Israel to World: "Suck It."

stanm you made another lame crack about accusations of anti-semitism not long ago. im just wondering why you clipped that part of the article, which seems to me the least defensible. it's a battle of strawmen: sure, some people say any criticism of israel is always anti-semitic. but to say 'nowadays an anti-Semite is somebody who is hated by Jews' is bullshit. there are plenty of people who are called anti-semites who are actually anti-semites.

Could we leave the antisemitism out of it and just get back to Israel telling the world to suck it?

inspired by "What are some great charities to donate to out of spite?; i've given the zionist federation of great britain and ireland some cash on stanm's behalf. israel thanks you, stanm!

loool

What a relief! I'm so glad to find out that anti-Semitism is just another Jewish invention, like the Protocols and the Theory of Relativity. I was worried that an anti-Semite was just another racist dickwad, but it turns out that whatever it is, it's the Jews' fault and clearly isn't anyone else's problem. Thanks for the lesson, Dr. Meyer and StanM!!

That's not what was said at all.

hate stanm so much, let's all pile on.

yeah! Who does he think he is? I know where he lives and I just peed into his mail box! Take that, god hater!

Oh wait. Damn.

pimp c bitch I got a zoo up in my closet

sorry, carry on

The statement from Mr. Netanyahu’s office addressed the talks by saying that “Israel sees no connection at all between the peace process and building plans in Jerusalem.”

how convenient

http://bigthink.com/ideas/21423

xpost to shakey interesting then that the US is specifically offering various guarantees in exchange for a (3-month) settlement freeze

Israel to Cyclists: Suck It

Israeli activist imprisoned for protest against Gaza blockade

Jonathan Pollak handed three-month term after taking part in Tel Aviv protest cycle ride in January 2008

that was interesting. Is it unusual for these kind of sentences to be dished out to Israeli activists?

It is unusual for the level of the offence but he did already have a three months suspended sentence for something else.

still not sure of the "offense" here tbh /self-righteous cyclist

Things seem to be getting worse and worse:

http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/report-44-of-israeli-jews-support-rabbis-edict-forbidding-rentals-to-arabs-1.333825
http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/head-reform-rabbi-israeli-society-is-falling-into-a-deep-pit-of-racism-1.333996

OTOH, was impressed with this, given the source:
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2008/dec/04/the-time-has-come-to-say-these-things/

makes me think about how sometimes politicians who actually wish to do the right thing can be hamstrung by politics

too bad thats from 2008

http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2011/01/is-israel-still-a-democracy/69377/

Anyway, when the Katsav verdict came down, I didn't quite realize who had delivered it. Now I do, and it is sort of stunning. There are six aspects of the Katsav trial which prove that Israel is still a democracy, and a country very much unlike all of its neighbors.

1) An ex-president of the nation was brought to account for his alleged crimes. Doesn't happen too often in Israel's neighorhood.
2) The crimes in question were crimes against women. Happens only rarely in the non-democratic East.
3) Two of the three judges in the Katsav case were women -- doesn't happen.
4) Here's the stunner -- the head judge of the three-judge panel was an Arab Israeli named Geoge Karra.
5) Maybe this is the real stunner -- No one in Israel seemed to think it abnormal for an Arab citizen of the Jewish state to sit in judgment of a Jewish ex-president.
6) And, by the way, the president was convicted.

An ex-President being convicted for crimes? Doesn't even happen in US.

nobody talkin about the leaked documents yet?

apparently condoleeza rice suggested that palestinian refugees could be resettled in chile

o_O

Refugees in countries like Jordan & Lebanon should be removed from camps and settled in those countries, not sent to Chile.

I think most human beings with beating hearts instead of ashes and tears would agree with you

i hear the weather in chile is nice, though. almost....mediterranean.

Joodoo Chile

http://www.tabletmag.com/scroll/61477/five-jews-murdered-in-west-bank/

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/u-s-israel-s-approval-of-new-west-bank-homes-counters-peace-efforts-1.348998

Both items are sad

ugh

i don't want to sound callous, but i wonder if modern israelis are sort of now understanding what real regional insecurity feels like. it's too bad the last 30 years of stable dictatorships didn't provide enough room for them to get their house in order.

somehow I sort of doubt it

i mean, one of the really exciting things about the arab uprisings is that the permanent logjam of israel/palestine is getting a mighty shove. egypt in particular was one very large, very firm log. but it's scary too.

scary in the sense that Israel is probably going to be in another war shortly? yes, probably

Are you sure? With Palestinians? The surrounding countries are in disarray with protests or economic woes following the recession and protests. I don't think Syria, Lebanon, Jordan or Egypt want to get in a war with Israel right now.

I'm lookin a few years down the road

for example, there's going to be a lot of internal pressure on whatever new gov't emerges in Egypt not to honor the embargo, once that starts being violated, Israel will start some shit.

Everybody! Everybody! Stop fighting so we can get organized and go to war!

lol

kinda think from an israeli perspective the region's always been 'insecure'

that's what i meant. and now i have to figure that it's like oh, things can get a lot, lot, lot more insecure than that.

I got the impression when i was over there that there's a huge amount of unease but quite a bit of cautious optimism as well. There's a suggestion that with politicians more focused on either building a new democratic agenda or making real efforts to address the needs of their people, there'll be less 'ignore the fact you've got no educational prospects - look at what Israel just did!' rhetoric. Egypt's the major concern at the moment, but there's still so little clarity over what's going to happen there, i don't think any Israeli policy has really crystalised. If it is a semi-legitimate democracy, backed by international good will, that isn't overtly agressive but doesn't put much effort into securing the border, Israel's not going to be in a great position to go gunning for them.

more likely, shrug, business as usual xp

captain optimism here

Israel frankly screwed itself. It refused to make (or at least enforce) compromises, elected a far right guy even less likely to make compromises, then got the least sympathetic US president in recent memory. And now the whole region is falling apart, and pushing Israel off the political map (figuratively). They couldn't possibly have set themselves up for trouble better if they tried. Though maybe they did!

If this leads to countries like Syria doing less talking out of both sides of their mouth re the Palestinians (oh Israel should settle all of them, but we'll keep our Palestinian refugee community in refugee camps and refuse to let them integrate into Syrian society) then I think it'll be better for everyone. Especially if the 'right of return' becomes a non-issue because refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Egypt become settled then there will be a lot more space to come to a compromise. I think it's always been a super longshot making a lasting peace between Israel + Palestinians while Israel is surrounded by violent demagogues -- if you don't feel safe with your supposed 'allies' you certainly won't feel safe with the ppl firing rockets into your borders. A change in governments could change everything.

And I think this 'oh this is real regional uncertainty' thing is totally insane. Is this more uncertain than the second intifada? Or the Yom Kippur war (which has the same kind of psychic impact on Israel today as Vietnam still holds on the US)? Or living on the border of Lebanon or Gaza? Things have been uncertain for a long time. They're maybe just uncertain in different ways now.

yom kippur war was a long time ago - my instinct is that yes, the current evolving situation is less secure for Israel than any other time in the last 20-30 years (more insecure for everyone basically) but I am willing to be schooled on this

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/reconsidering-the-goldstone-report-on-israel-and-war-crimes/2011/04/01/AFg111JC_story.html

Goldstone says that if he wrote his report today it would've come out different. Good job, dude!

Did you actually read the article? He's not really taking anything back, just adding some nuance.