Tuesday, May 19, 2015

Curbing the self-loathing Jewish defamers of Israel - Isi Leibler



by Isi Leibler

Today, a small group of Jews and Israelis maintain this demented tradition of ‎self-loathing, resurrecting the collective blood libel and directing it against the entire Jewish ‎nation by seeking to portray the IDF -- undoubtedly the most moral army in the world -- as ‎craven war criminals.‎


Most of us are thoroughly exasperated with the obnoxious Jewish deviants who are ‎demonizing Israel with their global campaigns, falsely defaming the Israel Defense Forces as ‎monsters and war criminals. Such reprehensible elements were always the bane of the Jewish ‎people. But today the Internet and the global media provide them with the opportunity to ‎inflict infinitely greater damage than in the past, when their impact was more localized. ‎

During the Middle Ages, some of the most venomous anti-Semitic propaganda emanated from ‎self-loathing Jews, principally converts to Christianity, who represented an important element ‎compounding the prevailing atmosphere of persecution, pogroms and expulsion.‎

In the 19th century, Karl Marx, who was born a Jew, spouted obscene anti-Semitic diatribes, ‎which his Jewish followers simply refused to acknowledge. In Russia in the 1880s, it was Jewish Social Revolutionaries who justified pogroms as incubators that would transform the masses ‎into revolutionaries.‎

After the Bolshevik Revolution, the Soviet-appointed Yevsektsiya (Jewish cadres) were more ‎vicious than their gentile counterparts in demonizing and proscribing Judaism. More recently, ‎during the Cold War, Diaspora Jewish communists defended Stalin as he murdered their ‎kinsmen and applauded the Soviet regime which promoted state-sponsored anti-Semitism.‎

Today, a small group of Jews and Israelis maintain this demented tradition of ‎self-loathing, resurrecting the collective blood libel and directing it against the entire Jewish ‎nation by seeking to portray the IDF -- undoubtedly the most moral army in the world -- as ‎craven war criminals.‎

The principal Jewish group currently promoting this blood libel is a small Israeli ‎nongovernmental organization, Breaking the Silence, which was established in 2004 with the ‎clear objective of undermining Israel. Its strategy is to defame the IDF, dramatizing "evidence" ‎of alleged war crimes. However, its "eyewitness reports" are anonymous, unverifiable and ‎devoid of context. Many of the alleged "crimes" were subsequently exposed as comprising ‎anti-Israeli chatter with no basis in reality.‎

Indeed, allegations accusing the IDF of engaging in Cossack-like killing sprees were highlighted ‎in cover stories by Haaretz in mid-2009 and subsequently syndicated as front-page stories in ‎newspapers throughout the world. They were very soon proven to have been without ‎substance. But the damage was done and the climate was created, paving the way for the ‎notorious Goldstone report which accused Israel of war crimes.‎

Today we are witnessing a replay. Breaking the Silence has released a 237-page report of ‎‎"testimonies" by unnamed Israeli combatants describing alleged war crimes during the recent ‎war in Gaza. Again, citing anonymous sources and without context, these unsubstantiated ‎accusations, which effectively describe the IDF and Hamas as birds of a feather, made ‎worldwide headlines. They undoubtedly represent a curtain raiser for the forthcoming United ‎Nations Human Rights Commission report, which promises to be as biased and distorted as the ‎discredited Goldstone report. The campaign is also intended to encourage the International ‎Criminal Court to prosecute Israelis for war crimes.‎

Of course war is horrendous, mistakes are made and innocent civilians become casualties. This ‎applies especially in Gaza with Hamas, which aside from launching rockets and digging tunnels ‎to murder and kidnap Israelis, also deliberately used civilians as human shields and located ‎rocket and artillery launching pads and arms depots in densely populated areas including ‎schools, hospitals, mosques and U.N. shelters.‎

If Israel had wantonly sought to kill civilians, it would not drop millions of leaflets and ‎telephone hundreds of thousands of civilians urging them to evacuate areas four hours in ‎advance of airborne attacks. ‎

That is not to suggest that the IDF, even with its unique moral code of combat, is perfect. But ‎there are procedures in Israel for dealing with legitimate complaints or infringements of the ‎law. The military advocate general systematically investigates every accusation, and some exceptional cases have led to prosecution of offenders. But there are no cover-ups and ‎there has not been a single case of behavior that could be described as a malicious intent to kill ‎a civilian without cause.‎

Had Breaking the Silence submitted evidence that as ignored by the military advocate ‎general, it would have been justified in condemning and protesting ‎against the state. But it adamantly refused both to identify the primarily low-ranking ‎soldiers charging the IDF with war crimes, and to provide details of these allegations to enable their ‎claims to be investigated by the relevant authority. Yet it has the gall to justify circulating such ‎unverifiable defamatory allegations, on the outrageous grounds that whistle-blowers would be ‎‎"punished," something inconceivable in a country that has a free press, which would have a ‎field day if there were an attempt to cover up any such incident.‎

Under normal circumstances, no responsible reporter or newspaper would risk publicizing ‎such charges if prevented from verifying their veracity. Yet these monstrous libels against ‎Israel are reproduced as though Breaking the Silence was a responsible government ‎instrumentality or a transparent, respectable human rights organization.‎

The problem is compounded by the fact that the bulk of funding for Breaking the Silence ‎comes from anti-Israel NGOs, human rights organizations, foreign foundations, and European ‎governments, many of which also support the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement. ‎Some actually made their grants conditional on obtaining a minimum number of negative ‎‎"testimonies."‎

Tens of millions of euros originate from European governments, including the United Kingdom, ‎which would never conceivably tolerate such foreign interference in its own domestic arena ‎by external organizations -- especially governmental bodies -- seeking to subvert a democratic ‎government under the cloak of promoting human rights. This is documented in detail in a ‎recent NGO Monitor publication titled "NGOs, Anti-Semitism and Government Funding."‎

The demonization and delegitimization of Israel by Jews funded by anti-Israeli groups abroad is ‎neither an academic exercise nor an exchange of views. It is an act of sabotage, endangering ‎the state and as pernicious as sabotaging IDF weapons depots. It would not be tolerated in any ‎other democratic country, particularly one surrounded by neighbors fanatically committed to ‎its destruction.‎

It is indisputable that the objective of Breaking the Silence is not merely criticism of Israeli ‎policies. After all, self-criticism, sometimes even extending to masochism, is a central feature of ‎Israel's robust democratic ethos. However, Breaking the Silence, a small group of disgruntled ‎delusional Israeli leftists backed by massive overseas funding, is unashamedly demonizing ‎Israel throughout the world and undermining its government. It sends out emissaries to vilify ‎Israel among Jewish and non-Jewish groups, particularly at universities. It is shameful that, ‎purporting to uphold freedom of expression and maintain dialogue, some Hillel bodies even ‎provide platforms for its representatives to defame the IDF.‎

To besmirch a nation by falsely portraying its soldiers as craven murderers undermines ‎national morale. It is in this context that the proposal mooted by Ayelet Shaked, now justice ‎minister, to require government approval for overseas NGOs to sponsor Israeli political bodies ‎has considerable merit, despite the shrieks that democracy would be undermined.‎

Just as individuals can resort to legal means to remedy defamation, the state must defend ‎itself from demented citizens engaged in defamation of their country. This applies especially to ‎Israel, the sole democratic oasis in a region in which barbarism is rampant and whose right to ‎exist continues to be challenged by its neighbors.‎


Isi Leibler's website can be viewed at www.wordfromjerusalem.com. He may be contacted at ‎ileibler@leibler.com

Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=12627

Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

A few points:

1) Something that neither Mr Leibler nor many other defenders of Israel understand is that you can't fight delegitimization of Israel while at the same time delegitimizing Israel's right to its land in Judea and Samaria.

Those who favor the partition of Israel for the creation of an independent state for the Muslim invader and occupier are undermining Israel's legal and historical right to the land, and much more along with it.

2) It's been a long process but Jews have allowed the anti-Semitic world to sow self-doubt and guilt among them.

At the same time Jews watch as Israel's enemies falsify history and engage in journalistic malpractice - all culminating in one global project of CHARACTER ASSASSINATION.

So where's Jewish self-respect, and outrage at such unethical behavior?

3) It's getting very tiring to read about Jewish "self-hate".

How can any Jew claim to suffer from this ailment while experiencing first hand Muslim violence and terror in Europe and in the Middle East? In addition to two thousand years of hate and persecution?

Even animals UNDERSTAND that they can't survive without defending their territory. But Israel, the most maligned country in the world, repeatedly announces proudly that it is ready to give land away for peace.

So, where's the Jewish sense of self-preservation?

4) Israelis have also allowed the enemy to use the euphemism of "peace" to really mean the surrender of the Jewish heartland along with many other concessions.

It is time that Israelis took charge by using the term peace as defined by the dictionary: the absence of war.

They should also be more honest and rename the negotiations as they are at the present as the "PARTITION TALKS".

5) I check Israeli websites daily (particularly Arutz Sheva and Jewish Press) and there seems to be no single day in the year when the Israeli government is not backtracking and surrendering to the Arabs and the anti-Semitic world in one way or another.

That appeasing attitude carries A STRONG MESSAGE that reinforces what Israel's enemies are repeating every day that Israel is guilty of all charges, and an illegitimate colonizer.

6) And regarding Breaking the Silence and other character assassination projects - When was the last time Israel sued for defamation?

Tracy W

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