While the world is shaken – as it should be – because of the terrorism at the Boston Marathon, in Israel, bombs and terrorism are a fact of life.
Yet, despite it all, Israel is so often maligned in the press – that it’s simply mindboggling.
Maybe, just maybe Israel is too liberal and accepting.
Consider the following:
In a case which received worldwide media, a 14-year old Palestinian-American teenager received a whole two weeks in prison for throwing rocks at Israeli military forces. Rocks kill. Just how much time would he have received in America if he threw rocks at the military? Maybe the worldwide message would have been much clearer if he had really received a harsh sentence.
Well, high and mighty Roger Waters of Pink Floyd told The Huffington Post yesterday he is reconsidering his call for musicians to boycott Israel.
He said “I am considering my position. The letter asking my fellow musicians to boycott Israel has never appeared. I am thinking all of this through extremely carefully and I'm thinking it all through extremely carefully because I care more about the outcome, because I care about the people involved, than I do about the moment."
Of course this absurd man sided with the enemies of Israel with this boycott call. One wonders why he has never had a concert in Gaza City, or Tehran, or Riyadh, or Damascus – but that's an easy one. It is because there is no freedom in these nations and certainly no rock concerts. People who speak up anywhere else in the Middle East usually get strung up. Yet, to people like Roger Waters, Israel (Hence, the Jews) will always be the bad guys.
A few weeks ago, when 100 American Jews led by the left-liberal Israel Policy Forum issued an open letter to Prime Minister Netanyahu urging him to take “confidence building steps” to encourage peace talks with the Palestinians, they received extensive news coverage.
This week, an open letter by 100 Russian Jews urging Netanyahu to ignore the letter was covered much less. The Russian Jews wrote that “We, the Russian Jews, are committed to the secure and stable future of Israel no less than our American coreligionists. It is therefore that we believe that the decisions of the Head of the Government of Israel on critical issues should be taken for the sake of people of Israel only, based exclusively on Israel’s assessment of the situation. Decisions on national security issues must not be made under external pressure, regardless of its origins: world public opinion, U.S. leaders or even influential American Jews.”
And how right they are. Simply amazing how there is always clamoring for peace, and stability – but the calls are always aimed at Israel and never at the Arabs.
Labor Party Knesset Member Nachman Shai recently wrote a book (in Hebrew) titled War: Reaching for Hearts and Mind where he wisely calls for the creation of an independent Jewish version of Al-Jazeera. As owner of a PR Firm, I believe he is completely right as he writes “Setting up a station likes this, costs a lot less than one F-16 [fighter jet]. I propose to deploy throughout the world, a configuration of ‘public diplomacy cells’ — meaning hundreds of thousands of people, Jewish and non-Jewish supporters of Israel, who will disseminate information in every corner of the globe.”
What could it possibly take for Israel to get a fair shake in the media? No one in the American media will blame Boston officials for the bombings there, right? So why is it fair to do so when it involves the State of Israel?
Ronn Torossian is an entrepreneur and philanthropist.