Where Is Israel-Palestine?

 

It is not on maps. It is not in ancient or modern history. Nor is it usually found even in mainstream news.  And yet, “Israel-Palestine” connected by either a hyphen or a slash is widely referenced in academic writing. There, this invented name facilitates some of the most egregious misinformation leveled against Israel.

The academic language of “Israel-Palestine” names an imaginary place: not Israel or Gaza or the Palestinian Authority but a blurring of all three. The blurring is strategic. It makes speaking of Israel as simply one of the 191 sovereign nations of the world difficult if not impossible. At the same time Gaza, which is 100% Palestinian and run by Hamas, and the Palestinian Authority, which controls the towns in Judea and Samaria (West Bank) where 98% of Palestinians live, are hyphenated with the State of Israel.

Of course, I’m not referring to the adjective “Israeli-Palestinian” that often appears before “conflict” and less often before “cooperation”!  In contrast, “Israel-Palestine” is a noun and names a place that does not exist. It’s a neologism, a made-up word, in this case designed to create and promote a negative view of Israel.

There are a number of such new words in current academic vocabulary including “pink-washing,” invented to describe Israel’s progressive LGBT policies as if they are a nefarious public relations ploy, and “intersectionality,” which assigns all individuals to victim or oppressor groups. These terms, along with others whose meaning has been distorted for the purpose of maligning Israel, are critically examined and contested by accomplished scholars in a valuable, special issue of Israel Studies published last year. The issue is entitled Word Crimes.

When Indian Prime Minister Indra Modi chose to visit Israel without also visiting the Palestinian Authority, he was said to be enacting a new policy of dehyphenization. This was undertaken to emphasize India’s strong connections to Israel but also left room for good ties with the PA.

Indeed, the recent Abraham Accords also demonstrated a dehyphenization. These peace and normalization agreements were made directly between Israel and UAE, Bahrain, Sudan, and Morocco with the powerful backing of the United States but without depending on the involvement of Palestinian leadership.

The neologism “Israel-Palestine” does not allow for such breakthroughs, or, at the very least, suggests they are impossible unless the Palestinian Authority or Hamas approves.

However, the term “Israel-Palestine” does help to slander Israel as an “apartheid” state.  Pretending, for example, that the dictatorship of Gaza is not under the full control of Hamas but rather is part of “Israel-Palestine” allows for labeling Israel as at fault for the vast differences between the freedoms enjoyed by all Israeli citizens as opposed to the restrictions Hamas imposes on Gazans. Of course, nothing could be farther from reality. Israel is a fully democratic, multi-cultural, highly diverse country. Using the term “Israel-Palestine” and confusing what areas are being discussed, academics label Israel as entirely at fault for problems experienced by Palestinians and even accuse a free country of being an example of “apartheid.”

What looks like simply a short-cut way of talking about Israel and the Palestinian areas is actually a rhetorical strategy called poisoning the well. Through the use of this fallacy, a bias is already established before any conversation begins. “Israel-Palestine” as a place name sets up a negative view of Israel from the start. If you want to engage in conversation or to respond to something you have seen written about “Israel-Palestine,” you have to first overcome this biased hurdle.

That it is a widespread academic term is easy to see with a quick search on Google Scholar which is designed to filter out non-academic references. The most recent search I did turned up over 48,700 references to “Israel-Palestine” in books and articles across a wide range of disciplines in the humanities and social sciences including criminal justice, sociology, queer studies, women’s studies, political theory, postcolonial studies, anthropology, literary theory, and many others.

The more a term or idea dominates in the scholarship of any field, the more it will form a basis for what is taught in college courses. The imaginary place called “Israel-Palestine” in academic texts can make it seem reasonable to boycott Israel or to demand all the real places “from the river to the sea.” And it also lets us know what Zionist students and faculty are up against.

                                                                                                                       published at Times of Israel

Israel's Outbreaks of Peace Leave Media Speechless

 

                                                                                                                   

Focus on conflict so dominates reporting about Israel that although Emiratis and Israelis are celebrating, and now Serbia and Kosovo have signed a “landmark agreement,” many US and UK journalists seem indifferent, even resistant, to the sea change of normalization that is taking place.

“I literally cannot find a single US news outlet that has reported on the content of the historic Serbia-Kosovo deal,” writes US Envoy for Serbia and Kosovo Richard Grenell, taking to Twitter to vent his frustration.

Grenell, who served for 10 years in the State Department and was US Ambassador to Germany, directs readers to his own article published under “Opinion” in The Hill. There he outlines some of the steps made by Kosovo and Serbia “toward economic normalization and an eventual, peaceful coexistence…Perhaps most importantly of all, Serbia has pledged to move its embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, while Kosovo has agreed to mutual recognition with Israel.”

Likewise, the monumental breakthrough that is the UAE-Israel peace and normalization agreement has received strangely muted and conflict-centered coverage.

BBC seems to emphasize what has not happened, that the Abraham Accord does not involve the Palestinian Authority. Rather than hearing about Israel’s first peace and normalization agreement in 26 years with an Arab country, “BBC audiences repeatedly heard that the Palestinians had been ‘stabbed in the back’, ‘betrayed’ and ‘sidelined’ by an agreement portrayed as ‘treason.’”

In CNN’s analysis it is “…a poor man’s facsimile for the, as yet, unachieved grand bargain between Israelis and Palestinians to quell their decades of conflict.”

The Guardian makes explicit its view of the Accord in their “Observer Opinion” criticizing “the deal” as something that will come to be seen as “a historic mistake.” There is no discussion of peace or normalization between Israel and UAE. Instead, the Guardian writers focus on their dislike of the world leaders involved. With a peace agreement to report on, the Guardian addresses conflict.

On the night of the peace deal, the US news shows, except for FOX, pretty much avoided what should have been breaking news.

In “A Great Step Forward, and Who Seems Determined to Ignore It,” Colonel Richard Kemp notes that the Accord–which he considers Nobel Prize worthy–“received a cool reception in much of the US and international media.” Describing the Accord’s significance, Kemp writes:

“This week, we witnessed a symbol of perhaps the greatest step forward in world peace for decades. The first-ever direct passenger flight from Israel to the United Arab Emirates flew down the length of Saudi Arabia’s airspace. After Egypt in 1979 and Jordan in 1994, the UAE has become the third Arab state to normalise relations with the State of Israel under the new Abraham Accord.”

Yet, the LA Times headlines their story about that first EL AL flight from Tel Aviv to Abu Dhabi: “Despite pressure from Trump, Arab nations resist normalizing ties with Israel.”

It’s hard to fathom this headline for an article ostensibly about the “normalizing ties with Israel” that are actually happening. Certainly, the LA Times knows that other countries including Bahrain, Oman, and Morocco have already expressed interest in following UAE’s lead.

The LA Times leaves out the reality that, for the first time, Israelis have been allowed to land in the UAE and that, for the first time, Saudi Arabia opened its airspace to Israel. The Times calls it, simply, “a flight from Tel Aviv to Abu Dhabi,” as if this flight route was routine.

The article asserts that “no other Arab nation has said it is willing to take the long-shunned leap to accept and recognize Israel as a legitimate Mideast neighbor, at least not until Israel resolves its conflict with the Palestinians.”

But clearly this is not the case. The Saudis historic step did take place. And the UAE seems to be leading the way for other countries that are now engaged in discussion about establishing normalization with Israel.

Neither the UAE-Israel agreement nor the decisions of Kosovo and Serbia had to do with “conflict with the Palestinians.”

This is a story of peace, not conflict.

                                                                                                               published at Times of Israel

NEIGHBORHOOD BULLY'S CHECKPOINT ATTACKS DRIVER

                              A screenshot from a cartoon published on the Facebook page of the Fatah movement

Why is so much left out of reporting about Israel at the same time that these stories spread around the world as big news?

It looks like it just happened again: a car-ramming attack. There have been over 80 such attacks in Israel in the past five years. It’s a terror method that has been copied by ISIS.

 

Associated Press wire service doesn’t discuss the frequency of these attacks on Israelis or the praise and rewards Palestinian leadership gives to attackers. Instead, reports describe Israeli border guards shooting a young man, who his relatives say, was just driving to a wedding.

 

For some reason, the stories also include mention of ongoing discussion about “annexing” Israeli towns in the West Bank.

 

So far, only the Israeli and Jewish press has reported that there is a relevant video made prior to the incident by Ahmed Erekat in which he describes “shame” at being accused of collaborating with Israel and bringing “dishonor” to his family.

 

News stories don’t mention that about a month ago there was a car ramming at this same spot. After the crash the perpetrator jumped out of his car and stabbed a soldier.  

 

CNN headlines their story: “Video Shows Palestinian Man Shot at Israeli Checkpoint.” Yet you can see in the video that there is a line of cars at a standstill when Erekat carefully pulls out far to the left side of the road and then turns the car sharply to the right speeding directly into a guard, sending her flying through the air. It sure looks like a deliberate car ramming.

 

Erekat was running toward the guards when he was shot. Though medical help arrived within minutes, he didn’t survive. The border guard, Shani Or Hama Kodesh was injured and taken to the hospital and is recovering. She said Erekat looked her in the eye and aimed for her, a detail that can be found in the Times of Israel and other Israeli news sites. But not, for instance, at Sky News that labels the event “Israeli Guard Kills Relative of Top PLO Negotiator Saeb Erakat.”    

 

Rutgers University professor Noura Erakat has been posting on Twitter that her “young cousin” is a victim of “dehumanization.” She is a well-known anti-Israel speaker who advocates for the end of the Jewish state.    Her posts are praised and supported by Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib.

 

I call it the Frame of the Neighborhood Bully.  Regardless of current actions or recorded history, the bully is always in the wrong, as Bob Dylan described in his song about Israel in 1983. If there is any conflict, the stronger party, even though vastly outnumbered is always at fault no matter the circumstances.

 

In more academic terminology, Israel is considered the oppressor in every situation. The rhetoric of victim and oppressor gets in the way of even attempting to see events here clearly.

 

Of course this does not mean that Israel is always right, either. Rather, it means there is little room for reasoned discussion of what happens in Israel.

 

The journalists I’ve quoted may or may not be promoting their own views of Israel. But they are presenting the news in a predictable format, one in which getting at all the facts is subordinate to following an expected storyline.

 

                                          published atTimes of Israel

To My US Senator Who Opposes the US Peace Plan

Dear Senator Feinstein,

I am writing in response to your recent letter to Prime Minister Netanyahu. I’m one of your constituents who voted for you in numerous elections, a Cal State professor emerita now living in Tel Aviv. My book, Framing Israel is based on analyzing public discourse about Israel.

I know you’ve visited Israel and are familiar with its geography, history, and its many negotiated and unilateral peace offers. Yet you write that you are “hopeful” for the Palestinian Authority and Israel to “come to the negotiating table to reach an agreement so that our shared goal of two states, living side-by-side in peace and prosperity, can be realized.” Certainly, you’re aware that no Palestinian leader has advocated for “living side-by-side in peace” with Israel.  

On the contrary, the Palestinian Authority continues to celebrate and fund terror attacks on Israeli civilians and the Hamas government continues to target Israelis with incendiary devices and rockets.  Even when Israel unilaterally left Gaza in 2005 hoping for “peace and prosperity” for Palestinians and Israelis, Hamas took over in a coup creating a dictatorship that spends billions on terror. Palestinian leaders have not asked for peace with Israel but for its disappearance.  

Now there is another, new proposed peace plan offered by the US. The Palestinian Authority has rejected it sight unseen. That Israel is preparing to put into practice a small part of that plan does not preclude future negotiations or agreements.

Your letter doesn’t indicate why you think that extending Israeli law to the Israeli citizens who live in Area C, the area designated by the Oslo Accords as fully under Israeli control, will negatively impact future peace talks. Nor does your letter note that the Palestinian cities (Areas A and B) will remain under Palestinian control. Calling this an “annexation” may be popular but it is also misleading, for the area in question does not belong to any country other than Israel.

You write of your “fear” for what will happen to “Israel’s national security and diplomatic relationships.” On first reading, I thought this sounded a bit threatening. But your letter begins by congratulating the Prime Minister and Defense Minister on Israel’s new unity government, the government that plans to follow through with extending sovereignty to the area in question. So, I think it’s reasonable to conclude that if Israel’s elected parliament and the majority of Israelis do not share your fears, perhaps you need not worry either.

Sincerely,

Cherryl Smith, PhD

Martinez, CA and Tel Aviv, Israel

                                                                                                               Published in Times of Israel

Coronavirus Advice for All from Geriatric Medicine

                                                      published in Times of Israel

Israel took early steps toward slowing the transmission of Covid-19 and according to a Hong Kong-based statistical study it is the safest country to be in during the pandemic. Israel’s percentage of deaths per number of people infected is one of the lowest in the world.  Nevertheless, we have had more than 80 people die in which coronavirus played a role and we have over 10,000 known cases of coronavirus so far.

Our very strict rules that allow for leaving home only to get groceries or medicine or to be outside for a short time within 100 meters of one’s home have helped to limit the spread of the virus. With the exception of essential services, most people are working from home or are not working. There’s no visiting friends or relatives even during the Pesach holiday and, starting next week, we cannot go outside without wearing a mask. Certainly no gyms or pools are open; beaches are off limits; and long hikes and bicycle rides are not an option, at least not in the urban areas where 70% of Israelis live.

Yet, according to specialists in geriatrics, exercise should not be thought of as something optional; it is not simply recreation, conditioning, and good for one’s frame of mind. It is basic hygiene. This is because moderate exercise has a positive effect on one’s immune system, which is made up of cells and antibodies that protect us from invading microorganisms. When our immune system is weak, our bodies are less able to fight off harmful pathogens such as bacteria, parasites, and viruses.

A basic principle of geriatric medicine is to help patients move and remain active to the extent that is possible for a particular individual. Patients who need time in rehabilitation hospitals are not only recovering from medical procedures and illnesses but are also recovering from prolonged periods of immobilization. Getting the patient moving is a significant part of the health plan.

Those of us who are relatively healthy may find ourselves becoming less resistant to disease if we drastically limit our physical movement. The best advice during “stay-at-home” is to let go of our usual concepts of exercise in which we need the gym, open space, a swimming pool, a team sport, or exercise equipment. When we’re stuck at home we need to keep our immune systems strong and even to make them stronger. 

This can mean daily stretching, jogging in place, walking up and down stairs, putting on music and dancing along, doing yoga, sit-ups, jumping jacks, pilates, push-ups, or walking around the house. Following any of the hundreds of exercise videos on YouTube can help. Exercise that is also utilitarian counts too: the everyday bending and stretching of house cleaning, rearranging furniture, doing home repairs, gardening, and so on. The key is movement even while we are “locked down.”

Interestingly, while there is medical evidence that moderate exercise builds up the immune system, such evidence does not exist for vitamin supplements. Of course, if one has a particular vitamin deficiency or if one’s diet lacks any of the food groups--dairy, meat, some grains, fruits, or vegetables--supplements can be necessary.

We know that the psychological toll of begin stuck at home is helped by trying to exercise to the extent one can within the limits of one’s physical condition and the space available. But more than that, it may be essential toward fending off viruses.

Medical information provided by Jerrold Schwartz, MD, former medical director of Bridgewater Center for Rehabilitation and Nursing in Binghamton, New York and currently a physician with Sharan Medical Care at Home in Bnai Brak.

Corona-19 and Anti-Israel Ideology

                                              published at TimesofIsrael

Israeli doctors and nurses, like medical professionals worldwide, are working round the clock in extremely difficult conditions. The country is almost completely locked down.

Yet those who subscribe to a relentless anti-Israel ideology find ways to use the current crisis to distort and denigrate real life in Israel and to obscure Israel’s humanitarian contributions. At its most extreme, it is an ideology in which Israel is always at fault.

The state-run news services of both Iran and Turkey simply blame Zionists for the outbreak of Corona-19.

Dozens of posts blaming Jews and Israel for the Corona virus are showing up on social media. The Anti-Defamation League has been tracking this commentary. Some twitter comments have been especially grotesque.

At California State University, Stanislaus, a political science professor claimed Israel would have “different medical treatments for Jews and non-Jews” and would “put non-Jews in prisons.” This slander outraged many people who responded that the professor clearly knows nothing about Israel, its national heath system, and the huge number of Arab-Israeli doctors and nurses. He fired back calling the responders “Zionist hoodlums” and writing, “looks like I activated the Israel lobby.”

The University of Maryland branch of Students Supporting Israel (SSI) found itself facing a campus-hosted event called “Corona and Countering the Occupation.” As the SSI noted, the “event doesn’t have any logic to it and is hijacking an international epidemic.”

Meanwhile, back in the real world, Israeli scientists are testing possible vaccines and working to develop cures. Israel sent protective equipment and hundreds of thousands of masks to China. Quarantined patients around the world have been able to ask questions of Israeli doctors who are volunteering to give their support using technology based in Tel Aviv.

An Israeli company is donating millions of doses of a drug that scientists say may halt the virus and that US health officials are fast-tracking for public use.

And in exact reversal of anti-Israel dogma, the Jewish state is working closely with the Palestinian Authority. Israel has been delivering medical gear and testing equipment to the PA and providing special joint trainings for Israeli and Palestinian medical personnel.

In spite of very recent rocket attacks on civilians in Israel, the Israelis have given hundreds of test kits to Hamas-run Gaza. In fact, a big part of Israel’s emergency measures are “focused on the Palestinians.” According to Col. Sharon Biton who heads the government activities in the West Bank:

“Our efforts against this virus stem not merely from a legal duty, but from a humanitarian and moral one, with an understanding that this pathogen does not care about national borders."

Such efforts are not forthcoming from any other Middle Eastern country.

With his decades of experience as a journalist in both Israel and the Palestinian areas, Khaled Abu Toameh assesses the situation clearly:

        

“Egypt, for its part, long ago abandoned the Palestinians by essentially sealing its border with the Gaza Strip. The Lebanese, Egyptians and most Arabs perceive the Palestinians as Israel's problem. When the current virus crisis has passed, it is to be hoped that the Palestinians will remember that one country alone came to their rescue: Israel.”

To the Brave Students Who Counter "Apartheid" Week

                                          published at Times of Israel

If you are a student concerned about the appearance on your campus of the two- or three-week “Week” devoted to factually bizarre comparisons of Israel to South African apartheid, know that the Week is aimed at silencing you. And since others will simply ignore the Week or assume it has a valid point to make, it appears that the Week is actually put on especially for you.

It is not aimed at any policy of Israel and it certainly does not advocate for a State of Palestine next to the State of Israel, any more than does its counterpart the Boycott movement. It is performance art, whose goal is delegitimizing Israel and in that process, you. 

What has happened is that Israel has been framed. The perspectives through which Israel is viewed block out the reality of life there. And you are on a front line dealing with this framing that shows up dramatically during the Week, but also exists in much of what you’ll experience on campus whenever Israel is mentioned, and in much of what you’ll find in the media. 

You don't have to know all the facts to counter the framing of Israel because the charges the Week makes are not based on facts in the first place. Of course, knowing about Israel’s historical and current situations will be useful to you, but mostly because you’ll be reassured that in spite of the cognitive dissonance you may experience at hearing warriors for social justice single out one (and only one) small, liberal nation to boycott and label as an evil entity, Israel is actually the place you think it is: beautiful and unique; intense and relaxed; full of craziness and problems; and yet, multicultural and progressive and free.

Take heart. Your concern and your visible opposition to the laughable portrayal of Israel offered by the Week makes you one of the bravest students on campus. 

For one thing, you are voicing your objections pretty much on your own, with just your group of Zionist students, in a setting where even the word Zionist has been cancelled. Professor Judea Pearl wisely explains that it is "Zionophobia" you are fighting against, “the irrational fear of a homeland for the Jewish people,” a prejudice that even some Jews may hold. 

You’re brave because there are many campus events with which some students quietly disagree; yet the anti-Israel events are those that do result in counter-response. You are standing up in the face of what you know to be slander against the Jewish state.

Since each campus is its own small ecosystem, you are likely to know best which responses to the untruths heard during the Week will suit your school. Whether you put up your own informational display, or stand silently with signs supporting Israel, or go ahead and engage in a shouting match, or post quotes from political leaders, or hand out pictures of regular life in Israel, or perform Israeli rock or rap, all those less brave than you are depending on you and thanking you.

Announcing: Framing Israel, A Personal Tour of Media and Campus Rhetoric

At long, long last the book I have been working on for many years has been finalized and published. Here’s a little excerpt a few pages into chapter 1:

For years after my first trip to Israel, I thought what I was seeing in mainstream media, and in a more abstract version on college campuses, was a lack of information. I imagined that Israelis’ stories just weren’t getting out. I wanted to explain, point by point, what news reports and campus speakers seemed to be missing. I didn’t know that the Hebrew word, hasbara, which is often translated as Israeli “public relations,” actually means “explanation” or “information” but I did think that these were most needed, that if there were better spokespersons from Israel or if the books that offer information about Israel’s history and situation were widely read, the prevalence of what I now saw as one-sided discourse would disappear…And sometimes, people do have a change of heart when they learn that there is more to a story or that they have been misinformed.

However, the impetus for this book is not the need to get out a set of facts, though factual information is important—and, in this case, readily available—but to address why even factual information often has no impact on discussion of Israel. What I have come to understand is that although, like all countries, Israel has many problems and limitations, the language and rhetoric about Israel has framed it unfairly, unlike any other country in the world.

The book is available on Amazon and from the publisher, RVP Press. And any bookstore can order it for you.   

Now maybe there will be more postings here from me!