Couching his speech in what he claims is the ‘truth’ as the representative of the ‘only true democracy’ in the Middle East, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivered a defensive, hostile and unoriginal speech at UN on Friday – my initial reactions
Bibi opened and closed his speech at the UN cordially on Friday afternoon, saying the word “peace” many times and making a formal invitiation to Abbas to negotiate in NY. However, everything in between was saturated in hostility that did nothing to gain Israel favor with the whole world watching this international extravaganza.
After extending his hand in peace to Turkey, Egypt and Jordan, (probably the most effective line in the whole speech, since these are all countries in which Israel has recently lost practically all its diplomatic presence), Bibi immediately went on to defend Israel against its “villainous” image in the UN.
He attacked the UN for being a “theater of absurd” and a “place of darkness” for Israel, pointing to the 27 General Assembly condemnations of Israel and specifically enumerating the 1975 UN resolution that Zionism is racism. He said that Israel has been “singled out for condemnation more often than all countries at the UN combined.” No matter how much one may disagree with or dislike the UN’s attitude towards Israel, not the wisest move for him to make when his country is currently internationally reviled and isolated.
Proclaiming that he came to the UN to “speak truth,” Netanyahu took on the role of a Huntington-enthused political philosopher and went on to speak of the “malignancy” of our time, that which he claims has replaced the conflict between east and west: militant Islam.
As was expected, he spoke at length about “militant Islam” and said that the greatest danger facing our world is that Iran will arm itself with nuclear weapons – “The Arab spring could become Iranian winter,” he said, conveniently linking a grassroots, revolutionary phenomenon in the Arab world with the repressive and vindictive policies of Ahmadinejad.
The rest of Bibi’s speech was dedicated to justifying the settlement project. He tried to debunk the theory that territorial compromises can ever be effective by declaring that whenever Israel has pulled out it has only been met with more violence, and by using the same old line that Dennis Ross wrote an entire book about: Israel offered them everything in 2000 and they rejected it. Then the withdrawal from Lebanon and then the withdrawal from Gaza, and look what Israel got – none of this could “calm the Islamic storm, it only brought it closer.” You must have a lot of nerve to say “we don’t the West Bank to be another Gaza” after the Palestinian death toll from “Operation Cast Lead.”
He then referenced the well-known David and Goliath metaphor, where Israel is the tiny David, spanning only the distance from Battery Park to Columbia University in NYC, which can be flown across in a jet plane in only 3 minutes. Nevermind that today a Palestinian was shot and killed by this David. In short, he used a bunch of conventional, unconvincing arguments that Israeli leaders have used over and over again and that have gotten us nowhere.
While I assume Netanyahu attempted to sound strong, confident and with moral conviction, the result was a hostile and angry tone throughout the speech that seemed to be preaching to the unfortunate choir at home who actually feel Netanyahu represents them and Israel’s best interests.
And although he repeatedly declared that he “extends his hand in peace” to the Palestinian people, nothing in the content or tone of his rhetoric gave the believable feeling that he could ever actually see Israelis getting along with or respecting Palestinians. It was nothing like Abbas’s speech, which, full of determination, resolve as well as criticism of the occupation, also had a deep sense of hope and compassion to it. Abbas made a point to mention the Israeli activists who actively support Palestinian unarmed resistance to the occupation in the West Bank, thereby recognizing places in which Israelis and Palestinians are already determining positive and peaceful facts on the ground together.
Bibi, on the other hand, had an attitude of self-righteousness and stubbornness that could not seem to utter a single word of humility for the “other.” Framing his speech in the concept of “truth” only confirms how clearly he is incapable of recognizing the humanity of different narratives, or the fact that there is always more than one truth, certainly in politics, and certainly in political conflicts where he is the occupying power.
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delia ruhe
Since Israel has become one big hasbara factory, Israelis no longer know truth from propaganda. The Israeli elite drinks its own KoolAid.
Historian
Okay, so you didn’t like his speech. Fine. Could you point out where he didn’t speak the truth? You didn’t like his tone? Fine. Could you point to where he spoke of war and violence as opposed to peace and compromise? Okay, you didn’t like that he wasn’t friendly to the other nations in that room. Fine. Could you point out what he said that was incorrect about the treatment of Israel in that forum and its implications?
Automatic dislike of Netanyahu is fine, but you need to show us why he failed considering that he spoke openly and truthfully in a room that had given Mahmoud Abbas, a man who had just accused Israel of ethnic cleansing (although when it’s convenient, his PA claims that the Palestinian population is almost the same size as Israel’s Jewish population), a standing ovation.
The truth is that the UN General Assembly and its emphasis on Israel’s supposed ills and wrongs have damaged the world and permitted despots and totalitarian regimes to dominate the most important institution governing laws among states. It has made a mockery of the notion of fairness and truth (or are the Zionists on 972mag racists just because they’re Zionists?).
Now they’re about to violate 242 and Oslo. Darn it, and all because Netanyahu told them they tend to single out Israel unfairly all the time.
Elisabeth
“Could you point out where he didn’t speak the truth?”
Well for instance when he claimed that an ancient seal with the name ‘Netanyahu’ on it was proof of his own age-old connection to the land.
It is worth quoting Hussein Ibish on this story:
“What he didn’t mention is how, precisely, Netanyahu came to be his last name. His father was not born with it, nor were any other of his identifiable ancestors. His father was born Benzion Mileikowsky in Warsaw in 1910. The Prime Minister’s grandfather, Nathan Mileikowsky, was an ardent Zionist who used the name “Netanyahu” as a pen name for political writing. Sometime after moving to British mandatory Palestine, Benzion abandoned the name Mileikowsky altogether in favor of Netanyahu. It was common practice among early Zionists to dispense with European and especially Yiddish names in favor of Hebrew ones.
So, Netanyahu’s father adopted this name as a political act but it has no traceable connection to his family history which as far as can be historically determined seems to be entirely an Eastern European one. While there can be no doubting the deep attachment present day Israelis and Jews from around the world feel towards the land, I’d like to call attention to the series of diversionary gestures in this process designed to not only legitimate Israeli nationalism and Zionism, but to privilege it.
In the first stage, we are presented with the seal bearing the name Netanyahu, from 2000 years ago which confirms what no one denies: there was an ancient Hebrew culture, among many other communities, in this land. But it implicitly foregrounds and privileges that historical moment and that particular culture and community as opposed to all others that existed before, during and after that time.
In the second stage, it is pointed out that this name “Netanyahu” uncannily links some ancient official with the current prime minister. But the prime minister only bears that name because his father adopted it as a 20th-century political act based on 20th-century ideology and nationalism in what can only be described as an appropriation of the past. One could hardly posit a direct connection between a Mr. Mileikowsky of Warsaw and an ancient official called “Netanyahu” based on those two names.
Prime Minister Netanyahu may feel that he is demonstrating some profound historical evidence of the continuity between contemporary Israeli nationalism and ancient history, but in fact what he’s doing is demonstrating the extent to which an ancient history in another place and time was consciously and politically appropriated by Jewish Europeans to legitimize their political agenda of establishing a Jewish state in Palestine. To those who know his family history, this ring actually calls attention not to the authentic, natural and unbroken continuity between ancient history and contemporary Zionism but rather the usually underappreciated artificiality, or at very least consciously constructed nature, of that connection.”
Philos
@ Historian, I’ll be point a big lie. That we withdrew from Gaza to further peace. This is the most infuriating lie ever uttered by an Israeli official. We withdrew from Gaza in order to solidify our hold on the West Bank and because GW Bush put heavy pressure on Sharon to do “something.” Also the rockets from Gaza started in 2003; two years before the withdrawal.
directrob
The bigest lie without doubt is the 29 times the word peace is used. The word is used to confuse the casual listener.
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The demands before there can be peace:
- long term Israeli troops in the West Bank
- All borders fully controlled by Israel
- Airspace controlled by Israel
- Extra land for Israel to make the borders secure.
.
See:http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/netanyahus-un-speech_594122.html?page=3
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No wonder that ” After such a peace agreement is signed, Israel will not be the last country to welcome a Palestinian state as a new member of the United Nations. We will be the first.”
Piotr Berman
If Netanyahu’s family had a Polish name in 1910, then the official documents would use Cyrilic, but in Polish it would be Milejkowski. It sounds like a Polish-Lithuanian name, Lithuanian version would be Milevičius. As Warsaw was quickly growing 100 years ago, many people from “Lithuania” were moving in, so perhaps grandpa of Bibi was a Litwak.
A curse on both your houses: Israel and the PA are both sinful
[...] Bibi made it absolutely clear (somewhere in between zoological observations) that he has zero intention of making an actual agreement resulting in an actually independent, contiguous Palestine. There are no security assurances in the universe that will make the specter of Qassams fired at Ben Gurion Airport less threatening – except massive overt and covert Israeli presence on the “Palestine” side of the border, rendering any pretense of independence a sham. Bibi wants troops along the mountains, in the (still being raped, thank you) Jordan Valley, and everywhere else that will put his Jid paranoia to a semblance of rest. Merely having the ability to re-invade and stomp Palestine into the ground at will in retaliation for such an attack wouldn’t be enough. He needs to already be there. [...]
Deïr Yassin
“Okay, so you didn’t like his speech ? Fine, could you point out when he didn’t speak the truth”, write our “”"”Historian”"”".
Bibi’s hasbara debunked:
http://imeu.net/news/article0021514.shtml
Historian
Well, it’s been a few days and still nobody has been able to point out any lies. I encourage you all to read Deir Yassin’s link. Anybody who knows anything about this conflict will understand right away how ridiculous and rife with errors their claims are.
The only other comment made here that sort of challenged my request find Netanyahu guilty of lying is the comment about his name. Well, sadly, that comment itself tries to turn history upside down. In the first place, there is a group denying the Jewish historical link to this area. That group would be present-day Palestinians, at least those represented by Fatah and Hamas, which if I’m not mistaken would be all Palestinians. Second, the Jews were not one of many groups around 2000 years ago. Judea was Jewish. Galilee was Jewish. The Shefela was Jewish. It was controlled by Rome, but when you read Josephus, for example, you don’t find the Hittites, Canaanites, Philistines or Palestinians. You have Judeans. There are different sects among them but they’re all Jews. Even the early Christians are Jews. The seal under discussion, however, goes back another 700 years. Again, in that era, the Judeans were in control of Judah and the Israelites were in control of Israel. This is attested to by Babylonian and Persian inscriptions from those eras. It were the Jews who were expelled in large numbers and the first temple destroyed back then.
So putting aside the distortion of history in an attempt to minimize Jewish presence on this land, the question is whether Netanyahu lied when he said it was his last name. He didn’t. It’s his last name. So the question becomes whether he lied in the theme of his comment, which is that he is connected somehow to the person having this name 2700 years ago? Well, many Jews have last names that are found in the Torah. Based on this thesis by Ibish, they ARE connected to their historical counterparts. Yipee! I’m one of them!! Oh wait. Hold on a minute. There are other Jews today with my last name and I know I’m not related to them. Uh oh. Could it be that I’m a fake or a phony? Maybe they are! Or maybe…it’s possible that as Jews we have retained connections to our history and our past and it is these connections that link us to our heritage? And maybe, adding to that thought, it’s possible that the development of a Jewish community in the Land of Israel over the past century has reawakened that connection for reasons that are clear and obvious? And maybe, the point is that even if the link is indirect, the connection to those ancient Jews is plenty real?
Of course it is. That seal is my heritage and Netanyahu’s heritage regardless of our last names. That seal is so big and scary, that the Palestinians would like to deny its existence and meaning. What a joke.
Now again, anybody want to point out lies in Netanyahu’s speech?
Elisabeth
Read “The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology’s New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred Texts” by Israel Finkelstein and Neil Asher Silberman (and not just some excerpts on the internet). You may actually learn something. I am not going to bother with your convoluted reasoning again.
Historian
Um, I’ve read and met Israel Finkelstein. Sorry. His ideas are not accepted by most Israeli archaeologists and some of his theories took a massive hit a couple of years ago when a certain Jerusalem archaeologist found materials that undermine Finkelstein’s thesis that everything is a century earlier. Oh, and the beautiful thing about all of this is that in Israel they can have this sort of debate and Finkelstein is considered a serious scholar even as others disagree with him.
Deïr Yassin
“Historian”
Could you please give us the name of that ‘a certain Jerusalem archeeologist’ so we can judge for our selves who to trust. Still didn’t come to that 101 class: ‘providing sources is a fundamental obligation in the field of history’ ?
Historian
Why yes, Deir, I recall providing sources, page numbers and quotes for you from Walt & Mearsheimer’s version of the Protocols, and then you not only didn’t acknowledge the evidence before you, you continued to plod along as before. However, in the hope of furthering your education, I am pleased to introduce you to the work of Amihai Mazar. For the beautiful part where carbon dating destroys Finkelstein’s thesis, go right to the bottom of page 24 and forward from there. Then work your way backwards and read this paper from the beginning.
http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:qy3SwytKiK4J:www.rehov.org/Rehov/publications/The%2520Bible%2520and%2520Radiocarbon-%2520Chapter%25202.pdf+finkelstein+dates+are+wrong+9th+century+amihai+mazar&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEEShMm4haxiV2H_2DZKxRmdKGyiLDXoK_liL0gUqu7nw4AERnRx_HlHZTI1p7EbmyeR8KezX_Xm0H-EKQ1cAPIJVoB7_N5wVB5yk9hoSlB-zJM7Ca99RkBnQ_—Ep8pksQ4uL0Aq&sig=AHIEtbT50jmFkj4mzEq1zwNhWOsGSHs9Mw&pli=1