Israel Matzav

Karl Vick attacks Israel again

Time Magazine's Karl Vick goes after Israel again in a piece that's so full of historical inaccuracy that we could start with that and through it dismiss the rest. But there's more. Vick's historical inaccuracy is just a window on his horrific bias against Israel, which comes out later in the article.

Here's Vick on former defenseless defense minister Amir Comrade Peretz.

His crime: Serving as minister of defense during the 2006 Second Lebanon War, when civilians were killed along with the Hezbollah fighters Israel was trying to teach a lesson.

Israel wasn't trying to teach anyone a lesson. The incident to which Vick is (apparently) referring happened in Qana, Lebanon in July 2006. On Sunday, July 30, 2006, the IDF attacked a civilian building that was being used by Hezbullah as a munitions depot. The building has a school and residence built directly over it. Hezbullah claimed dozens of civilians were killed in the attack. Israel agreed to stop bombing runs for 48 hours (sound familiar?). Eventually the 'massacre' was proven to be a hoax to which bodies were brought from other locations. Eventually, the entire 'rescue operation' was proven to be staged and directed by someone who became known in the media as 'Green Helmet Guy' .... There was also evidence that Hezbullah placed handicapped children on the roof of the building in anticipation of an IDF response, hoping to increase the number of 'quality' casualties.

So whom was Israel trying to 'teach a lesson'?

Vick on the War of Independence:

Britain is, after all, the country that played the single biggest role in establishing Israel as a state, from the Balfour Declaration to the timely withdrawal of mandate troops in 1948.

You've got to be kidding. The Brits did everything they did to make sure Israel would lose in 1948 short of fighting alongside the Arabs (and they may have done that too). Consider this from the story of Tzfat (Safed), the home of Abu Bluff prior to the 1948 war.

On the eve of the April 16, 1948 British withdrawal from Safed, the mandatory authorities turned over the town's police facilities and Mount Canaan's military fort to the Arabs. They offered to escort all Jews out of town "for their own safety." As in 1929, the Jews refused unequivocally, though memories of the horrific carnage should have inspired more dread among them than among the fleeing Abasses.

In fact, as Mrs. Carl and I saw when we visited there last month, the British turned over the three highest points in the city to the Arabs.

Vick goes on to dismiss the flytilla 'visitors' as "loony visitors" who should have been permitted to "sing, whistle and even raise signs." But is that really all they wanted to do?

And then he discusses the anti-boycott legislation to be voted on in the Knesset on Monday night. Vick dismisses the notion that there is an international attempt to delegitimize Israel.

"De-legitimization" is the the phrase bandied about -- far too frequently for Shlomo Avineri, a former foreign ministry senior official who railed against the practice in Haaretz.

"The truth is there are no significant moves afoot anywhere on Earth to delegitimize Israel," Avineri says. "Israel's government has turned delegitimization - an issue located on the vocal but ephemeral margins of international political discourse - into a problem that must be dealt with. It has thereby granted a marginal, unimportant position a status out of all proportion to its true dimensions."

But delegitimization cannot be so easily dismissed.

Irwin Cotler says that what's new here is not the delegitimization but the laundering of delegitimization such as the rubrics of human rights, and anti-racism, which make delegitimization seem like it represents all that is good. They have reframed the Arab-Israeli conflict as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that paints us as the villain for denying the Palestinians self-determination. If you posit Israel as the violator of human rights it becomes the anti-Christ of our times. Palestinianism has become a poster child for human rights. The delegitimization has been mainstreamed by the elites. And then there's the juxtaposition of the end of the Cold War and the movement into Durban I.

At every given moment there is a resolution or similar emanating from the United Nations or one of its forums. These forums are attended by diplomats, media, etc. which creates a critical mass of exposure to delegitimization. These decisions read like legal judgments. The focus is to say that Israel is doing something illegal, which is why they focus on the settlements.

They use international law as cover - known as lawfare. This is the war of delegitimization under international law. Example: universal jurisdiction.

Delegitimization under human rights rubric. E.g Goldstone.

Delegitimization under anti-racism rubric - call Israel an apartheid or Nazi state.

He says we have to turn this paradigm around and make it clear that its radical Islam and tyrannies like Syria that are the real source of apartheid.

Malcolm Hoenlein starts out "I agree." He wonders whether at the other side's conferences they also ask whether they are at fault or whether we are at fault. He says we have to stop thinking about ourselves as grasshoppers (quotes last week's Torah portion). The threat is because Israel is and not because Israel has done something wrong. What Israel represents and the values of the Jewish people are what threaten the delegitimizers. This issue and how we counter this will affect us for generations.

He does not believe this is like the 1930's but there are a lot of signs that raise questions about us. This is like a tumor that grows quietly - it's a cancerous process. What matters is what we do and not what our enemies do. We should not tolerate this. The attack is against the Jewish people and not just against the Jewish state. It's time for us to step back and not question whether it's our responsibility. This is a modern blood libel and Hitler's lies spread much more quickly today than they did in the 1930's. We saw the blueprint for this at Durban I. You can trace this back and see everything from there. Globalization has made this far more complex. There is no place you can go to get justice. This involves every sector of our society.

They're trying to deny us our roots and our right to be in the Jewish state. They take away our past to take away our future. They want to intimidate us and we see kids on campus afraid to let anyone know they're Jews. Incitement cannot be ignored. There's nothing worse than Jews who don't get it, who put their heads in the sands and deny reality. 70 years ago they knew but did not want to know. We can't pretend not to know.

It's time for Jews and supporters of Israel to go on the offense. You can't win a game by just playing defense.

We won't be judged by acts of our enemies but by silence of our friends.

Delegitimizing Israel has nothing to do with the 'occupation.' It has to do with the Jewish state's existence. But that's too subtle a distinction for someone who still believes, 63 years later, that the British did all they could to help us out.

Labels: delegtimizing Israel, Karl Vick, Qana, War of Independence

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 5:09 PM