Weekly Notebook: On ‘the Jews,’ ‘price tag,’ Colbert and more

New feature: A selection of Larry Derfner’s sociopolitical outbursts on Facebook for the week ending Saturday, April 12.

Illustrative photo by Shutterstock.com
Illustrative photo by Shutterstock.com

THE GREAT COLBERT
As he moves into the mainstream of the mainstream (taking over the David Letterman show), a reminder of Stephen Colbert’s unforgettable roast of George W. Bush (and the press) at the 2006 White House Correspondents Dinner (FB status, April 12):

This is to the Bush years what Edward R. Murrow’s famous TV takedown was to the McCarthy era. In 2006 it was finally sinking in on America that Bush and his wars were a disaster, and that the press had been rolling over for it. Colbert stands up there 10 feet from Bush and just skewers him in that fake-O’Reilly character of his. “I believe that the government that governs best is the one that governs least, and by that standard we have set up a fabulous government in Iraq.”

And he also shat all over the White House correspondents. “Let’s review the rules. The president makes the decisions – he’s the decider. The press secretary announces those decisions. And you people in the press type those decisions down.” Twenty-four minutes of this, and it ends with a filmed indictment of the Iraq war. There was palpable tension in the room, and Colbert naturally got a lot of very bad reviews from the press. This is a historic document, one of the greatest works of political art ever.


 

PALESTINIANS – YA CAN’T LIVE WITH ‘EM, YA CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT ‘EM
Bibi’s dilemma: How to punish Abbas for his disobedience? (FB status, April 12):

Even Roni Daniel, Channel 2’s superhawk war correspondent, said it’s a bad idea for the government to go through with its decision to withhold the $100-million monthly revenue transfer to the Palestinian Authority. (The money belongs to the PA; it’s customs fees Israel collects from Palestinians returning to the West Bank, because Israel, like a good occupying power, doesn’t allow the Palestinians to control the border crossings into their own territory.) Daniel’s point was that the PA needs the money to pay the troops that police the West Bank cities, villages and refugee camps to keep Israel safe, and if they don’t get paid, they won’t go to work.

This is very well understood by the government and the army, which is why I don’t think Netanyahu is going to cut off more than a thin slice of those funds. Publicly he trashes Abbas and the Palestinians as the new Nazis, privately he knows they’ve been protecting Jewish lives every day for the last 10 years.


 

‘PRICE TAG’ DIFFERENTIAL
On ‘Jerusalem Post’ story headlined, “Yitzhar leaders: Stop the violence or we quit,” about the aftermath of the attack on Israeli soldiers stationed at the West Bank’s most radical settlement (FB status, April 11):

The headline isn’t entirely accurate: Yitzhar’s leaders called on “price tag” gentlemen to stop the violence against the army, but not, God forbid, against Palestinians, who are the targets in, oh, 99-plus percent of their attacks. The national outrage over the trashing of the soldiers, in contrast to the fleeting lip service, at best, given when settlers burn down mosques, beat the shit out of Palestinians, destroy their crops and generally terrorize them – with the indifference or protection of the IDF – shows you how far Israel has to go before it will consider Arabs worthy of respect.


 

BIBI’S CHOICE
In return for the Palestinians’ pledge to freeze their UN campaign for the nine months of the Kerry peace talks, Israel chose last July to release 104 convicted murderers. Instead, as a quid pro quo to the Palestinians, it could have accepted the ’67 borders with land swaps, or frozen settlement construction. That decision showed what this government’s priorities are. Now, as the peace talks collapse, we see nothing’s changed (FB status, April 11):

Israel could extend the peace talks now, and it could have avoided releasing convicted killers from prison months ago, if it would agree to freeze settlement building – to simply stop gobbling up more and more land that the rest of the world considers rightfully the Palestinians’. But Israel won’t do that. It preferred to release scores of killers rather than freeze settlements at the start of the peace talks, and it prefers to risk terrorism, BDS, “delegitimization” and the collapse of the Palestinian Authority than to freeze settlements now. And Friday’s poll in Haaretz shows Netanyahu and Likud-Beiteinu having risen in popularity. Whatever happens, this country will have nothing and nobody to blame but itself.


 

OPEN LETTER TO THE WORLD
If non-Israelis understood this, everything would be different around here (FB status, April 12):

Dear World: The most important thing you have to understand about Israel is that it is not “the Jews”; it is the opposite of the Jews. The Jews are a militarily powerless minority that, until about 60 years ago, was subject to persecution in any number of countries over the centuries. Israel, by the starkest possible contrast, is where the Jews are the majority, it is a military colossus, and it subjects its powerless Arab minority to systematic discrimination, while subjecting the Palestinians next door to out and out tyranny.

The Jews don’t do that sort of thing, never have; Israel does and has been doing it, to one degree or another, since it was founded.

And since the Jews and Israel are opposites, you shouldn’t think of them in the same way or treat them the same way, but rather the opposite way. The Jews, like every other powerless minority, are innocent of any crime and must be protected; Israel, like every other military power that tramples the weak, is guilty as hell – and you, the world, ought to finally start punishing it and protecting its victims.


 

BRED FOR THE JOB FROM BIRTH
On video of Border Police bashing up Palestinians during arrest (FB status, April 10):

The Border Police are made up overwhelmingly of Israel’s underclass – poor Mizrahim, Ethiopians, Druze, people who grew up with a lot of anger, resentment and violence around them, and who thus can be called on to scare and kick the shit out of Palestinians, a necessary function of the occupation. I’ve seen them at work in Gaza; it’s stunning, excuse the pun. Here you see them at work in East Jerusalem.

Right-leaning FB friend: Racist comment. My family in Israel is Mizrachi, and they don’t fit your racist stereotype. I’ve seen Ashkenazy Jews like you who are also angry and violent, but I would not dare stereotype them.

Me: I didn’t say Mizrahi, I said poor Mizrahi, the Mizrahim who are part of the Israeli underclass, and in those parts of Israeli society, anger, resentment and violence is high – just like it is among poor blacks and poor Latinos in America.