This should be wild and fun. Naomi Wolf will debate Rabbi Shmuley Boteach on Thursday September 11 in New York on the question, Did Israeli commit genocide in Gaza? This is an own-goal by Rabbi Shmuley; the celebrity hound in him has overcome his tireless labors for Israel. The event will grant more currency to the word genocide. And Wolf is far more appealing than the clueless rabbi, who sits by as Sheldon Adelson advises nuking Iran, and then couples Sean Penn and Adelson as rockstars for Israel. I would urge that Wolf make sure that folks in the hall have the ability to videotape the event. Rabbi Shmuley shut me down some months back, and then censored the official video of the event, on the pretext that his group had engaged the hall on its own swami-Shmuley terms. I’d also urge Wolf to do her best to avoid the countless twitter photos that Rabbi Shmuley is likely to take of her in his ethereal presence. Like this time he tweeted 15 pictures of Charlize Theron. Arggh.
Death of Israeli child reveals Netanyahu’s hypocrisy
Netanyahu recently told two U.S. congressman that Hamas, Hezbollah and other Islamist groups are defying all international norms. So said the man who has just finished killing some 2,100 people.
By B. Michael | Sep. 7, 2014 | 3:00 AM | 3
“Hypocrisy: The practice of claiming to have higher standards or more noble beliefs than is the case” (Oxford English Dictionary)
A few days ago, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with two members of the U.S. Congress. “We are closely following the events on the Golan Heights,” he told them, adding, “What we see is that the Nusra Front, Hamas, Hezbollah – backed by Iran, Al-Qaida, and these other terrorists groups – are basically defying all international norms.”
So said the man who had just finished killing some 2,100 people, most of them civilians, breaching every norm of international conduct.
“And I think the United Nations would do itself a great favor if, instead of the automatic Israel-bashing, they actually turned their attention and their investigative committees against these terrorists who trample every norm on which the UN was founded,” the prime minister also added.
So said the man whose air force only a few days before had wiped out whole residential neighborhoods, sometimes together with their inhabitants, trampling quite a few values and norms upon which the UN was founded.
After that conversation, Netanyahu went home. The next day he “expropriated” another 4,000 dunams (almost 1,000 acres) of occupied land to build more settlements, and transfer to them thousands more of his country’s citizens.
Thus, there was not one value, norm, international law or treaty – of all the values and norms and laws and treaties on which the United Nations was founded – that he did not break, crush, smash and pulverize.
One might therefore say – and even with a great deal of certainty – that from everything noted above, Benjamin Netanyahu very successfully meets all the requirements of the dictionary definition of a hypocrite.
But for those who still doubt the magnificence of the prime minister’s hypocrisy, here are some more examples.
On August 20, Mr. Netanyahu was recorded on film expressing his deep shock at the beheading of an American journalist by the knife of an Islamic State murderer. Truly, a wicked deed.
On August 19, just one day before that horrific execution, the prime minister approved the killing of an 8-month-old baby together with his mother, in the hope that the father would be with them and also be killed.
The assassination was carried out. Success was partial; baby and mother were crushed, the fate of the father is unknown. (Never mind. He will probably get married again, and we’ll have another chance.)
Strange. Just one day passed from one convenient execution to shock-to-the-very-core at another execution? And how is the honor of a baby less than that of a journalist?
Perhaps this only comes to teach us a lesson in the ways of hypocrisy. It turns out that, sometimes, when the needs of hypocrisy require, it is not the deed that is the decisive element but the tool. Did you use a knife to kill? You are the epitome of animal barbarity. Did you use a laser-guided missile? You are the epitome of moral advancement.
But Netanyahu reached the apex of his hypocritical abilities after the terrible death of 4-year-old Daniel Tragerman on August 22. His face somber, the prime minister declared the killing of Daniel a “double war crime.” True words. He also pledged that Hamas would pay a heavy price. Sharp words.
The catch is that in the 50 or so days prior to that bitter day, the Israeli army killed 10 children every day. At least. Every day. A total of more than 500 children killed. Or – as Netanyahu put it – 500 double war crimes. And who will pay for these?
And that, dear readers, is not just a piece of the finest hypocrisy. That is an impressive candidate to win the title for the height of temerity.
King Alexander Jannaeus, so the Talmud tells us, told his wife Salome the following (more or less): Fear not the Pharisees, nor the Saduccees, but only the hypocrites, who ape the Pharisees; because their deeds are the deeds of Netanyahu, but they expect a reward like Nelson Mandela.
Jannaeus convinced me. I certainly do fear.
Shmuley the tooly .
It would be good to get him on video defending the indefensible genocide of Palestinians. At least the audience will have the privilege of one brain on stage.
Interesting article by Jesse Rosenfeld:
“GAZA CITY, Gaza—More than a month after The Daily Beast reported evidence suggesting Israeli soldiers carried out the summary execution of six men amid fierce combat in late July, there are no signs that the Israeli government is investigating the matter. It has declined to respond to repeated inquiries. The independent organizations Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, which the Israeli authorities have barred from Gaza, are unable to follow up in detail. And a United Nations investigation of abuses on both sides is barely under way.
The Daily Beast has continued its own investigation, however. And the picture that’s emerging tends to confirm the story of a summary execution, on the one hand, while undermining subsequent reports by some in the international press who suggest the dead men, left to rot in the bathroom of a battered house, were merely innocent bystanders. Instead, they appear to have been hardened guerrilla fighters from Islamic Jihad who were trying to ambush Israeli soldiers when they themselves were caught, captured, herded into an abandoned bathroom and gunned down in an incident that, if confirmed, would be a war crime. .
…..
The fog of Israel’s 50-Day war in Gaza has only just begun to clear and while there is still much mystery shrouding the battle for Khuzaa, the more the record of those events takes shape, the more grim it appears.”
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/09/07/did-israel-execute-jihadists-in-gaza.html
Naomi Wolf can tell the rabbi where he can go….
to Guatemala! !
Good article by Avi Shlaim:
“Israel has a habit of justifying its actions in the occupied Palestinian territories, however illegal and indecent, in the name of security. But denying any security to the other side only perpetuates the conflict.
…..
Israel’s policy towards Gaza since the unilateral disengagement in 2005 has consisted of the systematic violations of international humanitarian law, duplicitous diplomacy and large doses of brute military force. With chilling cynicism, Israeli generals speak of their periodic incursions into Gaza as “mowing the lawn”. This policy has manifestly failed to procure the security that Israel’s citizens deserve. The writing is on the wall. A new and more constructive policy is desperately needed. Israeli politicians, however, are unlikely to be able to make any of the proposed moves without strong external pressure. This is where the international community comes in. It must begin to hold Israel to account in a way that it has so far shamefully failed to.”
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/sep/07/israel-palestinian-unity-land-grab?commentpage=1
Should be a good match-up. Boteach has more followers on Twitter: 123K vs Wolf’s 48K. But Wolf has more Facebook followers: 86K vs Boteach’s 75K.