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Observer
Joined: 10 Oct 2007
Posts: 230
Location: Lah Lah Land
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 Posted: Sat May 10, 2008 4:55 pm Post subject: Jews do have problems too! |
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Hey! you think the US have ill-informed or dumb citizens. They manage to have GW Bush in office for nearly 8 years.
Check this out. Jews have the same problems. Being so ill-informed, they have allowed some Rabbis and some Hollywood actors and producers to lead them to boycott China so that a Taliban-style theocracy can be in place in Tibet. Well what do you know? Some have problems with geography, let alone politics.
'Israel Is Slightly Smaller Than China,’ And Other Misconceptions
| Quote: | Journalist Donna Rosenthal was inspired to write “The Israelis: Ordinary People in an Extraordinary Land” when a CNN producer (her former journalism student) told her: “I’m confused, and our viewers are confused. We have footage of Jews who look like Arabs and Arabs who look like Jews. We have black Jews, and bearded 16th-century-looking Jews in black hats and sexy girls in tight jeans. Who in the world are these people?” Rosenthal - a former Israel TV news producer and Israel Radio reporter whose articles have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, Newsweek and The Atlantic - decided to write a “bible” for reporters who cover Israel. This country, about one-eighteenth the size of California, has more reporters per capita than any other. Since the April release of the 2008 paperback edition of “The Israelis” (Free Press/Simon & Schuster), especially updated for Israel’s 60th anniversary, Rosenthal has been interviewed on many radio and TV programs and is finding that confusion and misunderstanding about Israelis abound.
A reporter in Connecticut whose radio show is syndicated to 300 stations asked me, “If I wanted to visit Israel, are there any modern hotels to stay in?” I told her that not only would she would she find modern hotels, but also that high-tech is the engine that drives the Israeli economy, and that within one hour you can meet Israelis at Intel who designed the Pentium and Centrino chips used in most of the world’s computers - as well as the teenage third wife of a Bedouin who lives in a tent and watches soap operas by satellite dish.
An astounding number of reporters know very little about non-Jewish Israelis. One reporter asked me, “Why don’t Israelis throw all the Arabs out of Israel?” He didn’t know that one in five Israeli citizens is Arab Muslim, that about 25% of Israeli children are Muslim, that the most common name for an Israeli boy is Muhammad or that Israeli Muslims are teachers, bus drivers and members of the Knesset - which has a mosque and a synagogue inside.
A nationally syndicated radio reporter in Washington, D.C., who had visited Israel argued with me on air that the Druze are Muslims. She didn’t know that Druze is a religion; that after Druze men are drafted, they swear in on their secret holy book, or that Muslim volunteers for the Israel Defense Forces swear in on the Quran.
Another time, while I was in a TV studio with an editor who has worked for PBS’s “NewsHour,” an Israeli friend arrived to meet me for lunch. In front of the Israeli, I asked the editor if he knew what a Druze is. “Yes,” he answered, “they’re terrorists.” Then I introduced the Jewish editor to the Israeli: Ambassador Reda Mansour, Israel’s consul general in Atlanta - and a Druze.
Yasser Mansour, an Israeli Muslim pediatrician from Haifa whose patients are Jewish and Arab children, is profiled in one chapter in “The Israelis.” While he was in San Francisco for a medical conference, I took him to an event at a Jewish community center. During the talk, the speaker asked the audience how many knew what Lag b’Omer was. No one responded. Yasser, a Sunni Muslim, shyly raised his hand and explained the meaning of the holiday to some 300 Jews. I’ve discovered that young Israeli Muslims, Christians and Druze often know better Hebrew and more about Judaism than many do Jewish Americans.
During Passover last month, a Presbyterian pastor asked me on radio about this holiday, which all “the Israelites” are celebrating. I had to explain to him that not all Israelis are Jews - that on Orthodox Palm Sunday, April 20, many Israeli Greek and Russian Orthodox Christians were celebrating Easter. In fact, of all Israelis, Christian Arabs are the most affluent and highly educated per capita, and the Christian Bible is a fast-growing holy book in the Israeli army. More than half the former Soviet immigrants are not Jewish, and the IDF has a small but increasing number of Christian Arab volunteers.
And Israelis are sometimes no less ignorant about their fellow Israelis, especially those from different religious, ethnic or political backgrounds. The host of a weekly New York radio show asked me what impact the avalanche of immigrants from the former Soviet Union is having on Israel. When I offered a positive answer, an irate caller, identifying herself as an ultra-Orthodox Israeli, admonished me: “Those Russians are prostitutes and mafia, and they’re taking our jobs.” In fact, these immigrants are an enormous brain gain, giving Israel the world’s highest number per capita of engineers, scientists and unemployed orchestra conductors. About 25% of Israel’s high-tech employees were born in the former Soviet Union.
During a morning “drive-time” interview, a Jewish radio reporter in New York City asked me, “Why don’t Israelis move to a safer country?” I was speaking from bed - it was 4 a.m., Pacific Time - and wanted to pull the blanket over my head. Another Jewish reporter for a California radio station, trying to end her interview on an upbeat note, asked, “So, what’s the final solution for the Jews?”
I once gave my university journalism students a multiple-choice exam with this question: What is the size of Israel? Quite a few chose “slightly smaller than China.” One of my best students interviewed a former Auschwitz inmate, and in her article she identified him as a “survivor of a concentration campus.” “Is ‘campus” a typo?” I asked. She responded no. Today she’s a reporter on an NPR affiliate (an American public radio stattion). |
by Donna Rosenthal
http://www.forward.com/articles/13322/
Further discussions of Jewish boycott of the Beijing Olympics are found in other part of the forum. Click the link below:
http://oneworldtalk.freeforums.org/jewish-leaders-want-a-boycott-of-the-olympics-t1134.html
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Meddy
Joined: 20 Mar 2007
Posts: 316
Location: Resort
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| Posted: Thu Jul 03, 2008 12:57 pm Post subject: Salute Palestinian journalist - IS human rights violations |
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Mohammed Omer, an award-winning young Palestinian journalist was tortured.
http://www.palestine-pmc.com/details.asp?cat=1&id=1848
| Quote: | Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) manning the Allenby border crossing between Jordan and the West Bank assaulted, abused and strip-searched at gunpoint Palestinian journalist and photographer Mohammed Omer, the Gaza correspondent of IPS, joint winner of the 2008 Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism and was honored by New American Media as the “Best Youth Voice” for 2006.
“Omer returned to his native Gaza Strip on Thursday… literally unconscious and unable to speak after being beaten and tortured by Israeli troops. He is still unable to speak so I was not able to communicate with him,” Steve Amsel of Desert Peace said on Saturday. |
| Quote: | | Accompanied by Dutch diplomats, Omer passed through the Jordanian side of the border without incident. However, after arrival on the Israeli side, trouble began. He informed a female soldier that he was returning home to Gaza. He was repeatedly asked where Gaza was, and told that he had neither a permit nor any coordination to cross. |
Stripped search, interrogated, humiliated, physically tortured and psychologically traumatized.
Was he a security threat to deserve such inhuman treatment?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/jul/02/israelandthepalestinians.civilliberties
| Quote: | | At 24, he is the youngest winner. His citation reads: "Every day, he reports from a war zone, where he is also a prisoner. His homeland, Gaza, is surrounded, starved, attacked, forgotten. He is a profoundly humane witness to one of the great injustices of our time. He is the voice of the voiceless." The eldest of eight, Mohammed has seen most of his siblings killed or wounded or maimed. An Israeli bulldozer crushed his home while the family were inside, seriously injuring his mother. And yet, says a former Dutch ambassador, Jan Wijenberg, "he is a moderating voice, urging Palestinian youth not to court hatred but seek peace with Israel". |
Alienating the moderate voices would strengthen the support for radicals and extremists who argue that it does not pay to be nice but to do unto others what they had done to you.
| Quote: | An ambulance was called and told to take Mohammed to a hospital, but only after he had signed a statement indemnifying the Israelis from his suffering in their custody. The Palestinian medic refused, courageously, and said he would contact the Dutch embassy escort. Alarmed, the Israelis let the ambulance go. The Israeli response has been the familiar line that Mohammed was "suspected" of smuggling and "lost his balance" during a "fair" interrogation, Reuters reported yesterday.
Israeli human rights groups have documented the routine torture of Palestinians by Shin Bet agents with "beatings, painful binding, back bending, body stretching and prolonged sleep deprivation". Amnesty has long reported the widespread use of torture by Israel, whose victims emerge as mere shadows of their former selves. Some never return. Israel is high in an international league table for its murder of journalists, especially Palestinian journalists, who receive barely a fraction of the kind of coverage given to the BBC's Alan Johnston.
The Dutch government says it is shocked by Mohammed Omer's treatment. The former ambassador Jan Wijenberg said: "This is by no means an isolated incident, but part of a long-term strategy to demolish Palestinian social, economic and cultural life ... I am aware of the possibility that Mohammed Omer might be murdered by Israeli snipers or bomb attack in the near future."
While Mohammed was receiving his prize in London, the new Israeli ambassador to Britain, Ron Proser, was publicly complaining that many Britons no longer appreciated the uniqueness of Israel's democracy. Perhaps they do now. |
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Kebau
Joined: 23 Mar 2007
Posts: 415
Location: Canada
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| Posted: Thu Jul 03, 2008 1:37 pm Post subject: Jews have learnt well from the Nazis |
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| The WWII and the Nazis had taught the Jews good lessons in survival and cohesiveness as a nation and as a race. They tolerate no dissent of anyone who vows the dismemberment of the Israeli state. Palestinians and other Arabs feel the brunt of the Israeli state policy of collective punishment as the Nazis had done in Occupied Europe. The episodes described in the article posted by Meddy suggest the level of ill-treatment and torture that only an occupier would impose on the occupied. Human dignity is constantly removed from Palestinians and we therefore see a radicalization of the Palestinian people and state.
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Kebau
Joined: 23 Mar 2007
Posts: 415
Location: Canada
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| Posted: Thu Jul 03, 2008 1:39 pm Post subject: I wish... |
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I Wish...
A woman rubbed a bottle and out popped a genie. The amazed woman Asked if she got three wishes. The genie said, "Nope, sorry, three-wish genies are a storybook myth. I'm a one-wish genie. So... what'll it be?"
The woman did not hesitate. She said, "I want peace in the Middle East. See this map? I want these countries to stop fighting with each other and I want all the Arabs to love the Jews and Americans and vice-versa. It will bring about world peace and harmony."
The genie looked at the map and exclaimed, "Lady, be reasonable. These countries have been at war for thousands of years. I'm out of shape after being in a bottle for five hundred years.. I'm good but not THAT good! I don't think it can be done. Make another wish and please be reasonable."
The woman thought for a minute and said, "Well, I've never been able to find the right man. You know - one that's considerate and fun, romantic, likes to cook and help with the house cleaning, is good in bed, and gets along with my family, doesn't watch sports all the time, and is faithful. That is what I wish for...a good man."
The genie let out a sigh and said, "Let me see the map again."
http://www.joke-of-the-day.com
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Wynston
Joined: 01 May 2008
Posts: 64
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| Posted: Fri Jul 04, 2008 3:47 am Post subject: Zionists are radicals who employ terrorist tactics |
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Jews are really intelligent people and they achieve much more if they did not follow the US lead. The problem lies with the Zionists and fundamentalists who harbor vengeance against those who owe the Jews from World War II and even perceived enemies who could possibly undermine the survival of the Jewish state. Tit for tat will not solve historical problems that can't be fingered at any particular party to bear the sole responsibilities for today's problems. Unfortunately, tensions have escalated with flareup in military engagements, hit and run, kidnapping and suicide bombings. The differences have degenerated to a state of massive mutual assured destruction that will destablize not just the Middle East but the rest of the world, as we are now feeling the bite of the high oil prices, related inflationary pressures and recession from overspending on non-productive areas.
The moderate voices of the Palestinians and Jews have been drowned and silenced by the radicalization of a longstanding political issue that could well be managed by dialogue and better understanding. It is easy to just blame the Palestinians where there are complex issues involving colonial powers and special conditions in the settlements.
Even as Israel tried to stamp out the extremists using its superior military capabilities, the problem remains. As innocent bystanders get hurt, driven by extremities imposed by economic sanctions, ravages of war and insecurity, the ordinary Palestinians are pushed to the brink of desperation. Even moderates would be disillusioned. This provides fertile breeding ground for more recruits to the radicals' cause. Yet Israel and the US have failed to see the futility of its military force after decades. Everyone is on standby war mode and peace is unheard of, except brief period of ceasefire which are counted by days, not months. The world has become the less secure place we see today. Sigh! 
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