Israel Matzav

The World loves us when we go like sheep to the slaughter

A new study published by the Hebrew University in Jerusalem shows that Israel's expulsion of 10,000 of its citizens from their homes in the Gaza Strip was wildly popular during the month that it was taking place, but that the popularity quickly faded, and our image in the American and British media is worse than ever.

The researchers followed the way the mainstream American and British media reported on Israel and the formal announcements made by the governments of both countries. The study dealt with a nine-month period, beginning three months before the Disengagement and ending with the elections in the Palestinian Authority.

Israel's image was at its positive peak during the month of the Disengagement. During that period, the Foreign Ministry's messages managed to resonate with the U.S. and U.K.'s media and their governments. However, immediately afterwards, the PA's messages took the prominent lead once more.

Dr. Raanan Gissin, Ariel Sharon's former spin doctor, tried to ignore the results:

"The Disengagement plan may have failed vis-à-vis the Palestinians but it succeeded in putting the Quartet and the Americans at our side," Gissin explained. "[Ariel] Sharon used to say about the Disengagement that if he wasn't making peace with the Palestinians here, at least he was making peace with the Americans," the former Prime Minister's long-time aide said.

It did? Then why does the study report that "Israel's image in American and British media got worse after the pullout from Gaza and the destruction of the Jewish communities there (the Disengagement)." And why is the Bush administration, which was the most pro-Israel administration since Ronald Reagan's (if not Richard Nixon's) until the expulsion suddenly all over us to commit suicide?

The study's author, Dr. Tamir Shefer, told NRG: "What we saw is that during the implementation of the Disengagement, when Israel was carrying out an initiative, it was presented well. As far as the world is concerned, what we see in the findings is that as long as we continue to 'sit' in Judea and Samaria and seal the Gaza borders, we continue to be presented in a negative light."

When asked how he explained the decline in Israel's image after a supposedly "good deed" like the Disengagement, Shefer said he did not have a total explanation for this. Israel is now presented as a Goliath, he said, more than before the Disengagement. "Maybe the very fact that we carried out a retreat and supposedly showed the world that we were capable of retreating raised the bar of demands from us," he conjectured.

No. The problem is that the world loves the Jews when we go like sheep to the slaughterhouse. When we sacrificed 10,000 of our own to do what the 'international community' wanted us to do, they stood up and cheered. But when we resist or delay taking further action against our own for any reason, the world doesn't love us anymore. That's the truth.

The lesson that should be learned from here is for Judea and Samaria. If God forbid we expel more Jews from their homes, we'll be popular for about a week. And then the demands will start again and no one other than God will be on our side (if He is not sufficiently angered by our sacrificing our brethren once again). Let's make sure that what happened in Gaza doesn't repeat itself elsewhere.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:28 AM