Rubin Reports

Israel: An Introduction

This comprehensive book provides a well-rounded introduction to Israel—a definitive account of the nation's past, its often controversial present, and much more. Edited by a leading historian of the Middle East, Israel is organized around six major themes: land and people, history, society, politics, economics, and culture. The book is a significant contribution to Israel publications, being one of the first books to ever fluidly consolidate and describe Israel as a modern State. Finally, Israel provides readers with a solid foundation of knowledge about the Jewish State and provides useful reference lists by topic for those inspired to read further.

Israel: An Introduction. Order now!

By Barry Rubin

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After the failure of the Gaza flotilla, Western leftists and their Arab, often Islamist, allies took up a new way to harass Israel, dubbed the “flytilla.” Hundreds of protestors were to fly into Israel’s sole international airport and demonstrate along with radical Israeli supporters.

Why is Israel facing such constant and increasing harassment? Not only is Israel a democratic country but over the last two decades it has made many concessions: making an attempted peace deal with the PLO; withdrawing from territory in Lebanon, the West Bank, and all of the Gaza Strip; admitting tens of thousands of Palestinians into the area and turning over political control to the Palestinian Authority; paying money and providing guns to the PA’s security agencies; and seeking a comprehensive peace that included a Palestinian state with its capital in east Jerusalem (notably in 2000).

Yet Israel is the only country in the Middle East against whom Westerners participate in antagonistic activities. There has not been a single demonstration by indigenous Europeans or North Americans against repression in Syria or Sudan; supporting the oppositions in Iran, Lebanon, and Turkey; defending the rights of Middle Eastern women or gays against Islamist oppression.

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The flotilla was disguised as a humanitarian venture to help Gazans, though not against the Hamas dictatorship. Conditions in the Gaza Strip (illustrated by pictures of stores full of goods), the easing of sanctions by Israel, and the opening of the border by Egypt all showed this is a lie. Detailed research showed the links of the organizers to the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas, and in some cases to terrorist activities.

But the flytilla has abandoned such pretexts altogether. What is now openly advocated is the unconditional creation of a Palestinian state free to continue the conflict with Israel to wipe it off the map as well as the extinction of Israel. These activities are the product of Hamas, PA, and Muslim Brotherhood propaganda campaigns against Israel by people who—including Western far leftists—are hostile to all Western interests and, in the case of the leftists, to democracy in their own countries.

The flytilla is also a material failure, though the organizers hope it will be a propaganda success that did achieve a waste of Israeli resources (600 extra policemen spent their day at the airport.) It also spent, albeit to the benefit of airlines, hundreds of thousands of dollars that could have been used to help poor people anywhere in the world.

All of the flying protestors were stopped from arriving inside Israel. Most never got off the ground, screened out by Israeli security people at the departure airports—incidentally a good example of how profiling can stop terrorists. Only 36, as of this writing, made it into Israeli airspace. The planes on which they arrived were sent to a separate terminal and they were arrested.

While it was predicted that hundreds of Israeli supporters would greet them, only six far left Israelis showed up, with Palestinian flags and a “Welcome to Palestine” sign. They, too, were arrested, saving them from regular Israeli passengers and those there to meet arriving loved ones who chanted, “Go to Syria!”

Of course, a great deal of publicity was generated, as reporters and photographers greatly outnumbered demonstrators and news of this event was flashed around the world.

What should happen is that the mass media might resist such manipulation by the systematic anti-Israel propaganda campaign and through simple research expose its radical and anti-real peace links. Millions of people throughout the Western democratic world should understand what’s going on and how these forces are also against them.

And, who knows, perhaps there will one day be a teach-in or demonstration on one Western campus or some effort by liberal activists and mainstream intellectuals regarding the massacres of people in Syria, the threat of revolutionary Islamists, and Israel’s right to defend itself and live in peace.

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10 Comments, 8 Threads, 3 Trackbacks

  1. 1. ahad ha'amoratsim

    Go to Syria? Better they can go to Azazel!

  2. Minor good news: The NY Times still has not run anything about the Flytilla. Perhaps they got burned by embedding a reporter on the Audacity of Hope only to have the Flotilla flop and not produce any bloodshed.

  3. 3. Pnina

    What should happen is that the mass media might resist such manipulation by the systematic anti-Israel propaganda campaign and through simple research expose its radical and anti-real peace links.

    They won’t because they’re part of the propaganda machine.

  4. 4. Analyst1

    “Yet Israel is the only country in the Middle East against whom Westerners participate in antagonistic activities. There has not been a single demonstration by indigenous Europeans or North Americans against repression in Syria or Sudan; supporting the oppositions in Iran, Lebanon, and Turkey; defending the rights of Middle Eastern women or gays against Islamist oppression.”

    If true — as I believe it is — this fact is remarkable and very hard to explain except by one hypothesis which it is politically incorrect to mention.

  5. 5. Fuzzlenutter

    May all this sub-human garbage get what’s truly coming to it in the end…

  6. 6. Bob From Virginia

    Freaks looking for a cause that will enable them to meet other freaks and maybe get laid.

    Did I miss anything?

  7. 7. David

    “If you are not a Socialist when you are 21, you have no heart; if you are still a Socialist when you are 35, you have no brain”. Melanie Phillips has some excellent YouTube lectures explaining why Israel is the convergent target of all the Post Colonial, Post Modern, Aging Hippie, Eurotrash Leftist angst, anger, and arrogance. IMO, the vast majority of Leftists (beyond modestly Left, who are supportive of a stable, somewhat compassionate, equal opportunity-NOT outcome-society) are emotionally children, unable and unwilling to accept responsibility for building their own lives; looking for meaning, and trying to drag others down to the childish lowest common denominator and into their fantasy; and for Governments to replace their parents. Israel is effectively the soft hearted parent who can be continuously blamed, pilloried and rebelled against. When the 9 “martyrs” were killed, suddenly, consequences appeared; when Israel started defending itself through Governments and other means, participants fled. When Israel starts prosecuting the participants for lying on their visa applications; “Aiding and Abetting a Terrorist Organisation”; “Disorderly Conduct/Creating a Public Disturbance”, etc. (How about a minimum of 3-6 months jail, with daily Jewish/Israeli history seminars, [shackled] tours of the “Wall” [border fence] reality, and Community Service manual labor in the West Bank communities?). Fine them, and confiscate Pal money to offset costs. At the very least, bus them to Gaza, and dump them there. Let them “assimilate” and get home on their own. People-and nations-respect the strong, competent, and independent. Israel is far, FAR too soft.

    • Speedy

      David is correct. The people who engage in these far left fantasies (and not so far left as well) are narcissists. They believe they occupy the moral high ground, attainable only by those with superior moral sensibilities and unavailable to most of other humans who lack their exquisite vision. Since moral rectitude is ultimately a competitive exercise, the most moral are able to occupy the highest levels of the moral high ground, always seeking to mount ever higher by adopting more extreme positions. Thus they are able to win the acclaim of their peers and achieve status in their political communities, a status they lack in all other spheres of their lives. Am I suggesting they are losers? You bet.

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