Jewish American pundits will have to make up their mind as
to how they want the debate to proceed with regard to subjects that relate to
the Middle East . They cannot, on the one hand,
bray “you can't compaaaare,” and on the other hand compare Israel with
other countries; something they do incessantly. Worse, they don't even make
legitimate comparisons but make the kind that fails the test when scrutinized.
An example of that is the article which came under the
title: “The ugly effort to boycott Israel ,” written by Richard Cohen
and published on June 8, 2015 in the Washington Post. The word “ugly” in the
title tell you that the author is enraged about something. You discover as you
read the article that he is so confused about two realities, he is comparing
not oranges with apples but lemons with pineapples.
Richard Cohen is fuming because he says that Stephane
Richard who is the CEO of a French telecom company called Orange, once said
that he would end his company's relationship with its Israeli partner … but
could not because of contractual obligations. And that's only half the story
according to Cohen because the other half is that the same company is also
operating in Egypt where
things are worse than in Israel ,
yet the French CEO expressed no desire to pull out of Egypt .
Cohen says he is tempted to call that stance anti-Semitism,
but shies away from it “out of respect for the awesome power of the word and in
honor of its victims.” The people who know the Jewish narrative know he means
to say that Jews are Semites even though most of them look like anything but
Semitic. As to the people who do not know the Jewish narrative but know
something about the history of human evolution ... well, these people will
experience puzzlement knowing that the Arabs (Egyptians among them) are true
Semites and yet, the company is not pulling out of Egypt. So how can this be an
expression of anti-Semitism?
To make his point, Cohen cites all the things that could be
vexing Monsieur Richard about Israel ,
and he says he agrees with him on all those things. Among them are Israel 's settlements policy, the treatment of
Palestinians in the West Bank, the strengthening of the religious parties in Israel , a
government that is too right-wing and too anti-Arab. And so he sets out to
compare these Israeli shortcomings with those of Egypt .
He begins his list of Egypt 's shortcomings – which he
calls imperfections – by citing the criticism that was leveled against that
country by the Obama administration for violating human rights. He goes on to
say that a report of the State Department mentions violence against women,
sexual harassment and female genital mutilation. There is also mention of
police brutality at a time when the Revolution was raging, and another time
when soccer hooligans rioted, causing the death of several dozen people.
From the comparison between Egypt
and Israel , Cohen concludes
that “Israel
has its flaws, but nothing compared to this.” In fact, to make clear what he
means, he states the following: “Israel has such lofty goals, such
splendid aspirations, that it is forever disappointing to some observers.” But
what is it that disappoints the observers? Well, he says, some Israeli policies
are repugnant. The Israelis also have a cabinet which includes a justice
minister that's as bad as the American Republican Party.
And then it dawns on you, the reader, that in talking about Egypt , Richard
Cohen mentioned what a third party said about it. But when it came to Israel , he
avoided mentioning the numerous reports that came out over the years, listing
such savage horrors as the shooting of young Palestinians, and the harvesting
of their internal organs to sell on the local and the world markets.
Of course, someone that is capable of such beastly activities
considers it normal behavior to go in the middle of the night and bomb women
and their babies asleep in their homes. Besides that, the list of modern Jewish
horrors is rivaled only by the list of ancient horrors – called Old Testament –
compiled in the form of tenets that make up the Jewish religion.