Sunday, December 09, 2007
The Association for Civil Rights in Israel finds some "Racism":
by Steven Plaut
The Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) is a far leftist
propaganda group (see
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Blogs/Message.aspx/2143 ) that cares
nothing about civil rights, especially about civil rights for Jews. Its
president, writer Sami Michael, has endorsed Palestinian terrorist attacks
on Jews. It is uninterested in freedom of speech. When a leftwing
fascist in Israel filed a SLAPP harassment suit against me to suppress my
freedom of speech, I asked the ACRI to support me in fighting it off and
it refused (see
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/3469 ). It only
believes in freedom of speech for leftists. For background on ACRI and
its political bias, see the report in NGO Monitor on it here:
http://www.ngo-monitor.org/article/association_for_civil_rights_in_israel_acri_
The president of ACRI, Sami Michael, best known for romanticizing
communism, was cited in Haaretz (Oct 21, 2004) as justifying Palestinian
terror attacks against Jewish Israelis. Here are his words as quoted by
Haaretz:
Michael understands the Hamas members who are fighting these Jews, who
stuck a wedge down their throats. In an interview published in the latest
issue of New Horizons, a monthly on society and the state published by the
Berl Katznelson Foundation, Michael rejects the definition of Hamas
fighters as "terrorists."
"Imagine the feeling if I woke up tomorrow and saw this neighborhood,
which we inhabit, forcibly conquered by the Syrians, and they established
settlements here, and in order to go to the bus station, I needed
permission from the Syrian army. How would I feel?" the author from Haifa
asked. "If I fight them, I will be considered a terrorist. Why am I a
terrorist? Why do we call Hezbollah or Hamasniks terrorists? Why? Because
he fights on his own territory? Suddenly, aliens, occupiers, land on him
and tell him: "Your house is ours. It's his land, he and his forefathers
were born here, and the settlers say: We will never leave ... How would
you respond to this?"
This week the headlines in Israel are filled with a news story that the
ACRI has discovered a skyrocketing rate of "racism" among Jews against
Arabs. See this story:
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3480345,00.html and this
http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/932384.html
The first point is that nothing coming from the ACRI is credible and
everything should be dismissed as advocacy statistics. The ACRI is not a
reliable source about anything. The second point is that the same survey
supposedly collected for ACRI asked no questions about Arab racism against
Jews. How curious. The third point is that many of the questions
supposedly indicating growing Jewish "racism" have nothing at all to do
with racism or bigotry.
The ACRI claims to discern an increase of 26% in anti-Arab "incidents" in
Israel, although offers no evidence that any of these incidents are really
racist. It claims a 100% increase in anti-Arab "hatred" among Jews. It
does not say how it measures this. From the Haaretz report on the report,
evidently ACRI measures it based on the proportion of Jews who want to
condition welfare benefits, social perqs (like tuition vouchers), and
income subsidies on army service. That would be racist, says the ACRI.
Never mind that every other nation on earth gives its army vets perqs, no
one is stopping any Arabs from serving in the Israeli army, and in any
case it would "penalize" ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students no less than
Arabs! The ACRI also finds evidence of "racism" in the structural
reforms that Israel's Minister of Justice is pursuing. It would be
"racist," believes the ACRI, for an elected cabinet minister to prevent
unelected judges from just making up laws and "rights" as they go along in
court.
How else is "racism" measured by the ACRI? Maybe by asking Jews if they
think most Israeli Arabs want to see them murdered? If so, I am amazed
that the ACRI does not report far higher "anti-Arab" sentiments among
Jews, almost universal agreement. The news reports say that the ACRI
study finds that 50% of the Jewish public does not think there needs to be
exact equality among Jews and Arabs. This is amusing, of course, because
the Left, including the ACRI, also opposes equality for Arabs, such as in
the fact that they oppose conscription or national service for them. In
any case, the wording of the question does not seem to mean only legal
equality or equality of opportunities, but could also be interpreted as
speaking of equality of results (such as in income homogeneity), that
beloved cause of the Left opposed by everyone else. 55% of Jews endorse
subsidizing Arabs who want to emigrate from Israel, which is racist says
the ACRI study. Except that 100% of the Israeli Labor Party supports
subsidizing Jews to move out of the West Bank, which is not racist. 78%
of Israeli Jews oppose including the Arab anti-Semitic and fascist parties
in the Knesset in the government coalition, which the ACRI also thinks is
racist. I happen to think that the remaining 22% who do NOT oppose such a
coalition are racists.
Other evidence of racism in the report? It turns out Arabs are searched
for weapons and explosives at airports more so than Jews. The ACRI would
prefer a "non-racist non-discriminator" set of security procedures that
results in terrorist atrocities.
And what is NOT racism, may we ask the ACRI? Answer - the call over the
weekend at the congress of the predominantly Arab HADASH Stalinist party,
declaring that Israel's Jewishness is like a sword upon the necks of
Arabs. (Haaretz Dec 8, 07)
2. New Site Opens to Counter 'Peace Now'
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/124475
Interesting how these "Eco-Judaism" nuts never have anything to say about
the greenhouse gases released when suicide terrorists blow themselves up
on Israeli buses.
2. PC Hijacking of Hanuka:
http://www.jewishpress.com/displayContent_new.cfm?contentid=26553&mode=a§ionid=56&contentname=Dreaming_Of_A_%27Green%27_Chanukah%3F&recnum=4
3. This is simply hysterical! Must see:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WOt7hOQUdc
4. Latest idiocy from the Israeli Left:
http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/931528.html
5. New kosher hotel in Marrakech:
Primavera, 78 Route de Casablanca, Marrakech, Morocco. For more
information: www.primavera-marrakech.com .
6. Naw, but THAT would be Racism:
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3479655,00.html
7. Stolen Cars for Peace:
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3480151,00.html
