Funny in a way.
Leftists in Israel clamor for foreign intervention from E.U. diplomats and E.U.-funded nongovernmental and other entities, such as church-sponsored agencies in their campaign against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the Likud Party, Jewish Home Party, the resettlement movement of Judea and Samaria, and other religious and cultural affairs.
For example, when the European Union demanded compensation for demolished structures illegally built. Or the delight expressed when they boycotted a tour of the new Israel rail route because “it traverses the ‘West Bank.’ ” And a few years back, when E.U. diplomats announced that “East Jerusalem” “be treated as Palestinian capital,” as well as opposing Israel’s policy vis à vis the Temple Mount.
The editorial and op-ed columns of certain newspapers and web sites go ecstatic when these foreign observers rap Israel over the knuckles.
Oh, and before I forget, there was that incident when Haaretz editor David Landau waxed sexual with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice:
The editor in chief of Israel’s Ha’aretz newspaper, David Landau, confirmed yesterday that he has pleaded with Secretary of State Rice to “rape” Israel and its neighbors into resolving their problems.
The comment … was made … at the home of the American ambassador in Tel Aviv, Richard Jones … when his turn came, he said, “Israel, after 40 years of failing to resolve its problem of occupation,” needed a push from America. “Rape it into resolving the problem,” he told Ms. Rice.
As he further admitted,
Even as a Jerusalem Post cub reporter in the 1970s, he said, he had pleaded with the then-undersecretary of state, Joseph Cisco, to “squeeze” Israel
These groups and influential opinion-setters seek out the money and they convene conferences and protests, demonstrations and theater, books and flyers and the like. Journalists are feted to trips abroad and ply their media with anti-nationalist propaganda.
But then U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman criticizes them, and they’re all upset:
Ambassador Friedman on Monday accused the media of major bias against Israel in its coverage of the recent violence on the Gaza border, telling reporters to “keep your mouths shut until you figure it out.”
As we say in Israel, what comes around, goes around. Or perhaps: Be careful what you wish for.
Yisrael Medad is an American-born Israeli journalist and author.
