Goldstone Retracts — and the Arab World Reacts
The Anti-Defamation League has reported on the Arab world’s reaction to Judge Richard Goldstone’s retraction of key claims of the Goldstone Report, as manifested in editorial cartoons in newspapers of various Arab countries. Google searches reveal that the report has gotten little play outside of Israeli and Jewish outlets. This is unfortunate. The material is very revealing, and not only of Arab attitudes toward Israel and Jews.
The Goldstone Report, published under UN auspices in September 2009, claimed that Israel, in its 2008-09 campaign against Hamas in Gaza, had mounted a deliberate, murderous attack on civilians. In November of that year the ADL noted that the report had become “a cause célèbre in the Arab press,” and offered a survey of laudatory cartoons from Arab papers.
One of them, for instance, appeared in Saudi Arabia’s Al-Watan and is called “Israel and the report of Goldstone.” A repulsive Israeli soldier with a Star of David on his helmet walks in a graveyard of victims, but is forced to see himself in the mirror, one of his two bloody hands holding a paper that says “Reprimand”:
And in this one, called “The finger of guilt” and from a different Al-Watan published in Qatar, a “Jew” is trying to saw his way through a finger that says “Goldstone”:
Nasty as these and the rest in this group are, the new set of cartoons reacting to Goldstone’s retraction is even worse; or as ADL director Abraham Foxman called them, “a series of hideous caricatures, many of them viciously anti-Semitic.” Ironically, they come at the time of an alleged “spring” of democracy in the Arab world; but to say that they do not reflect a democratic mindset — attending to what Goldstone wrote in his retraction, reconsidering former assumptions — is a great understatement.
This one, from Hamas’s organ Filastin in Gaza (April 5), is called “Palestinian condemnation of Goldstone’s retraction,” but it could be called “The Jewish lobby’s got his tongue”:
A hapless Goldstone fingers his now-empty mouth, while behind him lurks the “Jewish lobby” with scissors, having succeeded in rendering him speechless (the tongue is labeled “Goldstone Report”).
In another one, from the United Arab Emirates’ Al-Imarat Al-Yawm (April 5), Goldstone still has his tongue but is using it to erase his report:
The headline is “Goldstone backs down from his report concerning the Gaza war.” The words “Goldstone Report” and “The Israeli War Crimes in Gaza” seem to be written on the report.
The theme of Goldstone as victim of the Jews is, again, emphatic in a cartoon from Qatar’s Ar-Raya (April 6). Here Goldstone is trapped in the bloody fangs of a jubilant, malevolent Jew-creature with a Star of David dangling from its ear:
And in this one from Qatar’s Al-Watan, also simply called “Goldstone,” a bloodied Goldstone is again a victim:
In addition to Hamas, the UAE, and Qatar, cartoons in this sample — with similar content and themes — come from Jordan (formally at peace with Israel), Saudi Arabia, and the UK’s pan-Arab Al-Hayat.
Notable here, of course, is not just the anti-Semitism, but also the cultural depth that could produce such sickening images — these being mainstream papers mostly under government control. None of this, it goes without saying, has ever mitigated the pressure on Israel to “make peace,” Secretary of State Hillary Clinton having announced just the other day a “renewed pursuit of comprehensive Arab-Israeli peace.” The Israeli army is putting the finishing touches on its new multiyear plan, which speaks of “an increasing chance for war on multiple fronts in 2011.”
Looking at these cartoons, you get an inkling as to why. Real support for Israel entails recognizing its real situation — as an island of democratic light amid great darkness.
One of the main inadequacies of the counter-propaganda consensus, and also the Israeli PR effort, ministry of information, whatever, is the complete failure to communicate the message beyond the faithful.
Israel seems good at preaching to the choir but utterly hopeless at reaching the rest of the world. As such it is doomed to failure.
Wars are won and lost in the minds of people.
Such comprehensive failure by Israel’s PR efforts will ensure the county’s defeat at the hands of its enemies.
Unless those efforts become effective the situation is without hope.
The proposal for an Israeli satellite TV channel was very much a move in the right direction.
Is that why it all seems to have gone quiet?
It might have been too successful?
“Wars are won and lost in the minds of people”
Only in the minds of weak, decadent non-participants of battle, can a fight be “lost” without a physical defeat. Only in the mind of Western Liberals, educated and enlightened to believe soft, make-work government jobs are signs of “success”, can such a rediculous notion make any sense.
Wars are not fought on TV, they occur on the battlefield, with arms. Killing the enemy…all of them and then some, if need be….destroying their materiel means to resist, and then ruling over the outcome by occupation, force, and the continued threat of force, is how its done.
It is the ONLY successful model there is:
See; Japan, 1945
See also: Germany 1918, 1945
See also: American Confederacy, 1865
For failure comparisons,
See: North Korea, Vietnam,
See also: Iraq/Afganistan quagmire,
Or: Appeasement, 1936-1939
Or: Gaza “land for peace”
Any other suggestion reflects your own inability to BECOME free, and to stay free of, the physical and political slavery your enemies wish to impose upon your children, forever.
If we are stupid and weak, and the enemy will manipulate this to no end.
If they think we can be defeated by pictures, stories and emotions, they will use our own liberal apologists and outright traitors, (who are too morally weak to fight themselves)to promote a false narrative of defeat in exchange for flattery, bribery and media “access”.
Get a grip, and grow a pair.
Were at war with the darkest version of Satan Incarnate ever encountered…they gleefully slit the throats of children in their beds, and celebrate in the streets. They make no apology for their actions, ever, and they LIE about their actions and intentions as a holy tennent of their faith.
They are evil.
And they cannot be defeated with our “good intentions” for peace.
A queasy stomach for confrontation earns you no points.
Surrender to artificial media themes (Al Dura boy, the supposed Abu Graheb “atrocities”, and now the “kill teams” overreaction) will not illustrate to them your better humanity, or lead to victory.
We need to just say say “S.T.F.U.” everytime they speak, and fight them, everywhere, forever.
Until WE win.
Spot on! We all felt this way right after 911. The libs/msm wore us down with the war dead night after night for 7 years. How do you fight your own media? Rhetorical question – I would have arrested them and tried and hanged them for treason.
…as I’ve repeatedly told my son, daughter and friends, the U.S. has forgotten or chosen to ignore the correct way to fight, not only war but the propaganda war. Whenever I bring up the threat of Islam to civilization, I get the rejoinder, ‘But what can we do about it?’. Fight, is my answer, with words and if necessary with violence, to impress upon our enemies that we hear what they say, understand that THEY mean what they say and we are willing to react in kind, rather than with more empty rhetoric.
Coeurmaeghan in 29 Palms
Not sure why you link your comment to mine.
You think the ideology war is irrelevant and all you have to do is physically smash up the opposition?
Well. Your examples of Germany and Japan are correct, and that is what happened and was done.
But it is no excuse to utterly fail in the propaganda war. Because wars are won in the minds of people and the West has been educated out of winning over the last century, as Barry Rubin explored yesterday: http://pajamasmedia.com/barryrubin/2011/04/11/a-science-fiction-story-that-predicted-the-manner-of-western-suicide/?singlepage=true
So, please don’t be a thug and think you are clever to tell me to grow a pair. It is a pathetic symptom of the mentality that will defeat you.
Perhaps you should grow some intelligent, accurate and honest perception.
Perhaps you are a troll.
John,
Apologies to you, I wasnt trying to be personal. I actually agreed with much of what you said.
I was merely lamenting further on the point you brought up, namely the Western Worlds Achilles heel of falling for propaganda delivered by the non-participatory scribblers of events….as if it, or they matter.
It, and they, do not.
Opra Winnfry commands no troops.
Catie Couric posesses no munitions
Bill Mahr is not a fighter pilot, soldier, or even much of a man at all.
They cannot defend us, or themselves for that matter.
Their opinions on the matter are less than meaningless.
They are propagandists….noisemakers and hand gesturers…
In the fight I’m engaged in, their sounds and actions are at most, neutral… like rustling of leaves or passing cars….just random things going on in the background that dont affect me…
I’m locked onto a dangerous enemy, circling, watching my back, ready to fend off a deadly blow, or better yet, strike one first…their squeals of fright, and “this doesnt prove anything!” are not part of the equation…
Fist, knife, club, gun…
These are the mathematics I’m calculationg
Brick, bottle, curb, wall, fence…
These are the variables I must contend with.
These are the factors that will will influence the outcome.
All else is folly…madness…the luxurious navel gazing non-participants who have nothing at stake.
But, as our schools (and our government) are now ruled by these kinds of morally bankrupt and physically weak specimens of Liberalism, its no suprise we demand ALL our children submit to bullies (in stead of kicking them in the balls) in the faulty notion of “zero tolerance” coexistence, and we surrender to Propaganda deliverd by cowards.
Blame the RIGHT,
to show the WRONG
that we are HONEST,
and perhaps they’ll RESPECT us
enough to STOP
Its a fools game, ignored as such by anyone who’s ever actually BEEN in a fight…
Yes. To appeal to the better nature of people who simply want to see you dead is ridiculous. Indeed.
As Secretary of State Hillary Clinton relentlessly ups the pressure on Israel to offer itself up as a sacrificial victim to the false Moloch of peace in the midst of such expressions of murderous hatred against the Jewish state, she shows herself up to be no less of a hate-filled maniac as all the rest of them, and “them” includes Barack Hussein Obama himself.
Whether Obama runs for president again, or Hillary goes up against him and wins the Democratic nomination in 2012, Jewish voters in the US will vote for either of them in droves.
because “jewish” lefties are jewish only when it suits their needs
the religion of these fools is statism
The religion of those statists is fools.
POW!
There’s no getting around those pics. They can only have come from a profoundly depraved culture. The rest all flows from there. Like the fact that Israel has been “making peace” for two decades now and its security situation just keeps getting worse and worse.
This is SOP for the leftist media. Rarely do they actually LIE (though they are good at repeating the lies of others). Rather, they simply don’t report news that is inconvenient for them.
It’s quite a powerful tool. In fact, it’s so powerful, that if we had even ONE honest, trustworthy news network, most of what the left has accomplished in the last 20 or 30 years would not have happened.
And, no, Fox News is NOT honest and trustworthy. Check out Murdoch’s business entanglements with the Arabs.
You are so right about Fox News, Marc! They’ve gone completely south on us without the barest pretense……and inroads are palpable at WSJ, too.
But about that lie thing-I was TAUGHT (see below) that “lying by omission,” as it was presented to us, and IN CLASS, certainly IS lying, and is actually often more serious than the other kind. It’s harder to prove and thereby far more insidious and tougher to combat. JohnB’s comments are certainly to the point. The msm’s position on the Jews seems to run a “gamut from A to B,” by covering only stories that either dehumanize or demonize them, or nothing at all. Their abbreviated response to the ghastly slaughter of the beautiful little Fogel family in Gaza comes to mind. And just look at what passes for education these days has created in our kids. One could argue the mess they’re in is more about the facts and truths they HAVEN’T been taught. As a salty old department store buyer said to me on my very first call, foolishly sans samples, “Honey, I can’t buy it if I don’t see it.”
Hey folks, look very carefully at those images depicted in the cartoons. Then do an online search and find some NAZI era cartoons that were printed depicting Jews in various forms. See any difference? I think the term “Islamo-Fascist” fits very well. And this is what the Arabs are teaching their children.
a teachable moment for goldstone …but too little too late.
he gets a taste of what he was promoting. i hope he enjoys the rest of his life …a reformed kapo?
While we’re on the subject:
http://www.sarahonig.com/?p=828
Sorry. The link is: http://www.sarahhonig.com/?p=828
Where is all the rioting and protesting and innocent people being killed in the name of Moses and Abraham. Oh yeah, I forgot we are a civilized people that know the truth.
What are you referring to? Where are “innocent” people being killed in the name of Moses and Abraham?
Surprised? Race hatred was only made popular by the foundation of the ‘Zionist Entity’. Prior to that it was the most important structural pillar of Islam, aka the great religion of peace. Intolerance the sine qua non of modern Islam, as it was in the 8th century. Nothing changes in the Arab world, which explains their inability to compete in the modern word. Bernard Lewis nailed it; what went wrong is institutionalized malignant ignorance. Islam is antithetical to western liberal values. We are, indeed, on the brink of a great cultural war.
Some time back, I remember when the U.S. was on the side of the Israelies. I wish I knew what changed so many people. I suspect it was the mainstream media (aka MSM). They haven’t
been truthful in so long and that is why I never watch them anymore. Lies lies, lies. I just hope more people wake up here in the states.
Mab, polls show that support for Israel among the American *people* is stronger than ever. It is only the dishonest, propagandizing idiots of the MSM and the loathesome crew now in charge of American foreign policy who do not share these views.
Gary,Goldstone doesn`t add anything to support of American people!
American Jews mostly liberal today must prove their support of Israel.