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Anna Berg

In the end, the truth will prevail and so will we

Being a BDSer, a Jew hater and an Israel basher should automatically qualify you for a job as a writer on the National Enquirer and the like. “Woman impregnated by alien, gives birth to one-eyed triplets!” They really keep the same standard when it comes to speaking and writing the truth. Must be fun coming up with all these lies and have ignorant idiots believe it, no questions asked.

Of course, reading about alien babies and ridiculous things like Israel being an apartheid state or that we eat Palestinian children for Pesach, it is easy to shake off as stupidities for morons, but subtle lies, devious twists of words, are much more dangerous, especially when published by a somewhat respectable magazine like Time.

When there’s no war, there are other ways to discredit Israel, and boy are they being creative. Take the horrible disaster in Nepal for instance, where Israel, as always, were very quick to send very much needed help: a 260-member team (including a medical staff of 122 doctors, nurses and paramedics), and 95 tons of humanitarian and medical supplies – help that the struggling Nepalese population is eternally grateful for. In fact, Israel is doing much more than most countries, because that is who we are and what we do.

So, how could this, the field hospitals and the search-and-rescue operations, be turned against Israel you ask?

Besides the usual crack heads accusing Israel of doing this for PR purposes only, as a way of improving our blood stained reputation (yeah, we’re really that cynical and evil), Time also found a way. Of all the good things Israel is doing in Nepal, they decided to focus on this: Israel Evacuates Surrogate Babies From Nepal but Leaves the Mothers Behind. What the hell, Time?

The truth is in the details they say. So what do you do if the details are meant to deceive you? Was it a simple, honest mistake that Time called it “surrogate babies with their mothers” instead of what it really is: “surrogate mothers with (someone else’s) babies”? I don’t think so, because these “little” errors only happen when writing about Israel. It’s exactly the same as having a headline that says “Israel attacks Gaza” but fails to mention why (hundreds of rockets being fired at Israel for months). Small, insidious changes of headlines and copy, knowing that most people never even have the energy to read the entire article or investigate the story by themselves.

There’s nothing new about using surrogate mothers, and Israelis are definitely not the only ones doing it. There’s nothing strange about a country saving their own citizens (including babies) when there’s been a disaster like the one in Nepal. So why is it such a big deal when Israel does it? Think what you want about using surrogates, but understand what it really is before passing judgement. These women are not genetically linked to these babies, and after the birth the contract is over – they are not being paid to stick around as nannies. Of course you should feel sorry for everyone suffering from this disaster, but where do you draw the line? If Israel needs to bring the surrogate mothers to Israel, maybe they should also bring their parents, their own children and their siblings. Who says they even want to? What other country would you ask this of? And more importantly, why the hell is this even a newsworthy story?

Reading the comments to this article is both sickening and comical. Sickening because people are so happy to have found more “proof” that Israel is the devil himself. Comical because it shows how unintelligent some of the people are.

One wrote: “Of course they abandon them, Israel also kicks Christians out, just for being Christian.” Like hello, have you read the news lately? Israel is the only country in the Middle East where Christians are safe! And the fact that the quote “How can it be that none of the human interest stories or compassion-filled posts mentioned these women, who came from a difficult socioeconomic background … to rent their wombs … who now, like the babies they’ve just had, are also stuck in the disaster zone?” is written by a Jewish author, Alon-Lee Green, in an Israeli newspaper (Haaretz) seems lost on most. I guess it’s not interesting that Israel is a democracy with free press and freedom of speech. If we were such awful people, would we even discuss this matter amongst ourselves? Or how about this one: “ZIONISTS are the new Nazis…” Lovely, huh?

I should be used to it by now. The way the media always portrays Israel in a negative way is the standard. In fact, when they are writing something positive and unbiased for a change, I always wonder if some intern accidentally wrote it and it slipped through by mistake. The twists and turns of the truth, the propaganda, the outright lies – and the ignorant people who gladly join in the hate choir singing what a horrible country Israel is (not to mention the awful JEWS living there) – are an every day occurrence and has been for years. But still. An awful disaster with so many dead and wounded, and all you can focus on are surrogate mothers?

Excuse my French, but really: Screw ’em! Talk to the hand ’cause the ears aren’t listening! Enough is enough!

We should ignore them. The only thing that matters are the people we help. We are making their lives better. They will remember. The child that’s miraculously saved from the rubble will remember. The woman that receives baby food for her children will remember. And the man that receives medical treatment, hot food and a warm bed will as well. They will know the truth and so will we. We will not stoop to our antagonists level. We will continue doing good work and helping people in need, even the ones that deserve it the least, like Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh’s grand-daughter, daughter and mother-in-law, who were all treated at Israeli hospitals. It’s good karma for us, and bad karma for the haters and the ones spreading vicious lies.

So, go on and hate. Let it eat you up from the inside. We will not spend any more time trying to convince you we are good, because you will never change, no matter how many facts you are presented with.

In the end, the truth will prevail and so will we.

About the Author
Born and raised in Sweden. Studied in the States. Now living in Israel.