Neither fake nor fiction

We happen to be living at a time when the deluge of news makes it very difficult to sort out the fake from the real facts.

Thanks to social media in particular and the general media in general matters of relevance are either ignored or inflated beyond their original intent. Some news however never changes and as Jews have been on the receiving end of wild conspiracy theories for millennia many of us have developed a sixth sense when it comes to sniffing out suspicious sounding claims and assertions.

There are several tricks employed to confuse the masses. One is to completely ignore poisonous statements of intent especially when they are against Israel. After all, if incitement against the Jewish State never makes its way into the printed media, readers will never learn what motivates Israel to act the way it does when it fights against this phenomenon. This suppression is particularly common where newspaper competition is absent. In these situations no amount of advocacy to change will ever succeed because the newspaper owners feel under no threat of advertising boycotts nor do they fear any other sort of negative consequences.

The other subterfuge is to bury non politically correct (in the eyes of the editor) news on an inside page where it will never be read. This was the method used by the New York Times for example when it buried news about the Holocaust somewhere in the middle of the paper in a spot guaranteed to be overlooked by the majority of readers.

These days the effectiveness of these ploys is greatly diminished because most have access the internet. Nevertheless it is a fact that unless you are interested in international affairs the vast amount of relevant information will pass you by.

This past week has offered up many examples of “believe it or not” news, none of it fake, which most likely escaped the attention of your local newspaper editors and TV current affairs moderators.

German and French “gestures”:

 A former German Ambassador to Iran and prospective EU chairman of a committee to evade US sanctions offered up this delectable piece of advice: “the Palestinians are victims of OUR victims – there would be no Palestinian problem if the Jewish State was founded in East Prussia. Israel is more than ever a foreign body in the (mid east) region.”  I seem to remember that not too many years ago Jews were accused of being foreign bodies in Germany and Europe so I guess this particular assertion is merely recycled and updated.

Meanwhile those serial appeasers, the French, are at it again. This time they induced the Iranian Foreign Minister to pop up unannounced at the G7 conference and tried mightily to maneuver President Trump into agreeing to go soft on Iranian sanctions. Despite not pulling this off, the French President shows no signs of wavering in his quest for thwarting US sanctions and rewarding Iranian cheating. At the same time as reports are surfacing that Iran has refused to answer questions concerning suspected nuclear activity, as revealed by documents obtained by Israel, a report has surfaced that the French President has offered $15 billion in exchange for not leaving the so called nuclear “deal.”  If this is indeed another French gesture it represents an act of appeasement rivaling Munich. At Munich another country, Czechoslovakia, was sold down the river by gutless democracies while today another country, Israel, whose declared destruction is Iran’s clearly articulated intention, is purposely being endangered by the same spineless nations.

It is a situation calling for outrage by civilized countries. Unfortunately all you will hear is deafening silence and total inaction similar to the refusal in the 1930’s to confront evil and save Jews.

International apathy

In the face of UN impotency whereby their so called observers have neither prevented the stockpiling of hundreds of thousands of rockets nor stopped Hezbollah from digging terror tunnels and targeting Israeli civilians, Israel has once again been forced to take measures to protect its northern border communities. Lebanon has for all intents and purposes become a hostage to Iranian funded and manipulated terror groups and ultimately will have to pay a heavy price for surrendering its sovereignty. In the face of Israel’s determination to thwart terror the Lebanese Government ran to the French (who else) pleading for their intervention to prevent Israel from defending itself. Note that they did not demand that Hezbollah leave south Lebanon where they have entrenched themselves and their rockets amongst the civilian population. Note also that neither the French nor the UN has demanded Hezbollah disarm and desist.

The Israeli Foreign Minister has once again demanded that Germany classify Hezbollah as a terror group. The German Foreign Minister promised to “think about it” which in diplomatic parlance really means “forget about it.”

More “peace” gestures

In case anyone thinks that our intended “partners” have transformed into heralds of peace and tolerance their latest gestures should disabuse all but the gullible of this misplaced notion. Following the decision by Honduras and Nauru to recognize Jerusalem as our Capital the PA announced that this amounted to “a crime” which would cause severe consequences.

In a similar vein the Ramallah based kleptocracy masquerading as a democratically elected State declared its intention of taking Israel to the International Criminal Court for the “crime” of building homes for Jews. In support of its stance it quoted UN Resolution 2334 co-sponsored by New Zealand. As predicted at the time this shameful resolution gives continuing legitimacy to denial of history and a stamp of approval to Israel bashers worldwide. It emboldens the most outrageous incitement as exemplified by this latest report courtesy of PMW:   http://www.palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=157&doc_id=27806

Where is that tanker?

Latest reports indicate that the Iranian tanker with its cargo of embargoed oil is now hovering off the coast of Lebanon. No doubt while the world’s attention is diverted elsewhere the intention will be to dock there and unload the oil. As Lebanon is already controlled by an Iranian financed terror group and Syria, the ultimate banned destination is also Iranian dependent it should come as no shattering surprise if at the end of the day Iran once again thumbs its nose at the international community. Time will tell.

Election fatigue

Apart from the media which of course needs to continually gain the public’s attention most Israeli voters are turned off and tuned out as politicians frantically endeavour to whip up some sort of enthusiasm.

I am polishing my crystal ball so that I might be able to discern likely developments in order to share them with interested readers. A week is an eternity in Israeli political life so we can always expect the unexpected. Meanwhile all we can do is hunker down and let the politicians exhaust themselves with increasingly hysterical antics.

Michael Kuttner is a Jewish New Zealander who for many years was actively involved with various communal organisations connected to Judaism and Israel. He now lives in Israel and is J-Wire’s correspondent in the region.