Noam Sheizaf (photo: Yossi Gurvitz)
Michael Oren is a master hasbarist. Albeit, nowhere as proficient nor eloquent as the first Mr. Hasbara, Abba Eban, but a master none the less. He's creepy, slick and peddles himself off as a scholar.
When I first read Oren's recent Op-Ed on Foreign Policy's blog, it made me cringe, literally. For starters I was appalled that a site I respect and use as a frequent resource would stoop so low as to function as a blatant propaganda outfit for the Foreign Ministry of Israel (but that's another matter altogether). Merely the title itself, “Israel’s Resilient Democracy,” made me want to gag. It starts out with this allegation:
The Jewish state, moreover, belongs to a tiny group of countries --...-- never to have suffered intervals of non-democratic governance.
And then it just gets worse with every sentence.
972's Noam Sheizaf takes him on, chews him up and spits him out. Heaven! Sheizaf says he will go "in depth", and he does. In "Omissions, half-truths, lies: Ambassador Oren in Foreign Policy" Sheizaf completely eviscerates Oren over and over and over.
Here's one example:
Ambassador Oren writes:
In fact, Israel has tolerated acts that would be deemed treasonous in virtually any other democracy. Ahmed Tibi, who once advised PLO Chairman Yasir Arafat and recently praised Palestinian “martyrs” — a well-known euphemism for suicide bombers — serves as a member and deputy speaker of the Knesset.
Context: Knesset Member Ahmad Tibi (Raam-Taal / United Arab List) was recently accused by a rightwing watchdog group of giving a speech more than a year ago in which he praised suicide attacks on Israeli civilians. When the full video of the speech was released, it turned out that Tibi was referring to Palestinians who were killed in protests and to civilians who lost their lives. The version released by the watchdog group was heavily edited to create a false impression.
As a result, journalist Ben-Dror Yemini of Maariv and The Jerusalem Post, a well-known critic of the Arab Knesset members and one of those who broke the shahid (martyr) story, retracted his accusation both on his blog and in the printed paper. Yemini even went on Israeli public radio, saying: “I admit I was wrong. We owe an apology to [MK] Tibi.”
The leading Israeli paper Yedioth Ahronoth also published an apology for running this story in its printed edition.(correction/update: Yedioth apologized for the same accusation but on a different occasion, not the affair mentioned here. Mr. Tibi claimed that Dan Margalit, senior pundit for Israel Hayom, also backed down from these accusations, but I wasn’t able to find a link )Not only did MK Tibi never praise suicide bombing, he is extremely consistent in denouncing the killing of Israeli civilians. Tibi is also a passionate critic of Holocaust denial in the Arab world, and can often be heard saying that “there is nothing more immoral than Holocaust denial.” There are two options here: Either Prof. Oren knowingly repeated a blood libel against the deputy speaker of his own Knesset, or he failed to fact check the issue before repeating those accusations. Both cases say something of the nature of Prof. Oren’s work, and demonstrate how easy it is to demonize Palestinians in Israel today.
Sheizaf neither begins or ends there, he goes after Oren for perpetuating the myth of Israeli Arab parties calling for the “dismantling the Jewish state” when in fact they repeatedly call for a “state for all its citizens.” He rips Oren over the British Mandate’s emergency regulations and administrative detention, the NGO fiasco, the boycott law, the Nakba Law, the erosion of democratic rights of Israeli citizens, and then skewers him over his condescending critique of Peter Beinart's assertion that Israel bars Palestinians from citizenship and the right to vote in the state that controls their lives.
Sheirzaf asserts the heart of Oren’s text "intends to portray Israel as a tiny America, a bastion of civil rights in a hostile and strange environment," and counters:
Let’s imagine those citizens surrounded by walls and fences and a system of dozens of roadblocks, some of them permanent with many appearing and disappearing every day, between the various suburbs and towns, so a route that could take 10 minute to drive regularly turns into a journey of hours. Let’s imagine them unable to relocate or travel abroad without a special permit, notoriously hard to obtain, from the military authorities.
And on top of this, they can’t vote.
And now let’s imagine this unique situation applied to a third of the population under the United State’s control – say 100 million – for two-thirds of the country’s history, meaning over 150 years. This would be the proper analogy, if we were to follow Ambassador Oren’s logic. It doesn’t sound very democratic.
Not very democratic indeed.
Sheizaf slays him at the end, it's so much fun to read. Thank you Noam, fabulous.
Annie; I won’t comment on the above since Michael Oren makes my skin crawl every time i see him or read anything he writes. It surprises me that any american with any degree of intelligence actually pays attention to this guy. Eban on the other hand was a master.
However, i am taken by your comment; “For starters I was appalled that a site I respect and use as a frequent resource would stoop so low as to function as a blatant propaganda outfit for the Foreign Ministry of Israel”, .
I am surprised and shocked that you still regard FP as a source for any kind of open and intelligent op eds. The site has long been taken over by blatant liars and twisters of events that I for one have taken them off my list of trusted links, just like i did with Al Jazeera sometime ago. FP has become a dumping ground for neocon ideology that is counting on the “OLD” reputation of the site to peddle their twisted interpretation of events and generally mislead readers.
I have kept up with FP for sometime and when the Syrian crisis started (a country i devoted years in learning and monitoring) I noticed the outright manipulation and dumping of garbage on the site by several op eds and was shocked as to why FP was allowing this on their site. My coup de grace came when they published an op ed by France’s FM Juppe who had the gull of peddling “France” is Syria’s friend and will always protect the christians in this region. That was enough for me.
FP has joined the compost bin of rotted journalism that seeks to mislead and misinterpret events so future historians are not able to balance what really took place. In this bin you will also find, Al Jazeera, Al Arabiya, WP, NYT, Canada’s National Post and on and on ….
hi brad, yes i agree there are many articles there i completely disagree with. i guess i distinguish between providing a format for neocons and publishing outright propaganda/lies from official agents of foreign governments. i guess they will publish anything now.
some of the op eds i like. didn’t mark perry just publish there and walt publishes there. mostly i visit when someone links to a good article. i have to admit i have not given it a thorough search for awhile, but i have read some excellent analysis there in the past. imho. here’s from monday:
link to walt.foreignpolicy.com
“But they also quote NSC spokesman Tommy Vietor saying “Our position is clear: Iran must live up to its international obligations, including full suspension of uranium enrichment as required by multiple U.N. Security Council resolutions.”
But here’s why I’m confused. I can see why the P5 +1 would like Iran to agree to these demands, just as I’d like Bill Gates and Warren Buffett to each write me billion dollar checks. But I don’t expect either of them to do this, yet the U.S and its allies seem to think this deal-breaking demand is a reasonable opening bid. In fact, their position sounds like a complete non-starter to me, and seems more likely to derail negotiations than advance them.
…..
The Times’ story quotes a U.S. official saying “We have no idea how the Iranians will react… We probably won’t know after the first meeting.” In fact, the initial response from Tehran was both prompt and predictable. Guess what? They rejected it.”
this was exactly my initial reaction to the demand. btw, i would have blockquoted that but i can’t seem to get the italics to show up in the blockquotes. but i will blockquote the end (my bold):
here’s another valuable link from FP: Misreading Arab public opinion on Iran’s nuclear program
link to mideast.foreignpolicy.com
sullivan links to it here and asks/answers “Does The Arab Public Fear Iran?….Nope”
link to andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com
“Michael Oren is a master hasbarist”
For me it all seems to be falling apart. You can only see the shtick so long before you see how hollow it has become. So morally vapid. Even the Government of Israel stuff is see through. It’s all ideological, not rational and the ideology is no longer fit for purpose. Zionism has to live in the world and the world has moved on.
The end of the 2SS is a massive moment. All the Zionist garbage about peace means nothing. It never meant anything.
This was always the plan :
link to haaretz.com
It goes way beyond cynicism. It’s some sort of mental disorder.
Bad faith is only the beginning. Washed in years and years of bad religion. I presume Yiddish has something that gets to the point faster. Ziobots are moral zombies who keep coming back to a well that is now empty of meaning.
“State for all its citizens” is code for “dismantling the Jewish State”. Since it calls for all Palestinian refugees and their descendants to be made citizens and thereby put in a position to vote Israel out of existence as a Jewish state. That isn’t “shredding” his position, it is merely willfully failing to understand it.
Freddy says:
“State for all its citizens” is code for “dismantling the Jewish State”
———————-
I think its actually code for “democracy”
>> Fredblogs: “State for all its citizens” is code for “dismantling the Jewish State”.
>> Dan Crowther: I think its actually code for “democracy”
You’re both right. Israel is a religion-supremacist Jewish state. Advocating for a “state for all its citizens” – “equally”, I might add – is to advocate for dismantling the religion-supremacist Jewish state.
Some folks think that a secular, democratic and egalitarian state is better than a religion-supremacist state. Others, clearly, do not.
He just walked into that one, didn’t he ?
“‘State for all its citizens’ is code for ‘dismantling the Jewish State’. ”
Exactly the same way that “state for all South Africa’s citizens” was code for “dismantling Apartied.” Glad to see that you’re on board admitting the basic bigotry of the Zionist project.
Fredblogs: “State for all its citizens”… calls for all Palestinian refugees and their descendants to be made citizens”
That is simply not true. “State for all its citizens” is a very specific term in Israeli political discourse and it refers to providing equal privileges and obligations for both Jews and non Jews within Israel, and de-entangling Jewish symbols and state symbols. Things that are sometimes mentioned in this regard include: equal distribution of funds to Jewish and non-Jewish municipalities and schools, equal allocation of land to Jewish and non Jewish municipalities, stopping such government initiatives like “Judaising the Galilee”, changing the words to the Israeli national anthem to remove references to “the yearning of the Jewish heart”, and instituting mandatory national service for all citizens. It has nothing to do (one way or the other) with the Palestinian right of return.
The Jewish state, moreover, belongs to a tiny group of countries –…– never to have suffered intervals of non-democratic governance.
You could have called a stop to the exercise in futility right there. The UN Ad Hoc Committees were given last minute population figures for the proposed Jewish state from the British mandatory government. They reported:
See paragraphs 62-64 on pdf file pages 40-42 of A/AC.14/32, 11 November 1947 @ link to un.org
The Jewish Agency for Palestine and the National Council of the Jews of Palestine (Vaad Leumi) simply named themselves to the Provisional State Council and the Provisional Government of the State of Israel. On May 15, 1948, they vested all legislative, executive and judiciary powers in themselves without consulting the wishes of the Arab majority. See S/766, May 22, 1948 link to unispal.un.org
When the Jewish People’s Council met on 14 May 1948 to discuss the Draft of the Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel no Arabs were present or invited. The Chairman, David Ben-Gurion said the purpose of the declaration and interim constitution were to implement Jewish rule. See Netanel Lorach, Major Knesset Debates, 1948-1981, Volume 1 – People’s Council and Provisional Council of State, 1948-1949, pp 44
The Head of the Agency’s Political Department, Moshe Shertok noted a suggestion in a telegram from America that, sometime before the 15 May assembly, which is the assembly of the declaration, the Executive shall issue a communique saying that on Saturday night (May 15) the first meeting of the Provisional Government would be convened with an item on the agenda regarding The return of the Arab population of the Jewish State to their homes. Ben Gurion dismissed the idea and closed the meeting. link to books.google.com
John Quigley discusses how the government used martial law and the Courts to prevent the Arabs from organizing politically in Apartheid Outside Africa: The Case of Israel”, 2 Indiana International & Comparative Law Review, Volume 1, pp 221-252:
“State for all its citizens” is code for “dismantling the Jewish State”.
The bigots in the nativist political movement of California said the same sorts of things when they adopted legislation to segregate the schools to keep-out the so-called Japanese citizens and “anti-Okie” laws which made it a crime for people to take-in their own unemployed family members (e.g. Edwards v. People of State of California, 314 U.S. 160 (1941) ). Why should I care if the lawful inhabitants want to dismantle the Jewish state? Our Constitution wouldn’t allow such a thing to be established on U.S. soil in the first place.
Sorry, but the only reason you see it as “shredding” his position is that you agree with Sheizaf’s position before hearing him speak. I see his comments as specious and deliberate distortions of what is really going on. Which is that the unrelentingly hostile Arabs are trying to destroy Israel.
the only reason you see it as “shredding” his position is that you agree with Sheizaf’s position
fred, what do you think of :
and did you even read the rest of Noam’s article?
“Yedioth Ahronoth also published an apology”
Noam’s link points to a 2002 commentary in the seventh eye, an Israeli media watchdog. The link is not related to the current 2012 Tibi incident. Sloppy error on Noam’s behalf.
““I admit I was wrong. We owe an apology to [MK] Tibi.””
He did say that. However, I have received no reasonable clarification for the following in Tibi’s speech: “Those who the occupiers wants to be labeled as ‘terrorists’, while there is nothing greater than those who died for their country”.
Izik, thanks for bringing this to my attention. i just revisited Noam’s article over at 972 and he has updated it:
“”
The leading Israeli paper Yedioth Ahronoth also published an apology for running this story in its printed edition.(correction/update: Yedioth apologized for the same accusation but on a different occasion, not the affair mentioned here. Mr. Tibi claimed that Dan Margalit, senior pundit for Israel Hayom, also backed down from these accusations, but I wasn’t able to find a link ) ”i will change the text in the post, however the italics do not come thru in blockquotes so they will not appear there.
However, I have received no reasonable clarification for the following in Tibi’s speech: “Those who the occupiers wants to be labeled as ‘terrorists’, while there is nothing greater than those who died for their country”.
Izik, i cannot read the entire segment, you’ve cited one sentence (maybe not even the whole sentence) with no context so i cannot be the judge, but my assumption is in the context of the speech and what he was discussing “Those who the occupiers wants to be labeled as ‘terrorists’”, by this is he talking about the reference of martyrs and how it is used. of it is true tibi has repeatedly condemned suicide bombings and attacks against civilians how is it you think he would be using the interpretation you are implying?
isn’t this exactly what others apologized for? taking things out of context and repeating phrasing for their own purpose of condemning him?
Unrelentingly hostile, vicious zionists are trying to destroy Palestine, as they have been for the last 70 years. Arabs are fighting for democracy, which means destroying the apartheid system in Israel, not destroying Israel. Unless you accept that apartheid Israel is the only Israel that can ever exist, which apparently you do.
LOL. As opposed to Israel that actually destroyed Palestine? How come the things that zionists fear are the things that they have done and then project onto others?
“the “dismantling the Jewish state” when in fact they repeatedly call for a “state for all its citizens.” ” BUT TO BE FAIR, these hard-line right-wing anti-democratic Zionists want a “Jewish State” as they understand that term and they understand that term as the state of the Jewish People and NOT the state of the citizens. so
{ Democracy == DISMANTLE J.S. }.
How about we Americans ask our government (for which WE get to vote) to withhold all monies and cooperations and UNSC vetoes for Israel UNTIL Israel becomes adequately democratic IN ACTIONS and legislates that it is the country of its citizens and not of the Jewish People.
Right, no chance of it, because our government (for whom we vote) is ALSO not democratic but is, rather, oligarchic, with BIG-ZION as a major oligarch.
yeah! this just in “Deputy Speaker Tibi launches complaint against Amb. Oren”
link to 972mag.com
awesome!
fyi: Gurwitz on Beinart’s Book, too little, too late.
link to 972mag.com
(look who the first commenter is in the comments)
Who is the first commenter? Name rings a bell, I think…
I hate to admit it, but I am slightly relieved we don’t have to struggle with him anymore. … On his blog he used a trick, censoring my mails to be able to write: I had stated that he lied. But “the left” is still the main target of this self-styled liberal. For him probably even Daniel Pipes is a liberal, or as he writes a “real” liberal, not one in danger of leaning towards the right.
Haaretz: Carl Perkal, Daniel Pipes’ attack on Israeli Arabs is baseless and inflammatory
based on:
Washington Times: PIPES: Israel’s Arabs, living a paradox, Ethnic minority resent Judaism but value nation’s economic opportunities
Reading Pipes, Horowitz, and others in the post 911 world was as painful as reading Richard Witty over the years.
Haaretz: Carl Perkal, Daniel Pipes’ attack on Israeli Arabs is baseless and inflammatory
Daniel Pipes is synonymous with baseless and inflammatory. He recycled his blog post from link to danielpipes.org once before at Netahyahu’s echo chamber: link to israelhayom.com
I guess “third time” really is charmed. He claims that 1-in-5 Israelis are Arabs and then goes on to complain that they are uncomfortable about living in a “Jewish polity”. Nuff said. It’s obviously Pipes who’s uncomfortable with the existing polity. It’s ironic that no one has given him hell for the statements about ending “pro-natal subsidies” to Israeli Arabs. He’s strangely silent about curtailing subsidies that support runaway Haredim reproduction. Many of them have a violent aversion for life among the Israeli polity.
RE: “Ahmed Tibi, who…recently praised Palestinian “martyrs” — a well-known euphemism for suicide bombers…” ~ Amb. Michael Oren
AND RE: “The version released by the watchdog group was heavily edited to create a false impression.” ~ Annie Roberts
FROM THE HASBARA HANDBOOK: “Quotes can work as testimonial, even when they might be old or out of context.”
SEE THE HASBARA HANDBOOK (pages 24-25):
SOURCE, “HASBARA HANDBOOK: Promoting Israel on Campus”, published by the World Union of Jewish Students, March 2002 – link to scribd.com
hi dickerson, not a big deal..but i thought you might like to know my last name is robbins, not roberts. unless you are referencing someone else. but you can just call me annie.
cheerio!
RE: “i thought you might like to know my last name is robbins, not roberts. unless you are referencing someone else.” ~ Annie
MY APOLOGY/APOLOGIA: I’m dreadfully sorry for confusing* you with Julia Roberts! As Homer Simpson says, D’oh!
32 D’oh’s in 15 Seconds (VIDEO, 00:15) – link to youtube.com
P.S. Considering how notoriously bad I am with names, you can also expect to be called Robertson, Robinson, Robeson, Riley, Wright, etc. I might even occasionally refer to you as Annie Robbins. Even a stopped clock is . . .
As to Dickerson, Dickinson, Dickson, Dickens, Dixon, etc., DON’T GET ME STARTED ! ! !
* or “corn-fusing” as I sometimes say
;)
no prob! annie is simpler anyway. julia roberts? nice comeback!
P.S. Dementia cases ‘to double by 2030′: WHO, By Agence France-Presse, 4/11/12
SOURCE – link to rawstory.com
P.P.S. OMG, who’s going to be left to help us all change our Depend® adult diapers?
Michael Oren and Alan Dershowitz are “like peas in a pod” (a/k/a “birds of a feather”)!
mjrosenberg had some funny quotes from dersh, what a freak
link to mjayrosenberg.com
RE: “mjrosenberg had some funny quotes from dersh, what a freak” ~ Annie
FOR EXAMPLE:
MY COMMENT: Eroticized passion? Spurned lover? Get your freak on, Dersh!
I know Freud supposedly said that “sometimes a cigar is just a cigar”, but methinks Professor Dershowitz might have some rather wild fantasies involving himself and MJ Rosenberg that I would just as soon not think about. In fact, I’m already beginning to feel quite ill!
P.S. Watch this if you are interested in seeing what “eroticized passion” really looks like (on the part of a “spurned lover”*, or not)!
• Rudolf Hess at the 1934 Nuremberg Rally (VIDEO, 00:57) – link to youtube.com
* After all, they had been cellmates in prison at Landsberg!
Tibi is threatening to sue Oren for libel. link to haaretz.com
I don’t know what the libel laws are like there, but Oren deserves the humiliation and punishment he will not receive. As Dickerson says, he and Dersh are indistinguishable in their complete lack of integrity.
In response to Tibi’s letter, the spokesperson of Israel’s U.S. embassy said that Oren’s article “relates to the resiliance of Israel’s democracy, one which allows broad freedom of opinion and expresision, including views and action which outrage the majority of the public”
defending the lie, i’m shocked/not.
In his attack on Tibi, Oren subconsciously undermines his own argument. Israel, according to Oren, is the state of its Jewish citizens, while its non-Jewish citizens (Palestinians in particular) are merely a tolerated ‘fifth column’ of apologists for terrorism. Ambassador Oren obviously does not see himself as a representative of all of Israel’s citizens. In his eyes, there are ‘real’ Israelis (Jews), and there are ‘tolerated traitors’ (Palestinians). That an Israeli ambassador to Washington can express such views (while trying to tout Israel’s democratic credentials!) tells us all we need to know about “Israel’s Resilient Democracy”.
Oren has merely confirmed Tibi’s famous quip that “Israel is a Jewish and democratic state: Jewish for Palestinians and democratic for Jews”.
Propagandists like Oren don’t care. It’s not their purpose. They know even if they publish a retraction, their lies will be out there spreading their poison. Their job has been done.