So goes the “mentality” of the left.
According to Israel National News/Arutz 71, several 20-somethings on their way to Israel on a Birthright trip, decided while awaiting to start their highly subsidized two-week trip that Israel was not a suitable place to visit.
Birthright usually is reserved to young people who never have been to Israel; whose only connection to Israel has been second or third hand.
The online media reported that:
Far-left anti-Israel activists from the IfNotNow organization attempted to recruit Birthright participants departing from New York’s Kennedy Airport.
"They set up a table with a sign and snacks and when the groups arrived they turned to them as they waited in line," said one of the group members, Miss Ariel Tidhar. "They told them they had to learn the truth about the State, and claimed that Birthright was working against Jewish morality." Operatives demanded "to stop American-Jewish support for the occupation."
On Thursday, it appeared that the group’s efforts to recruit Birthright participants had paid off.
The group blasted Israel’s use of force to defend its border with Gaza from terrorists and rioters attempting to breach the security fence, and condemned Israel’s presence in Judea and Samaria as an unjust “occupation”.
Had the departing young women really wanted to know about life in Israel, with perhaps a tour to farms near the Gaza fence, they would have boarded the flight and seen for themselves.
One of the five posted a Facebook comment that “Birthright wouldn’t show us the occupation so we are going to see it for ourselves.” Really?
In April2, members of IfNotNow were arrested in Los Angeles after they entered a Jewish Federation office and began reciting the traditional Jewish “Kaddish” prayer to mourn the deaths of Arab rioters killed while attempting to infiltrate into Israel from the Gaza Strip.
It would be interesting to know if any of the know nothings ever had been to Israel or Gaza or the PA territories. My guess would be the answer is “not one.”
If you won’t LOOK at the reality on the ground, then how can you know – let alone understand – what IS the reality on the ground?.
If all your information is from one source and, at the same time, you refuse to hear/read information from an alternate source, not only are you depriving yourself of a balanced education, you are guaranteeing your ignorance.
By all means, waylay Birthrighters at the airport and try to prevent them from seeing for themselves. Maybe the Birthrighters will return to spread the anti-Israel message, but most come back having had a reality check during their brief stay in Israel.
Truth in blogging My daughter went to Israel with Birthright. She later made aliyah (moved to Israel) and makes her home in Israel with her husband and children.
She KNOWS the reality of life in Israel. She KNOWS, as do her parents, what is it like to hear the sirens and to see the rockets. She KNOWS, as do her parents, what it’s like to sit at a restaurant and wonder if the place will be the target of a suicide murderer.
THIS is the reality of Israel.
The reason for the fences is to reduce the threat to Israelis (Jews and non-Jews) and visitors – including Birthrighters. The reason Israel won’t open its border with Gaza and PA-land is because the people in these areas have sworn to wipe Israel off the map. (By the way, Egypt ALSO closed its border with Gaza -- yet the leftists don't seem to complain about THAT.)
THAT is the reality of Israel.
Why bother to go and see for yourself when there are leftists – often ignorant Jews – who will fill your head with whatever they were taught to believe.
Truth? Their “truth” is the only truth, even if it barely is a half truth.
Sources
1. http://tinyurl.com/ycs7qvfs
2. http://tinyurl.com/y9vh7d8u
PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.
Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.
