Activism

Levy says BDS may undo Israeli denial and propaganda– even as Lapid calls it Hamas’s ‘puppet’

Further signs of the crisis in Israel’s international reputation. Yair Lapid is the former Israeli finance minister and the head of a centrist party called There is a Future (Yesh Atid) and is supposedly sophisticated, in the Israeli frame anyway.

And lest you underestimate Israel’s enemies, Lapid also said this:

Lapid spoke in New York at a synagogue on Saturday and called on Diaspora Jews to support Israel in its fight against BDS. Sheldon Adelson and Haim Saban will show up; but how many young Jews?

Not if they’re reading Gideon Levy. He had a stunning column about BDS in Haaretz yesterday saying all the propaganda attacks on BDS aren’t fooling anyone except the Israelis themselves. They are disconnected from reality:

The policy of denial and disconnection from reality is rising to a dangerous level, and the illness is getting worse. When the world starts to show encouraging signs of stirring to action, Israel further entrenches itself in its imaginary reality and erects more and more separation barriers for itself. Israel seems to think that what worked well in its society and succeeded in almost totally wiping out all consciousness and awareness, will work just as well in the rest of the world.

And Levy credits BDS as a campaign aimed at implementing justice and international law:

It’s only to be expected when facing a worldwide campaign aimed at implementing justice and international law: the stage of denial, of repression and clinging to the false, nearly magical belief that if Israel will just explain its position better and invest the appropriate resources, everything will be fine. In other words, Israel continues to think that the world is dumb (and Israel is smart).

Propaganda has replaced policy-making for Israelis, and it’s coming to an end:

You can blame the Palestinians for everything and obscure the simple fact that this brutal occupation is Israeli. You can tell the world that it all belongs to us because the Bible says so and believe that anyone will take you seriously. You can be sure that the memory of the Holocaust will serve us forever, and justify any injustice.

Of course, it won’t work indefinitely. It hasn’t worked in any country in history, no matter how strong and well-established, not even in the mightiest empires. Justice always triumphs in the end, even if very belatedly. And justice says that Israel cannot continue to tyrannize another people forever, even if Haim Saban himself lends his support.

Saban, who supports Hillary Clinton, is one of the backers of the anti-BDS conference in Vegas this weekend.

Thanks to Scott Roth.

 

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Gideon Levy:

Israel seems to think that what worked well in its society and succeeded in almost totally wiping out all consciousness and awareness, will work just as well in the rest of the world.

This wiping out of consciousness and awareness does work. The brother of a Jewish friend of mine “returned” to Israel (the family was from Poland and then the U.S.) around 30 years ago. He developed Parkinson’s disease and required a live-in caregiver, which Israel provided. The caregiver was from the Phillipines.

The caregiver had a wife and young children; at least they were young when he started working for my friend’s brother. For the next 20 years, this man got to visit his family in the Phillipines for three weeks, once a year.

My friend had been quite active in the Civil Rights movement in the 1960’s. So when she told me that this Phillipino was “one of the family,” I laughed out loud. She was quite offended when I said that where I grew up in Texas, all the black servants were “one of the family,” though of course we whites wouldn’t have allowed any actual members of our families to be treated the way they were.

I asked if if would be acceptable for any other members of her family to be able to visit their children and wives only once a year; she could find nothing to say.

Thank you for highlighting Levy’s brilliant column, Phil. By doing so, I hope it gets the widest distribution possible because it deserves it. People need to read Levy in order to get the truth. He’s a tenacious and eloquent truth- teller, but this one particular column is, as you wrote, “stunning”.

One can only shake one’s head ruefully and/or laugh @- “Yair Lapid says BDS movement is “A puppet operated by Hamas and Islamic Jihad””. Doesn’t he know that the expiration date is ‘way past’ on that Israeli export? That can is bulging at the seams~ intelligent/informed folks know better than to buy it, never mind to consume it!

Haaretz cartoon today about hasbara:

http://www.haaretz.com/daily-cartoon/1.659977

Lapid gets even more extreme:

“Yair Lapid: BDS leaders are ‘out and out anti-Semites’

Speaking at the JPost Conference in New York, the Yesh Atid leader equates the boycott movement’s activities with Palestinian mufti Haj Amin al-Husseini’s collaboration with the Nazis.

… He describes BDS supporters in the West as “bleeding heart, so-called intellectuals who have no idea who they really serve.” And he believes that BDS leaders are “out and out anti-Semites.”

Speaking at the Jerusalem Post Conference in New York and a separate briefing for reporters, Lapid disagreed with Opposition Leader Yitzhak Herzog’s claim that the policies of the Netanyahu government have played a role in the strength of BDS. He said that their motivation is anti-Israeli and anti-Jewish, and drew a direct line between their activities and World War II Palestinian mufti Haj Amin al-Husseini’s collaboration with the Nazis, including his visit with Adolf Eichmann at Auschwitz.

Lapid attacked “extreme leftist” Israeli groups, such as Breaking the Silence, accusing them of aiding BDS. He said that Israeli should “go to the Europeans, we should go to American campuses and ask them ‘do you understand that you are not supporting the liberation of the oppressed, but are cheering for the people and values that brought 9/11 to this country. You are supporting people that kill gays and suppress women.’”

Lapid called for a regional summit of the Arab League that would assist the “weak leadership”: on both the Israeli and Palestinian to reach a 2-State solution.”

http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/jewish-world-news/.premium-1.660102?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

Hasbara 101 on steroids. It’s a feeding frenzy! Can you smell the flop sweat/desperation?

ho-hum.

“He said that Israeli should “go to the Europeans, we should go to American campuses and ask them ‘do you understand that you are not supporting the liberation of the oppressed, but are cheering for the people and values that brought 9/11 to this country. You are supporting people that kill gays and suppress women.’”

Now that is a very telling statement. What Lapid is saying is that the Palestinians are nasty people who do not deserve to be treated with dignity and respect. They are barbarians who must be kept under lock and key, for if freed they would hang gays from every lamppost and kill their daughters.

But then after asserting this “Lapid called for a regional summit of the Arab League that would assist the “weak leadership”: on both the Israeli and Palestinian to reach a 2-State solution.”

Wait, isn’t he afraid that a two state solution will lead to dead gays and women? Really, these people contradict themselves so much they can’t even keep up with their own lies.

Absolutely agree Just. Well said

Gideon Levy is precious

Kris, Filipino and other Asian carers (Sri Lankans, Nepalese etc) are extremely widespread in Israel.
They work very long hours, get one day a week off and if they’re lucky get to back home once a year. Many Israelis expect to get one of these carers when they get older. I know because two of my elderly relatives in israel had Filipino carers.

Of course the Israeli argument is that they are doing these poor people a favour by providing them with much needed work but it’s a form of slavery in my opinion, especially when you consider the amount they get paid for the total sacrifice of their lives.

It’s common all over the Gulf states too, not just in israel

New rules were brought in a couple of years ago which have made matters worse for them. An interesting article about it here:

http://m.irinnews.org/report/95690/israel-new-law-targets-migrant-care-workers#.VXS7rXNwav0

(They also treat Thai agricultural workers appallingly.)