Gaza Genocide
Three years ago, Israelis did not have to hide their identities when they travelled overseas, but things have changed.
Last week, a mother and her daughter were seriously wounded after a man confronted them near a Koh Phangan waterfall in Thailand, criticized Israel’s actions in Gaza and then allegedly beat them. The mother suffered bleeding in her head and lost consciousness, while her daughter was injured trying to protect her.
I write these words in Switzerland having covered over the Hebrew words on my backpack with masking tape to ensure that I did not suffer a similar fate.
Nearly three years after over a thousand innocent civilians – men women, children and even babies – were murdered, raped and tortured by Hamas’s so-called “freedom fighters” and more than 250 were held hostage in appalling conditions only to be released in staged exhibitions of cruelty reminiscent of public executions, one has to ask oneself: “Where was the civilized world?”
In The Economist journalist John Andrews’ recent book entitled The World in Turmoil, he criticizes Israel’s response for being “vengeful” and a “brutal assault on the Palestinians” as though they had been innocent bystanders.
Perhaps that is hardly surprising given Israel’s seeming inability, as has happened unfortunately so often, to present its case.
Close to the Duomo cathedral in Milan the other day, I entered the Rizzoli bookstore. A shelf was lined with books condemning Israel for the Gaza war.
Not a single book presented the other side of the story.
Moving on to Zurich and looking for a book to read on my way home to Israel, I found in the airport another diatribe condemning Israel. The book, written by Omar El Akkad, winner of the National Book Award, was entitled: One Day Everyone Will Always Have Been Against This.
In its review, The Guardian describes the book as “a passionate indictment of complacent liberal responses to Israel’s brutal campaign”.
Of course, the attacks on the Jewish State are not limited to the printed word but feature in endless criticism in the social media and elsewhere.
Unfortunately, Israel does not have the resources to invest in telling its side of the story enabling it to compete with countries like Qatar, which spends collossal sums of money spreading their anti-Zionist message, but one cannot help but wonder why we fail so miserably.
Ben Gurion once showed his disdain for the views of the United Nations with the words “um shmum“. Who cares what they think?
However, Israel is perhaps beginning to understand that public opinion does matter. The government recently approved a budget that included approximately $730 million for public diplomacy or hasbara. That was nearly five times the sum allocated the previous year. It is, of course, a drop in the ocean in comparison with the budgets of Israel’s detractors.
Nevertheless, perhaps Israel is finally waking up and beginning to recognize that public opinion does count, but one cannot help but wonder whether it is too late.
