European Parliament President Martin Schulz at the Knesset
Photo courtesy of the Knesset
Shaul Rosenfeld
Schulz's deceitful truth
Op-ed: When your 'facts' come from Ramallah and are cross-referenced with the EU's unverified information, the lies and manipulation about the 'Israeli occupation' are already inside.
Paraphrasing the famous Mark Twain quote "get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please", it can be said that in regards to the remarks made by European Parliament President Martin Schulz to the Knesset last week, when the "facts" in your hands about Israel come from a Ramallah-based Palestinian Shabab and they were cross-referenced with the EU's information about the Israeli "occupation misdeeds" – then there is no need to distort them. The manipulation, demonization, lies, half-truths, plotting – it's all there.
Even the fact that the array of leftist forces in Israel united to bash and mock Bennett and to praise and commend Schulz should not at all be a surprise. Those whose hypocrisy is their art cannot be expected much more. Just as we could not have anticipated a less Pavlovian response from the very same people when some three weeks earlier Arab Knesset Members disturbed Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper's speech, and Ahmed Tibi even left the plenum in protest. When the battle is between a leader of an Israel-friendly country, who with his great nerve stands by Israel and praises it in the Knesset, to their darling Tibi, it is clear to whom their sympathy goes and who gets their reservation and hesitation.
Different View
Ariana Melamed
Op-ed: Bayit Yehudi members called European Parliament president a liar for claiming Gaza siege is creating distress, but he didn't lie.
And still, even without accepting the principle behind "the fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge," it is expected from he who comes from the people who only 70 years ago committed the greatest crimes in the history of mankind against the very same people he speaks to above the podium of their parliament, to show a little more sensitivity, and most certainly to be more accurate and to confirm his words. Especially if his resources are a Palestinian youth, who is fed by atrocity propaganda 24/7 in the Palestinian Authority's education and media establishments, and the verification sources of those "facts" are the leftist friends who heard his accusations prior to his Knesset address, and of course did not bother to correct his errors.
And maybe it could have been expected from that very same German politician to repent his mistakes and the false accusations he scattered, not to adhere to his integrity and not to settle with an outrageous response in the newspaper Die Welt that summarized that "the (members of Bayit Yehudi) who heckled me were members of a radical party." So, every failure in that public media event in the Knesset has nothing to do with fabricated nonsense from a Palestinian finger that was "verified" by leftists, but the troublesome behavior of "members of a radical party."
And there was another detail in Schulz's remarks that was slightly pushed aside, and perhaps washed away in the many waters that Israel reserves only for its citizens and denies from its Palestinian neighbors. "Israel imposes an offensive blockade on Gaza," Schulz stated, and was obviously fed with this statement by the European discourse of the radical left in the continent, and most probably also by the "facts" that are distributed in abundance in the European Union, among others by Israeli "rights organizations." The same organizations that on their part get substantial funding for their activities from the EU and reward it with information about starvation, thirst and an offensive siege that was imposed on the Gaza Strip – and all of course for no fault of the innocent Gazans.
The very same innocent and pure-hearted Gazans, that the unjust occupation was lifted from them almost a decade ago, while 8,000 Jewish citizens were uprooted from their homes for the act, decided for some reason that their energy, skill and resources should not be directed to their well-being, developing communities and their prosperity, but to embitter the life of Israel while repeatedly committing war crimes and crimes against humanity. Yes, a widespread and systematic attack of citizens is considered a crime against humanity in the public international court.
Therefore, it is only natural that this sin of Israel – which is compelled to impose a naval blockade on Gaza so that no more arms would be brought into it and used against Israeli citizens, but at the same time provides all of their needs, including construction materials used to building terror tunnel – will be brought to justice in the magnificent tirade by Schulz: "Israel imposes an offensive blockade on Gaza." The progressive local and global forces could not have said it better.
