Politics What did he say Really, And in what context?

 

Not reporting ALL the words is a lie

 

Obama said this.

Netanyahu said that.

Both are politicians and most politicians are not known for truthfulness, especially when bashing an opponent.

Netanyahu allegedly said before the elections that if he was re-elected there would be NO "two-state" solution to the Israel-PA conundrum.

This was reported - headlined - in most media - liberal and conservative.

UNFORTUNATELY, it was taken out of context.

In context, Netanyahu said that as long as things remain as they are then there can be no two-state solution. The partner, Abu Mazen and Friends - must meet certain apparently unrealistic conditions before two-state talks can resume. Abu Mazen must

1. Cease his government's official anti-Israel hate speeches
2. Stop honoring murders of Israelis - Jews and non-Jews alike; stop naming streets and sports venues after the killers
3. Remove inflammatory statements in textbooks used by PA students in all grades
4. Remove racists cartoons and other propaganda from PA television

So far, that's been too much to ask.

And that doesn't even include Hamas in Gaza over which Abu Mazen only thinks he has control. Nor does it include paying off the PA's electric bill, or even lifting the boycott on Israeli products.

Israel is not demanding that Abu Mazen give up his plan to make the PA "juden frei" (Hitler tried that if anyone recalls recent history; the popes also tried it a few centuries earlier. It didn't work for either.)

Netanyahu "clarified" his taken-out-of-context statement by stating there could be a two-state solution once the PA becomes a civilized partner in negotiations.

Netanyahu said that he expected Israeli Arabs to turn out in "droves" to vote for any party other than Likud. That, the liberal media exclaimed, is racist.

For the first time the several Arab parties in Israel were united and Israeli Arabs DID turn out in record numbers. But because the words came from Netanyahu's mouth the statement was racist.

Are tv talking heads racists when they report that voters of this or that party in the U.S. turned out ion "droves?" Hardly. Heck, in the U.S. people sometimes "swarm" to the polls; they "mass" at the polling place's doors to be first in line.

Are those words racists? Only in the minds of an easily offended liberal who knows his - or her - party cannot generate the same turnout.

Here, in the U.S., the (not "our," please) always-ready-to-condemn Israel president jumped on the out-of-context Netanyahu quote and ranted that the U.S. would have to rethink its relationship with Israel. RETHINK? Who is he kidding. Since taking office he has repeatedly shown disrespect for the country's prime minister and generally worked against the nation. (He hasn't done any good for America's image abroad, either, but that's a problem the U.S. can fix after the not-born-in-America* president is history.)

Truth be told, I am NOT a fan of Netanyahu; he certainly is NOT my choice for prime minister - or for any ministerial position save for perhaps hasberah (PR) to the English-speaking nations; he speaks well.

I think there is much that can be done to improve the Knesset and Israeli Arab participation, starting with integrating Israeli Arabs into the "Jewish" political parties - there certainly are enough political parties in Israel. (Interesting that they don't "flock"- is that racist?? - to the liberal parties.)

 

* Yes, I know a birth certificate was "discovered" two years AFTER he took office the first time. I also know that no one investigated, certainly not more than superficially, the voracity of the document, despite much skepticism.

Opuscula How NOT to learn To speak correct English

 

In three words:

Listen to tv

It's not just commercials that butcher English grammar.

Some of the worst offenses are heard on the news by the people being interviewed and by the so-called reporters and anchors.

Caveat. I am a former print "journalist" and current curmudgeon. I never went to "J-school" (journalism school). I write "journalist" in quotes since I was for many years "just" a reporter and for some years after those, an editor. To me, a "journalist" keeps a journal - electronically, a "blog." (Maybe now I AM a "journalist" and can shed the quote marks.)

IN ANY EVENT, when I was young and cigarettes were advertised on tv, there was a commercial for Winston cigarettes. The commercial had a person saying

Winston tastes good like a cigarette should

and then an English grammarian corrected

AS a cigarette should

Since then, English being a living language, like has become acceptable.

I would say that the language has gone to the birds - specifically, the Fowlers. Henry Watson and his brother Francis The brothers took a casual approach to the rules of English grammar, apparently believing if it felt good, do it. Forbidding fractured phrasing and dangling participles were not for Mrs. Fowler's boys. (I follow Harvard/University of Chicago, and the US Government Printing Office grammar rules and, in general, the AP Stylebook of c 1970.)

Today's particular rant is prompted by a supposedly educated person who sounded as if she had English as her native language but who apparently slept through grammar classes in grammar (a/k/a primary or grade) school.

Her offense: Not knowing when to use "I" vs. "me."

I managed to erase the exact words of her blunder from my mind, but the way to avoid the error - a very simple technique - needs to be shared.

If you have a sentence in which you and another are going something, say the sentence as if you were doing whatever it is alone.

Bob and I went to the store becomes I went to the store.

It's elementary, Watson.

My Spouse, who has English as her fourth language, cringes when she hears very unique - something either is unique - one of a kind - or it is not. Unique should not be modified. I'd like to write "Unique cannot be modified," but some people do it; it's wrong, but it is done.

I suppose we all are products of or times. Back in the day, reading was a preferred pastime. Reading included "great literature" and comic books - people my age will remember the Classics Illustrated comics that brought us great literature with illustrations.

The U.S. Defense Department for a time used comic books to educate the men and women in the military, which may account for some of us saying we spent time in a Mickey Mouse outfit.

Over vs. More than

One thing leads to another.

While poking around the Internet to see if "Micky Mouse" was trademarked or copyrighted, I read on a Wikipedia page He (Mickey Mouse) went on to appear in over 130 films, including . . .

Wiki contributors are not necessarily grammarians; obviously this particular writer followed the Fowlers.

Over means above; good grammar is "over the heads" of many writers. The blimp (which is not, by-the-by the same as a dirigible) floated over the stadium.

More than - which is what the contributor probably intended, means a quantity as "2 is more than (or "greater than") 1."

I never did satisfy my curiosity regarding the rodent's name status.

As long as people are able to use the excuse that "English is a living language" I can expect to continue taking blood pressure medicine.

If they will let you Answering Israel bashers

 

I READ AN ARTICLE in one of the several Israel-focused epapers I get almost daily that college campuses are a rough place if you are pro-Israel.

Israel bashing is the raison d'etre du jour (and with that I have exhausted my French vocabulary) for the Liberal Left (is that redundant?).

As an American-Israeli I have no problem with criticizing either the U.S. or Israel; I view neither through rose-colored glasses.

But I lived there (in Israel) and I know how things are . . . and to some extent I know why the things are as they are.

WHICH, I SUSPECT, IS MORE THAN THE ISRAEL BASHER CAN CLAIM.

I was thinking that if I got into a debate with an Israel basher here (or a U.S. basher anywhere outside the 50 states) I would immediately ask several questions.

Question 1: Have you ever lived in the country? Have you even been to the country for more than a couple of weeks?

I know people expect to see all of Israel (or America) on a two-week guided tour, and it's true you might see the landscape as it whizzes past a bus or train window, but you are not really getting to know the country.

The country is not just the landscape, it is the people. In Israel and in the U.S., there are people of all points of view; there are racists of all colors, religious beliefs and heritages. (If you have never seen a black racist, let me introduce you to Malcolm X.) Fortunately, both here and there, racists are only a small, albeit vocal and visible, minority.

Question 2: Since I'm pretty sure the Israel bashers never have been to Israel - even to visit the place - and if they haven't been to Israel, it's pretty certain they likewise never have been to either Gaza or the PA areas (since most access to these areas are via Israel), how do they know Israel (or America) is such a terrible, racist place?

Did they read these untruths in a book? Did they learn these things from an academic? Maybe they read or heard about the murderous Israelis (that label includes not just Jews, but Christians, Muslims, and a few Oriental religions as well) in the media - print, paper, and "social."

The people who believe the Israel bashers' stories should ask their sources Question 1. They also should, especially with the media, make an effort to determine how many times their source has been caught in a lie about life in Israel, the PA areas, and Gaza. BBC has been caught. AFP has been caught. Reuters has been caught. CNN has been caught. Pictures do lie - I'm thinking in particular of the photo of the "dead" child in Gaza, allegedly shot by Israeli soldiers as he provided a shield for this father. Turns out the photo was posed.

There is no denying civilians were killed or injured during Israel's counter-attacks in Gaza. Likewise there is no denying that Hamas fired its weapons into Israeli civilian centers from the safety of mosques, hospitals, and UN buildings.

There is no denying that Israel is blockading Gaza in an effort to prevent war materials from being brought in. (Food, fuel are allowed in Zand Gaza farm products are allowed into Israel and the PA areas.)

Quick question to ask yourself. If Israel prevents goods from entering Gaza, why can't Hamas import materials from Egypt? Egyptians - who are Muslims - cannot be called "anti-Muslim racists," can they?

TRUE STORY I was visiting kin near Haifa a couple of years ago. At the time, one of our "neighbors" was sending missiles into the highly populated area. I sat on the relative's balcony and watched them fall on the area. (Fortunately, the attackers' aim had not improved since I watched katushas fall into a wadi near Zefat (Safed) where I lived at the time.)

Knowing that there really was nothing we, as civilians, could do to thwart the incoming missiles, we decided to picnic on a local beach.

Keep in mind that missiles still are coming our way.

As we enjoyed our picnic I notices an obviously Muslim family - mother in burka, adult son(in-law) and his wife, along with the couple's children, stroll amongst the Jews. No one attacked them. No one cursed them. No one treated them as Fifth Columnists in their midst. In fact, no one even paid any more attention to the family than they did any other people strolling on the sand.

I won't write that a Jew would be putting his life in jeopardy if he wore a kippa on a Lebanonese beach or even an Egyptian of Jordanian beach - and Israel is at peace with Egypt and Jordan; it might be a shaky peace, but it IS a peace - but I'll be the first to tell you that I will not volunteer for the kippa test..

Question 3: Why are third and fourth generation "Palestinians" still in UN funded camps. They left what became Israel in 1947 and '48, either because they were afraid of the Jewish army or because they believed their brothers' instructions to "get out of the way of the glorious Arab armies that will drive the Jews into the sea."

Yes, there were atrocities committed by Jews and by Muslims in '48 and in every war since.

DBS: If you want your organization to severe all ties with Israel, fine. But be prepared to severe ALL ties with Israel.

That means to forego both medicines and medical advances from Israel. (By the way, you should know that the PA's president sends his mother to Tel Aviv for medical treatment and that PA area doctors are trained at Hadassah and other Israeli hospitals, and that Muslim patients - adults and children - from the PA areas, including Gaza, are treated in Israeli hospitals with the same level of care - and caring - as are Israeli (Jewish, Christian, Muslim, and "other") patients.

That means to turn in your dumb and smart cell phones.

It's OK to bash Israel for many things, and it's true that while some Israeli Muslims rise to the top in their fields - and are members of Knesset of non-Muslim-specific parties and commanders of military units, probably the majority of Muslims in Israel, like the majority of all Israelis - especially newcomers - have less than glorious jobs with bright futures.

ON THE OTHER HAND, drive from Tel Aviv to Afula via Hadera and you will see Israeli Arab villages on both sides of the road; villages with homes most Israeli Jews would envy. Granted, these are Israeli citizens (most of whom would refuse, if surveys are to be believed, to resettle in the PA area).

Israel is not perfect. Neither is the U.S. But if you are going to bash anyone, make certain you have real, not fabricated, information.

And don't forget the old saw about living in a glass house.