Rabbi Yossi's Blog - Chabad of the North Peninsula

Really??!! A Few Questions About the Turkish Provocation

Saturday, November 21, 2009 - 5:07 PM

By Rabbi Yossi Marcus

I have a question for the world:

Really?!

Thousands of truly innocent civilians are dying in wars around the world without a peep from the “international community.” But the deaths of nine members of a terrorist-supporting Turkish group who attacked with intent to kill Israeli soldiers, this inspires worldwide condemnation and demand for inquires?

Really?!

North Korea slaughters South Koreans at sea. No inquiry.

Men and women beaten and killed daily for political dissent or other so-called crimes in the Middle East. Snooze.

Russia destroys Grozny killing tens of thousands. Pass the ketchup.

US drones doing their thing in Afghanistan with much collateral damage. Business as usual.

But Israel, surrounded by enemies who aim their rockets at kindergartens, enforces its blockade and kills nine agitators: Everybody and their uncle chimes in and is "outraged"!

From Hamas and Fatah, from Iran and the Arab world, we’ve learned to expect this language of “massacre” and demand for “UN inquiries” following the successful PR stunts of those who seek Israel’s destruction.

Turkey, occupying half of Cyprus, from which they sent their provocation boats, is lecturing Israel on occupation? Really??!!)

A “Botched” Raid

And a message to Americans critics: Could Israel have neutralized the situation differently? Maybe. I don't know. But if that’s what you‘re criticizing, let’s have a look at our record in dealing with “civilian” boats challenging our sovereignty, who are ready to kill our soldiers and even die as martyrs in the process. It is not something we have to deal with, so perhaps we should reserve judgment.

By the way, memo to “activists” teaming up with terrorist organizations: You are no longer a “civilian” when you announce your intentions to enter a war zone and defy a country’s sovereignty (yes, even when you’re still in international waters). Please don’t put yourself in the same boat, excuse the pun, as MLK and others who used civil disobedience for political change. When you block a street in Chicago you are not declaring war on America. When you attempt to interfere with Israel’s military actions against those who bomb kindergatens you are declaring war on Israel and supporting terrorism.

Action

Friends, I encourage you to go out and protest today in SF (see below) and/or send a letter to local media. Here’s what I sent KCBS 740 after hearing a one-sided interview with one of the provocateurs:

In an interview today with one of the anti-Israel provocateurs from the infamous "flotilla," you allowed him to perpetuate the lie that this was about humanitarian aid, when in fact it was about breaking a blockade against the terrorist entity, Hamas. The five boats whose passengers did not attack the soldiers were brought peacefully to Ashdod from where the aid will be passed through the normal channels after inspection. I would appreciate if you can stop perpetuating this lie, as in your headline: "The demonstration was in response to an Israeli raid on "an international civilian aid mission to Gaza." It was not an aid mission but a publicity stunt and a provocation, as the organizers themselves have stated.
Respectfully, Rabbi Yosef Marcus, S. Mateo, CA

The Future

As a religious Jew and a believer in Isaiah’s prophecy that one day we will know war no more, that nations will not lift swords against each other, I hope for and look forward to world peace. Despite the picture painted above, I believe we live in a very fast age. As bad as things seem today, as isolated as Israel is today, as dishonest and hypocritical as the "international community" seems to be, recent history shows us how quickly things can turn around. In the past, we’ve seen rapid deterioration. Let us hope we are in from some rapid improvement.

Thank You Helen Thomas!!

Wednesday, November 18, 2009 - 10:33 AM

The world will finally be happy if Israel stops using guns to fight its enemies and instead uses those whistles the British police are fond of.

The world may then be happy, but not Helen Thomas. Helen was the 89 year old veteran American journalist who was so esteemed in Washington she was given a special seat in the front row amid the White House press corps. The president brought her cupcakes for her 89th birthday. By custom, she would conclude White House press conferences at the president's signal by saying, "Thank you, Mr. President." (Bush II put that custom to rest.) What do you think this esteemed journalist called Israel’s action last week against the blockade-runners? That’s right, a “massacre” (it's on Youtube). A massacre no longer means what you thought it meant. The UN and Helen Thomas have a new definition. In their dictionary, massacre now means: “When people die in an IDF military action.” It doesn’t matter how they died, why they died, how many died—if Israel was behind it, it’s a massacre.

We’re used to hearing this unabashed distortion of language from the usual cast of propagandists. But we weren’t sure that Helen Thomas was one of them. Many thought she was a professional, esteemed journalist who was simply “critical” of Israel.*

Thankfully, a candid video interview now on Youtube revealed Helen’s true colors. She stated that Jews should “get the hell out of Palestine and go back to Germany, Poland, the US, wherever.” Thanks to her outburst, we now know that her decades-long criticism of Israel had nothing to do with how Israel fights its enemies but that Israel fights back at all. Israel is always the aggressor, since it has no right to defend what is not hers.

Fortuitously, the Helen Thomas scandal hit just after the hypocritical double-standard applied to Israel last week by the “international community.” Shocked Jews were scratching their heads wondering how this could be. Helen Thomas gave us the answer: Israel has no right to exist and thus had no right to defend itself. Even according to moderates, including some Jews sadly, Israel’s validity is questionable. Israel must therefore show uncommon “restraint” when responding to its enemies. The US may attack countries across the world to protect its security. But Israel must “show restraint” when fighting its immediate neighbors.

Many are calling on Hearst to fire Thomas. I say, keep her! She is now the poster child for the duplicity of the blame Israel first crowd.

PS I wrote this article this morning, before she “retired.”

*See CAMERA’s article about her from August 2008 or Tony Snow’s comment to her during the latest war with Lebanon: “Thank you for providing Hezbollah’s point of view.” In 1991, during the Gulf War she asked Bush why he was condemning Iraq’s scud missile attacks on Israeli civilians: “Mr. President, two days ago you launched a war, and war is inherently a two-way street. Why should you be surprised or outraged when there is an act of retaliation?” In other words, an attack on Israeli civilians, in Thomas’s worldview, was a sensible reaction to the allies’ bombing of Iraq. See Jack Shafer in Slate, March 12, 2003.