Posted on 02/10/2006 6:29:25 AM PST by Esther Ruth
Why are Jewish groups suppressing news of Israeli government brutality? By Buddy Macy February 10, 2006
This evening, I received the E-ALERT from the Jewish United Fund/Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago, dated 2/9/06. Included in that edition of the online publication are articles about a highly offensive, anti-Semitic speech, Iran and its nuclear activities, the reaction to the Danish cartoons, Palestinian terrorists, the Church of England's partial divestiture from Israel, and more.
What was not included in that publication, was news about the Knesset's vote to establish a commission of inquiry into alleged police brutality at Amona. Nor was there any news about the health of the 200 Jews who were injured, some seriously, during the shocking military and police rampage in the tiny Jewish community. That there were no articles concerning the events and victims in Amona, does not surprise me. It only supports my view, and that of many others, I am sure, that American Jewish charitable organizations are intentionally avoiding any discussion of the horrendous brutality perpetrated in Amona, at a time when the victims of that horrific event need our help most.
We Jews do not accept it when the world judges Israel and our fellow Jews with a double standard of morals and ethics. It is so sadly ironic, then, that the leadership of American Jewry is using the same double standard that they protest in others? The world says, "Israel cannot fight terrorism in the PA (and, thus, defend her own citizens), because she might hurt civilians." The leadership of American Jewry says, "We cannot say anything negative about/to the Government of Israel, no matter how heinous its actions appear, because the leaders of Israel know what is best for their country, and they behave appropriately (thus lifting the mortals of the Israeli Government to an almost G-d-like status!).
I realize that the "missing" news is mostly about money: the vast majority of American Jewish charities that raise funds partly or fully in the name of Israel, are afraid that any negative publicity about the Jewish State would effect their monetary campaigns. That may be true; but, the Federation, the AJC, and organizations like them, are apolitical groups of Jews who help other Jews in need. How can they sit by "blindly," as needy Jews continue to get oppressed, humiliated, beaten and broken?
And, maybe, just maybe, the American Jewish charitable associations underestimate the wisdom and compassion of their constituencies. Perhaps the organizations would receive more respect and greater support, if they did the humane thing; the right thing. Just as, hopefully, the Israeli people will show Mr. Olmert, that an attempt by a government of Israel to make political gains by demonstrating its toughness, does not work when it involves the systematic, inhumane, stomach-turning persecution of its own citizens!
The following article from Arutz Sheva, written by a 17-year-old Israeli, says it all:
Letter to IDF General: How Could You?
By Hillel Fendel
Yaakov Tessler, 17, wrote to the IDF Central Commander, asking why he was cruelly beaten in Amona, nearly losing an eye, even though he posed no threat and was merely registering his protest.
The entire letter by 17-year-old Yaakov Tessler of Jerusalem:
Dear Central Commander Maj.-Gen. Yair Naveh,
Peace and blessing.
I feel an obligation to turn to you, as one who is entrusted with the values of the army and the rule of law on the one hand, and with Jewish values and the Torah's commandments, on the other.
I would like to address the events that occurred during the evacuation of the nine houses in Amona.
As one who did not merit being in Gush Katif during the evacuation there, I felt a deep solidarity with the protest actions of the Gush Katif residents. I felt that this time, I could express my feelings by protesting. I therefore arrived happily in Amona, with the understanding and knowledge that there was still an appeal pending to the Supreme Court that might allow the houses to be evacuated voluntarily, without a struggle. My heart told me that the Supreme Court would certainly agree to this option, but I still decided to come in order to be certain that the houses would not be evacuated without the required protest against such an act of evacuating homes or communities in the Land of Israel.
To my surprise, the Supreme Court preferred the forced evacuation, rather than having it done by agreement.
I prepared myself for the evacuation, with the intention of undergoing this event - the evacuation of houses from the Land of Israel and a struggle - together with the cream of the crop of Israeli youth, struggling for their Land and inheritance with dignity and valor. I never dreamt or imagined that I would soon undergo such humiliation, murderous punches and injuries (my eye was saved from permanent damage only by miracle) by the policemen of the State of Israel, over whom you, as the Region Commander, commanded.
I hereby declare that I held nothing in my hand, I threw nothing, I did not fight, I did not hit and I did not curse anyone. I sat in one of the houses with the understanding that very soon, I would be asked to leave, in accordance with a political decision and court order.
As I was sitting in the house, a group of Yassam police entered and did not make any request for us to leave. Instead, they simply started hitting us with clubs, very forcefully and painfully, as if those sitting in front of them were criminals and murderers. When I tried to go out, and despite my telling the Yassamniks that I was going on my own and that I didn't need to be dragged or hit, they struck me for no reason: They smashed my head against the wall, kicked me in my back, threw me on the floor, and hit me very hard with their clubs on my head, eyes and nose, to the point where I was severely and painfully injured.
All this occurred as I was asking them to be allowed to leave the house.
Up to this very minute, the feelings of dread and fear pursue me, entirely shaking up my feelings towards the law, the police, the army, the Supreme Court, and all the government institutions.
I would be very happy if your honor would respond to this letter, which is written from the depths of my heart.
Why, when you saw these things happening to me and my friends (there are tens of testimonies), did you not intervene and stop the evacuation? Why did you not tell the truth when you were interviewed?
How could you have planned and approved such a sensitive mission as the evacuation of parts of the Land of Israel with orders for such terrible violence against the most idealistic youths in Israeli society?
I am sad to say to you, General Naveh, that it will be hard for me to forget or forgive those who injured me so severely, or to those who commanded those forces - unless I receive a reasonable explanation and a public apology from all the elements who hurt me and my friends with no justification. It is very unfortunate that precisely in the year before my enlistment in the army, and after having received an invitation to apply for the Israel Air Force pilots' course and for the elite Sayeret Matkal unit, this is the slap in the face that I and my friends receive.
Enclosed is my photograph, taken after the police battle in evacuating me from the house in Amona.
Signed with sorrow, with thanks and blessing, Yaakov Tessler
To the leadership of the American Jewish charitable organizations: (Borrowing some words from the eloquent, heroic Jew, Yaakov Tessler) "Why, when you saw these things happening to" our fellow Jewish brethren, "did you not" protest to the Israeli Government, as you would have if it were perpetrated by an anti-Semitic group anywhere else in the world? "Why did you not tell the truth" to the American Jewish public, to whom you are entrusted with representing Jews in need locally, in Israel and throughout the world?
Most sincerely,
Buddy Macy 181 Longhill Road, 5-3 Little Falls, NJ 07424 973-785-0057 Views expressed by the author do not necessarily reflect those of israelinsider.
Ping!
Warning! This is a high-volume ping list.
Articles on Israel can also be found by clicking on the Topic or Keyword Israel.
..................
If I hadn't done my checking of the Israel National News and Israel National Radio sites, I would not have known about Amona.
The soldiers behaved as cossacks. Israel is being betrayed by its own government.
It also makes me wonder how much truth there is to the allegations of brutality towards the Pals. We hear only one side here.
I believe we should make sure that Ronin gets this.
I guess not enough prople hear of the side that danced in the streets of Ramallah on 9/11! The current Israeli government is a disgrace, but brutality and savagery have long been the Muslim Arab domain. The world has long ignored most of it. What is going on in the Sudan is but one example.
That has nothing to do with the point I raised.
The Arab side of the story has been in the new since the first Clintifada. Believe what you like..
ROFL!
Ronin -- just thought this might help in your search for the "victims" of Amona.
Paul, you wrote: "It also makes me wonder how much truth there is to the allegations of brutality towards the Pals. We hear only one side here." Based upon the article, below, if there REALLY HAD BEEN brutality against the Palestinians, you would have heard about it for weeks!
Buddy Macy
9/9/01 thejewishweek.com
"...Nirenstein sees her colleagues romanticizing the Palestinians as David fighting the Israeli Goliath, as if the underdogs are by definition the good guys. That, she writes in the January issue of Commentary magazine, places the journalists -- whom she characterizes as "iconoclastic, sporty, ironic, virtually all of one mind" -- on the wrong side of the cultural gap between "Western and Eastern civilizations, between democracy and dictatorship, between the Judeo-Christian world and the world of Islam."
Her estimate may be low. Veteran Israeli commentator Ehud Ya'ari judges that "over 95 percent" of the pictures shipped to foreign and Israeli channels are supplied by Palestinian film crews.
In a recent article in the Jerusalem Report, Ya'ari wrote that Palestinians now "have effectively taken control of the reporting on the intifada. The vast majority of information of every type coming out of the area has been filtered through Palestinian eyes, or often, has actually been composed in the first place by Palestinians."
In short, news from Israel is generated by people loyal to and afraid of the Palestinian authorities.
"They simply don't dare film anything that could embarrass the Palestinian Authority," Ya'ari concludes. "So the cameras are angled to show a tainted view of the Israeli army's actions, never focus on the Palestinian gunmen and diligently produce a very specific kind of close-up of the situation on the ground."
Ya'ari himself does not go into Palestinian areas. Abu Toameh, who does, calls Ya'ari's analysis "200 percent correct."
According to the Committee for the Protection of Journalists (CPJ), for years the Palestinian Authority has "muzzled local press critics via arbitrary arrests, threats, physical abuse, and the closure of media outlets," thereby frightening most Palestinian journalists into self-censorship.
It's a Mafia situation, says one Palestinian journalist.
"It's a Mafia situation," corroborates a Palestinian journalist, citing journalists being "threatened, beaten and made the targets of death threats, even from high officials such as [West Bank Preventive Security Service commander Jibril] Rajoub and Barghouti. And they do not report it," he adds, either to their employers or to professional organizations, because any complaint would only increase their danger while, if it interfered with their access to officials, putting their jobs at risk."
Thanks. We do hear about it for weeks, it just that everyone on our side denies it's true. I suspect there is some truth to the allegations of brutality against Pals. I'm not trying to draw a general moral equivalence, however.
p.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.