness monster, i.e., a fantasy. Quite a few readers at Mondoweiss might agree with this analogy, but not with Honig's outrageous propagandizing.
Honig goes after Obama for his unfair handling of Israel, blaming it on "postmodernist evenhandedness." It's the usual hasbara: Netanyahu offered unprecedented concessions and was met only with unprecedented Palestinian demands.
I won't regurgitate all of her shtick, but will call Honig out for the following mendacious garbage:
As our own region proves time and again, myths can be lucrative, self-perpetuating and more compelling than unpleasant truth. The myth of an Israeli-Arab peace, like Nessie, is too good a moneymaker to let go of. Lots of folks make their living off it. They have a vested interest in keeping it alive, the consequences be damned.
NGOs worldwide rake in profits from their tireless “peace efforts.” What would they do without that little awful Jewish state? They churn out position papers, formulate proposals, produce damning documentaries to expose Israeli villainy, mold de rigueur opinions, raise funds for Hamas saints, dispatch activists and demonstrators against us, attract attention with assorted boycotts and initiate arrest warrants against our defenders and elected representatives. It’s a veritable industry and its business is booming.
So are its local subsidiaries. Miscellaneous left-wing outfits within Israel mushroom and thrive on handouts from foreign self-professed do-gooders. The inflow of cash buys friends, influences people and facilitates the takeover of airtime and tabloid pages. By dominating the media they dominate public discourse. They change mind-sets.
Which are the NGOs raking in profits from their Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts? Not the ones Honig ridicules. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch are favorite targets of rabid Israeli supporters these days. What would AI and HRW do "without that awful little Jewish state"? Plenty, as even the slightest perusal of their activities and reports would demonstrate.
Honig is even more shrill than the usual supporter of an oppressive regime that finds itself criticized by a human rights organization. Whether it's the defenders of the Soviet Union, Pinochet's Chile, Communist China, Argentina of the Generals, Castro's Cuba, Apartheid South Africa, or Iran of the Ayatollahs or the Shah, the tune is always the same. Such attacks on the messengers have been heard since the first HROs emerged in the sixties and seventies. NGOs are useful tools when they criticize your enemies, but become your enemy when they criticize your own bad behavior or that of your allies. Anyone who has worked for these organizations in a non-partisan manner knows the score.
It's beyond chutzpah for Honig to be talking about individuals and organizations making money off of Israeli criticism. Who are the NGO leaders that earn salaries equal to the $600,000 plus that Abraham Fox of the ADL and Rabbi Marvin Hier of the Simon Weisenthal Center and Holocaust Museum pull down? For the Hiers it has become a family business - adding the income of his wife and son, the compensation exceeds $1 milion per year. David Harris of the American Jewish Committee, which runs a separate foreign policy for American Jews, and Howard Kohr, executive director of AIPAC, are comparable paupers taking only $450-460,000 per year.
I recently met an ex-IDF officer who is now a member of Combatants for Peace, a group of Palestinians and Israelis that "had taken an active part in the cycle of violence in previous years and later on decided to put down their arms. CFP is a bi-national movement committed to non-violent activism and conscientious objection." Trying to raise some funding, this Israeli-Palestinian NGO has a proposed budget of $222,000 with the highest salary for staff budgeted at $24,000. Frau Honig, where is the profit-raking in that? Could you bother to name those dedicated Israeli NGO members who are living the high life off illicit subsidies from such nefarious organizations as the EU, and the governments of Norway and the Netherlands?
Whereas the finances of the NGOs that Honig considers subversive and traitorous are fairly transparent, the finances of many of her Zionist allies are shrouded in secrecy and funneled through US NPOs in order to collect dubious tax deductions. Im Tirtzu, which orchestrated the recent attack on the New Israeli Fund, as much as admitted the tax dodge.
Thank God for the Jerusalem Post. According to Honig, the rest of the Israeli media has been infiltrated and bought off by Israeli NGOs fronting for foreign enemies.
Maybe Honig would be willing to tell us her income for her slavish defense of Israeli actions at the Jerusalem Post and other places. Those of us who contribute to Mondoweiss would be encouraged to learn that such dedicated Zionists as Honig were acting out of conscience and not pecuniary reward just like us. Is there anyone critical of Israel who isn't aware that the earnings and opportunities are much greater if you serve the Israeli Lobby?
Is any party gaining more economic benefit from "the myth of an Israeli-Arab peace" than Israel itself? By holding out the possibility of this ever elusive peace, Israel gets its occupation funded by the rest of the world. Instead of having to pay for the welfare of the occupied as required by international law, Israel makes sure that its businesses get their cut for any goods imported into the territories and for any economic activity which is actually allowed in the Palestinian areas.
As a carrot to get Israel to take daring steps for peace, the EU, the US and every other Western economic institution have bent over backwards to grant Israel favorable access and status. For the same empty promises, Israel is rewarded multiple times.
Since Israel has "to feel secure" in order to make peace, America arms it to the teeth with generous military aid and the latest technology, and grants it unprecedented access to the US defense market where it competes on favorable terms with US firms. Moreover, the US buys off the repressive governments of Egypt and Jordan in order to keep them committed to the "peace" charade.
It appears the war against those critical of the Gaza invasion has only just begun. Sarah Honig shows how far mainstream Israeli supporters are willing to go to demonize these critics.
go bruce, you tell em!
Sarah, such a true believer–I’m always amazed by the human propensity to retain self-righteousness uber alles. It never ends, this sales mentality. Bernays. What’s in it for me, combined with, what’s in it for the criminals I care about? If there are devils, Sarah is one of them. Never saw or heard in myth or reality of a devil who came on to the scene wearing red and horns. Always, the angel clothing and halo. And the sword of righteousness. Wanna buy a good vacum cleaner? I only sell the best.
RE: “By holding out the possibility of this ever elusive peace, Israel gets its occupation funded by the rest of the world. Instead of having to pay for the welfare of the occupied as required by international law… – Wolman
SEE:
Report: Israel Stole $2B from Palestinian Workers, by Jonathan Cook, Antiwar.com, 02/05/10
(EXCERPT) Over the past four decades Israel has defrauded Palestinians working inside Israel of more than $2 billion by deducting from their salaries contributions for welfare benefits to which they were never entitled, Israeli economists have revealed. A new report, “State Robbery”, to be published later this month, says the “theft” continued even after the Palestinian Authority was established in 1994 and part of the money was supposed to be transferred to a special fund on behalf of the workers.
According to information supplied by Israeli officials, most of the deductions from the workers’ pay were invested in infrastructure projects in the Palestinian territories — a presumed reference to the massive state subsidies accorded to the settlements….
ENTIRETY – link to original.antiwar.com
Honig’s remarks throw off the mask that Israel has been using to deceive and defraud the world – the lie that Israel wants peace. Israel doesn’t want peace, Israel doesn’t expect peace, Israel actively works against peace and peacemakers.
And by no means can there be evenhandedness!
There’s an Israeli crackdown on Human Rights organisations working in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Local representatives of major organisations are being given tourist visas instead of work visas, so they can’t officially ‘work’ in the OPT any more.
link to abcnews.go.com
The Palestinian HROs are easily dealt with. They are simply arrested and put in jail, without charges, or legal sentences. The following are on the list:
link to law.emory.edu
There’s an Israeli crackdown on Human Rights organisations working in the Occupied Palestinian Territories …
Important context, RP. Honig’s article, ImTirzu’s campaign, Israeli crackdown on international and Israeli NGOs that are in any way critical of Israeli policies and actions or helping Palestinians, funding, visas, the Canadian “human rights” commission talking about cutting funding to B’tselem, etc. It’s all connected, and a critical shift, undoubtedly linked to Goldstone, British arrest warrants, BDS and even JStreet. They’re quaking in their boots and lashing out in all directions.
I would also add Bil’in and the possible achievement of its publicised campaign, as well as Sheikh Jarrah and the international attention it has drawn. All of the theories regarding the crucial role of civil society today (eg. Paul Ginsborg) seem to be proving themselves, despite their flaws.
And the blogosphere, which I suspect has the folks at the Israeli PM’s Office and Hasbara Ministry tearing their hair out.
It really is kind of odd that they’re so very hysterical. What exactly do they fear from the exposure of the truth? What kind of threat is delegitimization? How many guns does it have, how many tanks and fighter planes, how many nukes?
Honig is almost admitting – Hey, all right, we’re a racist police state that commits war crimes. What you gonna do about it, sucker?
And of course the answer is – nothing. The world already knows the truth and does nothing. Why not just admit it and get on with it? Why does Israel have to pretend to be righteous?
Exactly pots.
Recall the various trolls we’ve had on here for the past couple of weeks.
Both bragged about how no matter what these reports and NGOs said, ‘they’ (Jews and Israel, as one) will never ‘give in’ essentially.
Virtually everything these people say is a lie. Wrapped in self-righteousness.
potsherd: It really is kind of odd that they’re so very hysterical. What exactly do they fear from the exposure of the truth? What kind of threat is delegitimization? How many guns does it have, how many tanks and fighter planes, how many nukes?
It’s all about insecurity, the need to be loved, and industrial quantities of self-righteousness. It is “hasbara warfare”. Israeli will not be defeated by guns and tanks or even Katyushas and Qassams, but by BDS, NGOs and international public opinion. And people like Honig, know it.
I wonder. I think Israel is coming to a point when it will have to abandon the mask of righteousness and openly embrace naked force. The mask just doesn’t fit any longer, but Israel will discover it can get along just fine without it.
I wonder. I think Israel is coming to a point when it will have to abandon the mask of righteousness and openly embrace naked force.
Israel is built on self-righteousness. The more naked force is openly embraced the more it will shake Israeli (and American Jewish) society to the core. The pretense is crucial.
Yeah, not that I’m Israeli, so I can’t know the society from the inside,but to me there’s a certain overlap between the ugliest features of both Israeli and American society. Americans who support torture generally don’t give up the pretense of righteousness–it’s part of why they think Americans have the right to do anything. Presumably the same is true of some Israelis. And for that matter, Islamic terrorists.
I still wonder. US Jews seem to have a capacity for excusing what Israel does, no matter what, just because it’s Israel, with a divine dispensation. There is too much investment.
Internationals and especially ISM volunteers continue to be targeted by Israeli authorities: Court frees foreign activists, raps West Bank crackdown
Goldstone, Bil’in, BDS. Gotta keep those foreign troublemakers out of Ramallah!
Meanwhile, as Phil says, the pro-Israelis mint it:
False righteousness is profitable!
The J Post is no worse than Fox news and Bibi is a lot like Cheney. I won’t read the J Post, to me it would be like being tied up and made to listen to Glen Beck. Ameika uber alles.
The ‘liberal’ L.A. Times’ weaselly report on the NIF matter
“Batsheva Sobelman in The Times’ Jerusalem Bureau contributed to this report. ”
Uri Avnery link to zope.gush-shalom.org