The war against the Jews (9)

Rob

Interesting piece. The trial sounds like something out of "Chicago" but without the singing. Roll on May 21, though somehow I doubt the arguments will end there. I must say that from what I've seen th footage looks about as genuine as a nine-bob note, but then I wasn't in court. And a lie can run halfway round the world while the truth is still putting its trousers on: I doubt that this genie will go back into the bottle whatever the court decides.

Lucy

Yes, the loudest voices we seem to hear are those of self-hating Jews - perhaps that's just because they're given a platform. Ron Prosor, Israel's Ambassador in Britain, wrote an excellent piece in the Telegraph yesterday. Simple, clear, cool-headed prose, which accurately noted: "we need to demythologise the situation". http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2008/03/09/do0906.xml People's understanding of what goes on out there is now so distorted that when I find myself discussing it with people, I hear and awful lot of: "I didn't know this, I didn't know that". Israel needs to realise that its confidence in its cause is not automatically reflected out to the wider world. This has left a gap that Hamas and its supporters are ruthlessly exploiting. Israel must find a way to better articulate what it is facing to the wider world. It is not Israel's fault this has happened, there are many causes for the bias against it, but it must accomodate how it is perceived.

Ravi

Rob, you will know its a fake simply by looking at the the angle that the bullets ricochet off the wall when fiired from the Israeli position and soon after the (apparent) fatal shots you will see bullet holes made from a gun located behind the cameraman. The Palestinian position. It was impossible for Al Dura to have been shot by the Israelis since a concrete barrel stood in the way of any potential fatal bullets. The 'dead' Al Dura moves, even in the released video. I defy anyone to state that Al Dura was killed by the IDF and show proof. "I saw it on the film" isn't a response. I've seen teh Earth nearly destroyed many times on film!

JJS

I too find it very prolemmatical that Israel (i.e., the government of) is not saying anything about this case. And while I am invariably in agreement with Melanie's analyses, I simply do not find it credible that they do not know the effect. Or indeed of their silence. So I am doubly worried.

jose garcia

I said it before and i say it again why isnt a jewish digital channel set up in most western countries i mean if they can do shopping channels 24/7 howexpensive can it really be.......? they could even run the same channel like the BBC does, and maybe subtitle it for non english speaking nations.

Rob

Ravi - "As genuine as a nine-bob note" is a colloquial way of saying "fake".

Marzipan Man

"the Arabs" covers hundreds of millions of people worldwide, Melanie. You need to narrow the scope of your language before flinging these sort of allegations around.

David M.

Lucy, thanks for that link. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2008/03/09/do0906.xml

field

Be fair to the French it took them a long time but they did eventually find Dreyfus innocent! I've seen the footage as well. It's unbelievable - literally. The kid (probably now living with Aunty Fatima over the border in Egypt) actually raises his arm and takes a peek when teh commentator is telling us he's dead. We never see him dead.

Gary

Suppose that finally it is proved to be fake, which it is, what's next. Israel haters will just settle back and say "Well, we all know it's the sort of thing that Israel does."

George Steiner

You know fellows, you can't fight singleminded, efficient brutality with civilized behaviour on or off the battle field. Israel should adopt the Mongol method against its enemies. It is said that when the Mongols have finished with a city, you could ride your horse over it without it stumbling.

field

Incidentally while we are on the subject of the war on the Jews - what was that Scottish anti-semitic rally all about, where they tried to break up a Jewish gathering?

Bogdan Jodkowski

Don't be surprised by that (the Jews indifference), Melanie. In Australia, where I live, I have, now and then, an opportunity to meet the Australian Jews who openly (god on them for that) manifest their Jewishness. Yet, when the conversation drifts inevitably towards the matter of politics, the ME conflict and Israel's survival in particular, it seems to me that they are much less interrested in that country's well-being, its survival, and on the whole they (the Jews) show much less emotional attachment to the ME tragedy than myself (I'm Polish). Strange, isn't it?

dgf

i've only seen still pictures but i've always thought it's more than odd that it is the father, supposedly anxious about his son, who is the one sheltered in the lee of the concrete drum while the boy is exposed. at the same time, the israeli government's silence is curious and naivete doesn't seem a very adequate account for it.

Dave

Perhaps appearing in such a court case is a precedent the Israeli government doesn't want to set. They might be dragged into cases all over the world, possibly in courts where the judges are partis pris.

Lynne T

Blaming the Israeli government for its relative silence on the matter of Al-Durah is really weird. After initially accepting responsibility and apologizing, they held an inquiry and determined that the position of its troups that day at Netzarim Junction indicated that they could not have been responsible for the hail of bullets around the Al-Durahs, but the world ignored that. Similarly, the case of Rachel Corrie, an ostensible peace activist in Gaza, who died from injuries sustained while trying to prevent an IDF bulldozer from unearthing a bomb smuggling tunnel. A court of inquiry found no evidence of her injuries being the direct result of being struck by the tractor, and further, that the driver could not have seen her while reversing his tractor. That too was ignored, and Corrie continues to be beatified in performances of operas and plays such as Alan Ryckman's excrable "My Name is Rachel Corrie". No, this attempt by a French court to put the blame on Israel to speak up is as absurd as a case here in Canada of two defendents charged with beating a man savagely while trying to rob him attempting to exculpate from their crime by blaming a woman who witnessed the attack for only calling the police and not acting to remove the poor victim from the path of an on-coming car.

Graeme Ipp

The reason for Israel's inaction is a combination of two factors. Firstly, the Israelis have become used to an overly hostile foreign media, whos last interest is in the truth. Their is a "fatigue" in Israel regarding attempts to get its message across. Often, they just dont bother trying any more. The second factor is due to the mediocre (at best) Israeli Media/PR mechanism, that may well stem from the first factor.