Israel's 11th Commandment and How It Makes Peace Near Impossible
Today's Israeli press quotes Prime Minister Netanyahu as telling 27 EU ambassadors that he was willing to "make concessions to the Palestinians" but did not want to be a "sucker" if the Palestinians pocket his "concession" and give nothing in return.
Netanyahu was speaking to the ambassadors in English. If he was using Hebrew, he would say that he didn't want to be a "freier" which is Hebrew (really Yiddish) for sucker. Ha'aretz says that "thou shalt not be a freier" is Israel's 11th commandment. Above all, an Israeli does not want to be taken advantage of which is why he often will take advantage of the other guy first. (The Palestinians have almost always been freiers in their dealings with the Israelis).
Americans don't spend much time worrying about being suckers. The equivalent "thou shalt not be" for us is not to be an "a-hole" which is what we would call the people who make other people into freiers. In my experience, most Americans would rather be accused of being a sucker than of being an a-hole. For Israelis, it is just the opposite.
See this Ha'aretz piece elaborating on this Israeli malady which causes so many problems, especially for those Israelis who have to deal with those adhering fiercely to that 11th commandment and, above all, for Palestinians.
For the record, Rahm Emanuel is not a freier. That is one of the reasons President Obama is not backing down in the face of the pushback from Israel on settlements. I can just hear him tell Obama, "If I've told you once, I've told you a thousand times. You can't be a freier when you deal with the Israelis. Trust me on that one, sir."
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This, though largely just fluff, has exposed an answer to a question that I've had for quite a while. I've often wondered why, when listening to or reading Israeli speeches, the wording is so simplistic, childishly so, I mean to the point of no content, to the point of wondering about the intellect behind the words, to the point of wondering if they can even believe what's being said because nothing IS being said. Now it makes a bit more sense. The Israelis are trying to make freiers (freieren?) out of the rest of the world which of course makes them a-holes.
Or maybe the Israelis are just trying to keep the message on your level.
"...but any agreement with the Palestinian people must preserve Israel's identity as a Jewish state with secure, recognized, defensible borders. And Jerusalem will remain the capital of Israel and it must remain undivided."
Barak Obama, June 4, 2008. Addressing the AIPAC conference 12 hours after securing his party's nomination.
Netanyahu hasn't conceded anything.
Read the Ha'aretz article. Explains so much!
"Netanyahu doesn't want to be played for a sucker" hilarious! When you realize that is exactly what they have been doing to the rest of civilized world. Played us all for suckers while they waged unprovoked wars against the neighborhood to fulfill their grand design of jewish expansionism.
Played us for suckers while they flagrantly violated numerous UN.resolutions and feigned negotiations with the Arabs as they occupied even more land, so smug in their assurance of the US veto power. Played us for suckers as like the Afrikaners their 'covenant with God' to cultivate a land 'without a people' obviously with scant regard to the productivity and industriousness of native people who had lived and tilled the soil and traded for centuries.
The Arabs aren't begging for concessions, they are demanding that Israel obey Int. Laws and cease being a rogue state and a racist apartheid regime.
great blog lydia . . . you have summed it up so well . . thank you
Unprovoked wars? How about kidnapping soldiers? Firing thousands of rockets into civilian areas? Are you selectively blind?
Great fiction writing Lydia, but not very much truth.
How will you describe the Arab demand that Palestine be Jew free? Will you call it Apartheid or will you (as I suspect) ignore it?
"A poll released this week showed that PA Arabs are reluctant to grant rights to Jews or Christians within areas demanded for a PA state. A survey conducted by the Arab World for Research and Development among 1,200 Arab residents of The W Bank and Gaza found they did not feel Jerusalem should be shared with Jews and Christians."
A sucker is someone who walks away from Gaza taking every Jew in the strip and in return gets thousands of rockets fired on a civilian population and thinking people like you Lydia will even notice.
Before the hasbara footsoldiers are allowed out they should at least be prepped with some basic knowledge on how the conflict started "There is not a single Jewish settlement that was not established in the place of a former Arab Village."
—Moshe Dyan,
"The Arabs demand that Palestine be Jew free". I say go read your David Ben Gurion "...I would never make terms with Israel. That is natural: we have taken their country."
A sucker is someone who believes that Israel "walked away from Gaza" when in actual fact it is still subjugating Gaza by land, sea and air.
A sucker is someone who focuses on Gaza lobbing a couple of rockets in resistance to Israel racist occupation, but fails to address Israels millions of dime bombs, cluster bomb, radioactive, white phosphorus dropped on unarmed civilians ie 1400 defenseless Palestinians slaughtered in Israels last turkey shoot while 12 IOFs killed (half by their own friendly fire.) "Fool some of the people some of the time....
Making thing up does not make them facts
So even Arab Christians? Have you confused Arabs with a religion?
"In my experience, most Americans would rather be accused of being a sucker than of being an a-hole. For Israelis, it is just the opposite."
You must live in another America.
Well...one of you certinaly does. :)
This column says nothing. It reports no facts, provides no insight, raises no issues or thoughts. It is a complete waste of space.
And for the record, not being a sucker is as american as apple pie. In Americana it was "don't be a rube." MJ's ridiculous "point" that there is in Israeli culture an attitude that is an obstacle to negotiating peace, is moronic.
BTW, does MJ imply that in arab culture they don't mind being suckers. That will be news to all Arabs.
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