Back when I was in Catholic elementary school and in the Boy Scouts, we would often be enlisted to participate in fund-raising drives that had us going door-to-door in our neighborhoods collecting money for various charities or causes (school or church related projects, scouting trips, etc). Engaging in this exercise, year after year, taught us some lessons about human behavior.
We learned that there were those kind and generous souls who would give, and there were those who would not. Among the latter, we took note of those who would simply say "no," which was fine. But then there were those who would feel the need to make up all kinds of excuses for not giving. A line we heard all too often was "I already gave at the office." What we knew was that in saying this, the individual in question was merely attempting to avoid giving, while at the same time pretending that he really wasn't cheap or heartless.
We almost always knew that this "gave at the office" line was a fabrication, since the charities for which we were raising funds didn't collect "at the office," relying instead on our door-to-door solicitations. Because this "little fib" was used so often, and not just in my hometown, it has entered our everyday discourse as an expression which is understood to mean "a made up excuse on which one relies in order to avoid doing what one was being asked to do."
I was reminded of just how annoying it could be to hear this "little fib" earlier this week when I read an interview which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave to the Jerusalem Post. At one point in the exchange, the interviewer pressed Netanyahu on whether or not he would consider agreeing to a new "settlement freeze" in order help restart peace negotiations with the Palestinians. Netanyahu's response was a short, but telling: "I think we already gave at the office."
A few thoughts occurred to me as I read the interview. At first, I waxed indignant as I recalled how my disingenuous and dismissive neighbors would try to put me off using this same over-used and very transparent lie. And then I thought, how interesting that this flippant man, who prides himself on his fluency and his debating skills, could make such an obvious mistake -- using an expression that actually means its opposite.
Finally, I wondered whether Netanyahu misspoke at all. Maybe, I thought, he actually meant just what he said, as in, "I've been getting away with this ruse for years now, so go away and leave me be. I didn't give before and won't give this time, either."
In the rest of the interview, Netanyahu forcefully argued why he will continue to build where, when and how he pleases. And given recent events, he clearly feels emboldened to continue on this path. This was evidenced by the announcement, made shortly after he returned from New York, that Israel would build 1,100 new housing units in Gilo, a settlement built on confiscated West Bank land which Israel illegally "annexed" to Jerusalem.
Netanyahu returned from the U.N. sessions in New York believing himself to have won some great victory. He had helped to manufacture a crisis mood in Israel over the Palestinian statehood bid. Israelis were told that a U.N. vote would be "doomsday." Of course, it was not, nor would it ever have been. But having trumped up a phony crisis, and survived, Netanyahu returned to Israel "a conquering hero."
I can almost imagine his mental processes at work: "No one stops me, Benjamin Netanyahu. In the 1990's, I was elected Prime Minister on a platform that promised to end the Oslo peace process, and I did it. I was forced by President Clinton to go to talks at the Wye River Plantation and forced to sign an agreement with the Palestinians. But I beat them all, because I refused to implement what I signed. I was told by Clinton not to destroy Jabal Abul Ghanaim, the last green hill between Bethlehem and Jerusalem. And now on that hill stands Har Homa, a city of 18,000 settlers, with more due to come. All those settlements the U.S. once called "illegitimate" and the E.U. called "illegal" are now called "accepted realities" by the U.S. and E.U. Remember the "outposts," built on the hilltops we illegally seized after Wye, that we were repeatedly told to dismantle. We promised on a number of occasions that we would remove them, but we delayed, knowing that time was on our side. We've since built roads connecting them to our highways and linked them to our electric grid and those "outposts" are still there are and flourishing."
"Then came my second term as Prime Minister and a new U.S. President who told me to freeze settlements. After dithering a bit, I pretended to agree (even while I continued to build). And I got away with it. Using my allies in Washington and my friends in the Congress, I stood down the President of the United States."
"I have the U.S. Congress eating out of my hand, Republican candidates for president are attacking Obama for 'throwing me under the bus,' and now that the Americans are in an election year the White House apparently believes that they have no choice but to praise me and support me. And if this were not enough, I just stood down the entire United Nations. So I'm feeling pretty good right now. So go away and don't bother me, 'I already gave at the office.'"
Am I bothered by the arrogance of the man, and his transparent disingenuousness? You bet I am. And am I bothered that the man who, just this past week, President Clinton charged was responsible for "ending the peace process" is at it again? Yes, again. But, as troubled as I am at Netanyahu's behavior, I am also deeply disturbed that because of America's dysfunctional politics, we are enabling and puffing up this "little fibber."
Netanyahu didn't "give at the office" and he didn't give at the door. He's been playing us for fools for decades now and we're letting him get away with it. And the longer this goes on, the dimmer the prospects for peace and the weaker America looks in the eyes of the world.
Follow James Zogby on Twitter: www.twitter.com/AAIUSA
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Instead of adequately exploring this subject, the author spends like 1/2 the article lamenting on his disappointments during door-to-door fund raising as a Boyscout.
Some people just do not like being bothered at home with requests for donations. When they say:"I gave at the office" this is often a general, not a specific response. It does not necessarily mean that the person is "cheap" or a liar. Some such people might have given tens or hundreds of thousands through organized donations to OTHER charities. The response might just as often mean:
'''Don't bother me with small problems'''. It could be a polite way of telling a boyscout to get a job.
http://www.pmw.org.il/pages/allmaps.aspx?fld_id=551&doc_id=539
More to the point, a state is not a democracy when its non-Jewish Israeli-Arab inhabitants cannot own land and are afforded second class citizenship, and when the military is brutalizing and killing the indigenous people of Palestine .
Your arrogance is evident in your use of the term "mid-east cronies." Do you mean the dictators that the US supported because they enabled the Israeli agression and land grab? The only mid-east crony we have now is Israel.
1) Arabs own land in Israel. They own homes, businesses, farms...whatever.
http://www.meforum.org/370/can-arabs-buy-land-in-israel
2) Arabs serve in the elected government and they serve as judges..even in the Israeli supreme court.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salim_Joubran
Did you know that under palestinian law, no Jews are allowed to own land?
http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/insideisrael/2011/July/PA-Law-Selling-Land-to-Jews-Punishable-by-Death/
Stop the Ethnicity talk, it's so last century...
I think the record is obvious on that. Yes, it is last century, absolutely. So is not allowing women equal rights, and more of that.
And a one-State solution? Well, that can be done as well. And as A-jad has suggested just last week, some can go home from where they came from. Abbas to Jordan, or even fuirther back to Shyria, for example. At least two members of Hamas, to Syria, again. A number of other Jordanians, and Egyptians. And nothing has to change in Israel. Israel is fine with its current 80/20 demographics and has not plans, whatsoever, to change those demograpahics. Arabs could even apply for citizenship if they decide to be loyal to The Jewish State..
So easy, really, and at least citizens of Israel could reasonably expect decent housing and being able to vote.
Now, I'm not racist at all towards Jewish folks, so forgive me if this sounds insulting.
Back in the 1940's NOBODY cared about Jews ANYWHERE. They were like the black sheep of the human family. And folks in America weren't very protective of them. Now, however, Jews have become a 4th rail in American politics. This a the result of very effective lobbying via religion and the Holocaust card. The Jewish learned long ago that our interests in their Country weren't humanitarian, but rather geopolitical. Since that was the case, they figured they had to link themselves to us in a way that forever ensure their protection, no matter how much folly they commit.
Now their actions are beginning to effect our national security. Because of political considerations,
the President is going to be forced to Veto the Palestinian statehood bid, especially with the pressure the Democrats already face.
I'm so pissed that he has the gall to send a prominent member of his party to the UN summit to trash our President and thus interfere in our elections. The dude is so arrogant and disrespectful that it angers me.
hes giving about 7billion to Arab-Muslim countries for the same reason-and oh how we see what hes getting back from them
Bottom line is this, Zogby can write whatever he wants, but his agenda includes the destruction of my h
Unless they are Muslims, of course. You don't even have to do much investigation to prove the falsity of the statement: Israel regularly prevents Muslim men under the age of fifty from praying at the Al-Aqsa Mosque. Just this last August Israel barred men under 50 and women under 40 from praying there on Fidays durin Ramadan.
The IDF officials cite security concerns, but the fact remains that Israel does not allow all faiths to worship in Jerusalem "without interference,so please stop with the lies.
If they knew how extreme and brutal the israeli governments policies are they wouldn't support its government..
That is changing. Not nearly fast enough, but its definitely changing. Blind US support isn't going to last forever.
When you find out and you finally see how Palestinians have been treated the last 47 years, you NEVER go back to supporting israel.
"Israel will only have a peace partner when the Palestinians drop the right of return. Asked whether Israel could accept case by case exceptions, Netanyahu insisted not one refugee could ever return. Israel, after all, was not asking for the right of Jews to return to Baghdad or Cairo".
http://statelogs.owni.fr/index.php/memo/2007/04/18/TELAVIV1114
The landswap problem might be easy, compared to the refugee one.
Is a bogus demand that is really intended to be an open door for any homeless arabs in the region.
The point of course is to flood Israel with millions of arabs who would then use their majority to either expel of kill the Jews.
It's one of the various methods to destroy Israel that the arabs dream of.
But...here's an easy solution.
Let these so called "refugees" have all the land, businesses, money and goods that were stolen from the Jews expelled ( about 800,000 ) from arab nations after 1947 .
There you go--refugee issue settled.
Of course that doesn't appeal to the arabs though it would more than compensate the alleged arab refugees--because it would leave a non muslim Israel still in existence.
Israel cannot 'declare' Gaza as a (separate) 'country', there is simply no legal basis for this and Israel has no authority to 'create countries'.
"the disputed territories"
You should also note that if you use the term "disputed territories" you must include, by default, the Golan Heights and East Jerusalem in this definition as both the aforementioned areas are 'claimed' by Israel yet 'disputed' by the Syrians and Palestinians ie: the status of these two land areas can only be determined through negotiations and not by 'unilateral declarations'.
I am so glad to see hat you are of the belief that disputed territories must be negotiated...
I would disagree over Gaza - it would seem Israel can in fact just walk away and declare no control over the area - your right Israel can't make it it's own country but certainly should have the right to disengage and leave them to their own self rule.
As for East Jerusalem and the Golan if I am not mistaken - Israel did annex them and make them part of Israel after the 1967 War (call them the spoils of war).
Certainly, in the 63 year history of Israel, the Jewish state has proven a better guardian of the religious sites in Jerusalem than the Arabs ever did...
Three words-NO JEWISH STATE!
In truth I do not see Gaza "abandoning" the West Bank - however I can imagine Abbas and the PA forming their own state without Gaza and Hamas, after all Hamas was elected and holds power in Gaza through elections as opposed to Abbas/PA.
My concern is - the Palestinians voted for Hamas once - what happens if after the peace agreement and the forming of "Palestine"...what happens if they vote in a terrorist government again? Now Israel will be faced with true state sponsored terrorism, will the UN act - or will the world as is their history sit back and watch what happens to the Jews with idle curiosity?
True peace is the only solution - but the Palestinians need to bring more to the table than complaints - they need to bring a willingness to truly live side by side in peace. Or is that too much of a precondition?
Which "non-violent route" would that be??? Obviously they haven't started on that particular road yet. And besides, Hamas very much objects to that.
Also, you are mistaken, if you think that more and more citizens of Israel disagree with Bibi.
Let's ignore the fact that the Palestinians don't even have a single government for negotiation purposes or that Abbas and the PA have shown they either can't or won't control Hamas and the daily rocket attacks on Israel - but Netanyahu saying he "already gave at the office" bothers Mr. Zogby.
Netanyahu has again suggested direct talks with no preconditions - other than accepting the right of the Jewish state to exist - but that offer isn't enough for Mr. Zogby.
The problem is that Zogby knows, because the polls have shown it to him, the Palestinians don't accept or want a two state solution - they want the destruction of Israel. Spin it however you want Mr. Zogby - but it would seem the liar here is you and your blaming the lack of a peace process on Israel and Netanyahu, is just dishonest.
The Jewish State exists, has existed since 1948, and ACCEPTANCE is only required to have some measure of assurance that the *struggle* will end (i.e. war and attack). War and attack will continue without this ACCEPTANCE of a fait accompli, The Jewish State.
And, under UNWRA Palestinian Refugees are continued to be used as pawns, are not allowed citizenship in the Arab countries where they are born, and where they have resided for some 63 yrs plus. When Refugees from other countries arrive elsewhere, they do not fall under UNWRA, and are assimilated, allowed to become citizens and part of the fabric. In fact, the world DEMANDS that..
Nevertheless, Mr. Netanyahu, it is reported TODAY, has accepted the invitation of the
Quartet to restart Negotiations Preconditions. Abbas sets PRECONDITIONS, and does NOT ACCEPT. So there we are. Mr. Netanyahu, when officially accepting, also invited Mr. Abbas to restart negotiations.
Jewishness is NOT under debate, as that is an INDIVIDUAL matter. The Nature of the State is at isue, i.e. culture, history. language, population. It is NOT a requirement that every citizen be a jew. Mr. Netanyahu CLEARLY STATED @ the UN, that Israel has no intention, whatsoever, to change demographics in Israel. There is only one group which is intent on changing demographics in Israel, it is the ARABS (and not only the Palestinian Arabs). You say the same thing over and over, like a recorded message. Try being a human being, reading and responding.
Either sit down and work out a deal, or let another generation go by as you play out your self Imposed victim hood to the whole world.
Your man Abbas went to the UN with nothing and came back home with nothing.
Yet he returned as a hero.