Comments on: Wishing you a Happy New Year and seeking your advice on how this site should develop in 2010

By: Tyson Flanders

Tyson Flanders — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 00:31:37 +0000

I really enjoy this blog.

By: Paul Freeman

Paul Freeman — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 23:32:07 +0000

Happy New Year, Robin.

I would certainly welcome your insights into the broader battle of ideas, if that’s the way you choose to go with your website.

Anything, in fact, that would help cut through the tangle presently strangling civilization of liberal-left self-deception with Islamist taqiyya.

By: Jonathan Karmi

Jonathan Karmi — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 19:35:09 +0000

I agree that the website is excellent and haven’t said otherwise. Robin says he supports the idea of widening the discussion as it relates to a civilisational pathology and not just unreasoned hatred of Israel, which is its most conspicuous symptom. I agree with that.

The point in my original posting was that we’re big enough and intelligent enough to freely discuss Israel-related topics in a balanced manner. And I’m not talking about the nauseating false ‘balance’ of the BBC, eg. targeting civilians equals targeting terrorists who operate amongst civilians.

By: J. Isaacs

J. Isaacs — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 16:31:13 +0000

“This blog is excellent as it is,” says Nicole. Heartily seconded.
Happy New Year Robin.

By: NicoleS

NicoleS — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 10:09:43 +0000

This blog is excellent as it is and I don’t agree with Jonathan Karmi that it will do nothing to change minds. Information from blogs does, very slowly, trickle into the mainstream. However, I think that a fundamental problem in countering anti-Israel bias is the widespread and shocking ignorance that places Israel in the wrong to start with. No less than a retired Oxford don recently told me that Israel had ‘got rid of all the Arabs’. Where he saw the newsreel footage of a mass exodus of Arabs with ringleted Jews in hot pursuit I do not know. Educated liberals are convinced that European Jews stole a country called Palestine, there to take out their grievances on its innocent inhabitants, that the West Bank is entirely occupied by born-again Jewish fanatics from Brooklyn, and that Muslims blow themselves up all over the world because of the settlements. I think Israel’s supporters are often unaware of how little history people know, and how little they want to hear about anti-semitism or Israel’s right to defend itself. Let’s hope for a change of perceptions in 2010. Keep up the good work Robin and a very happy new year.

By: Jonathan Karmi

Jonathan Karmi — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 18:12:42 +0000

Thanks Joshua. Not quite sure what your message is, but if you’re saying there’s plenty to be getting on with over here without overly worrying about Israel’s policies, then you could be right. The Guardian’s editorials and the frequent anti-semitism on CIF and other media websites are symptomatic of a widespread sick mentality in Britain. Living in this country is not an attractive long-term proposition.

By: Joshua

Joshua — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 12:13:37 +0000

A response to Jonathan Karmi:

http://www.hurryupharry.org/

http://engageonline.wordpress.com/

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree

By: Jonathan Karmi

Jonathan Karmi — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 10:58:51 +0000

Shlomo - sorry to disappoint, but this website won’t “break the spell of hysterical anti-Israel bigotry in European discourse”. Getting as many people as possible to read Robin’s excellent book is the best we can hope for and that will only have marginal effect, I’m afraid.

As for settlements, it’s true that Israel’s enemies will use any flimsy pretext for violence. Even though there are no Jewish settlements there, Hizballah points to the Shebaa Farms and Ghajar to justify their ‘resistance’. (It’s probably worth handing those areas to Unifil to let Lebanon and Syria sort out between them. Hizballah would then have zero territorial pretext and would be exposed as nothing but an Iranian proxy. Any future action by them would be seen as totally divorced from Lebanese national interests.)

I do have a problem with the West Bank settlements founded under the assumption of the Begin and Shamir governments that Israel would eventually annex the territory. The hope was that the Palestinians would somehow ‘disappear’, which was always complete cobblers. The price that Israel is paying for that idiocy is colossal. I’m no believer in a return to the 1949 Armistice lines, but settlement policy should have been based on the premise that large areas would eventually be returned to Arab sovereignty, either Jordanian or Palestinian. Now the situation is a complete mess. If this were not the case, Israel would be seen in a much more positive light.

By: Shlomo from USA

Shlomo from USA — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 22:00:28 +0000

There’s plenty of criticism of Israel today, both “legitimate” and non-legitimate. We need to keep the focus on Arab and Islamic rejectionism, which has existed since long before the wildcat settlements in Judea and Samaria and remains the core reason for the persistence of this conflict. Let’s stick to supporting Israel. We must break the spell of hysterical anti-Israel bigotry found in European discourse today. That should be the fundamental task of this website.

By: Gábor Fränkl

Gábor Fränkl — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 19:42:00 +0000

Happy New Year to you too!