Opinion
Insulting our Arab friends
Ziv Lenchner
Published: 19.12.10, 11:20
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1. Must admit, you have a point...
Moshe R ,   Ariel, Israel   (12.19.10)
There is no denying it! Someone didn't care enough about their attendence to make sure that they would arrive. Painful but true... It appears that we have plenty to be untrustful to the palestians for, but we're not that great in trust-building measures, and I think it would be silly to believe that the palestinians are incorrigable and doomed to forever be our enemies... Anyone who believes in that believes in it because of racism and because they have a vested interest in believing it.
2. Indeed, disgraceful. However...
Tahl ,   Ashdod   (12.19.10)
I am yet to see any official display of gratitude from the Palestinians, on the numerous occasions we help them out - by admitting them free of charge into our hospitals, by arranging monetary transfers into the PA, by supplying them electricity and water, by helping them on environmental issues, by arranging jobs for them in the Erez crossing, by giving them our greenhouses (which they quickly razed), and so many more cases. So yes, their help in extinguishing the Carmel blaze was very important, and it is indeed disgraceful that we could not arrange for them to attend the ceremony in their honor. But before giving ourselves such a scathing guilt trip, let's examine both sides equally.
3. Let's not mention the arson either.
Terry ,   Eilat - Israel   (12.19.10)
We wouldn't want to cause offense to our ''friends'' ...... A large segment of Arab public opinion was livid, enraged, that the PA would offer any assistance. Most comments on Arab blogs thanked Allah & prayed that Israel would burn. They praised the many arsonists as well & called for more arson. Aside from our frequent bureaucratic screw-ups, there are very good reasons why we have such tight security, although sadly, it is never tight enough. Given the prevailing attitudes towards us, the constant incitement & anti-Semitism, the support for terrorist murderers, the calls for our destruction, the campaign to delegitimize our very existence here, from the Arabs, I think such a minor incident on our part might be passed over, but, of course, the ''blame Israel first'' crowd is always eager to blow things out of proportion & create another opportunity for some gratuitous Israel-bashing. I'm not sure if this is just ill-intentioned malignancy or just some kind of mental abberation.
4. Should have either delayed the ceremony
Danny   (12.19.10)
or had it again.
5. If Ynet wouldn't coverup Arab arson while Carmel fire raged
Sheva   (12.19.10)
and you'd search the truth before disgracing the government. Israel's police, fire brigades and press intentionally hushed up an Arab arson offensive that took place while fires raged on the Carmel last week, a reporter for Ma'ariv Hebrew daily claimes. According to Kalman Libeskind, sources in the Police and within the Fire Commission said - in briefings that were not for attribution - that they decided not to spread the information about the arson "so as not to wake into action more potential terrorists." The press became "willing accompices" in this hush-up effort. Libeskind lists the locations of about 25 arson attacks that the fire brigades fought in the course of last week: In Kiryat Shemona In southern Golan Twice near Tzfat (Safed) Several times in a grove that separates Abu Ghosh and Kiryat Anavim near Jerusalem Twice in a grove near Tzur Hadassah At the Sansan Ridge near Moshav Mata Twice in the forest next to Kaukab Once in the grove near Tzur Shalom In the area next to Mitzpeh Adi In a lot near Ma'alot Near Kiryat Tiv'on Between Yokne'am and Bat Shlomo Near HaMovil Junction Near Moshav Hoshaya In Nazareth Three times in Iloot Forest Once in Jerusalem Forest Twice in the Forest of Peace in southern Jerusalem. No less than eighteen acts of arson were recorded last month in the Forest of Peace, Libeskind notes. "This is a true Intifadah [uprising - ed.] that had to be the top headline of any news report," Libeskind wrote. "The media consumers need to know that the story they have been getting is not the true one. The reason is that the Israeli press treats the Arabs of Israel as if they were spoiled children. They can inflict pain, hurl rocks and torch property, but no matter what, journalistic press rooms will still act as if insulting the Arabs is not PC." A7
6. doesn't matter ,Sir
Salma ,   Palestine   (12.19.10)
We did it not for Ben-Ari's eyes ( as he thought! ), but for lovely Carmel's eyes and for us this is a real honor.
7. Insulting Our Arab Friends
Natalie Irene Wood ,   Karmiel   (12.19.10)
Despite the competition, we Israelim are most often our own worst enemies. The Palestinian firemen risked their lives for us as did President Abbas in a moral and no doubt physical sense. Preventing the Palestinians from attending the award ceremony on a bogus technicality was not only disgraceful but a missed opportunity for detente at personal level. How bloody stupidly pigheaded can you get?
8. In line with halacha
Ariel Ben Yochanan ,   Kfar Tapuah, Efraim,   (12.19.10)
B"H This is in line with halacha, Jewish Law. We don't suppose to praise them.
9. Very Strong
Mohammad Sbeih ,   Jerusalem   (12.19.10)
Thank you Mr. Ziv Lenchner ,your words hit the goals ,I wish many Israeli people think like you and not like Michal Ben-Ari whom I think and an alien from another planit. Thank you very very much agian Mr. Ziv Lenchner .
10. How did the Carmel file disgrace us?
rebecca ,   Modiin   (12.19.10)
The author starts on the wrong foot. There is no Disgrace in a huge fire. There is no disgrace in asking for help from those we regularly help with their disasters. Further more he forgets to add that Israel requested a list of the firefighters from the PA, so that all would be ready. The PA did not oblige. Did he think for one moment that some of these PA firefighters might be scared to acknowledge they helped Israel? Maybe they did not want to be honored...
11. Not true
Ricardo Macher ,   Karnei Shomron IL   (12.19.10)
Arab fighters never risked their lives, they just covered positions so Israeli firefighters could join the fight, so the basic point is false. This request was orchestrated by MK Tibi in purpose trying to harm Israel! We need to stop thinking like people outside Israel who don't know the truth. Shame on writers that try to look politically correct!
12. the firemen can blame their own people
zionist forever   (12.19.10)
If the palestinian firemen want to place blame for not being allowed to come to the ceremony then look to Abbas, Hamas & the rest of the terrorists. If it wasn't for all of them then there wouldn't be such strict security measures and mistakes like this probably wouldn't have happened. At least though the countries that are either allies or countries we wish to grow stronger ties with came. Even if the palestinians had come they would have still gone home hating us so nothing gained nothing lost either way.
13. when Gilad Salit comes home !!
matilda ,   Israel   (12.19.10)
you don't hear words like these from Israelie poloticians ..... shame they have been used in an attempt to cover up another Israelie fo pah..If you really mean these words maybe you n your friends will turn up at next Sundays usual demonstration outside the Kennest (you won't have yo go far)?? GB the Shalit family and may Gilad be home soon
14. What the definition of
Arab ,   Arab   (12.19.10)
Friendship based on ours 1- you don't have an Arab friend 2- you don't have a friend wake up
15. oh please give it a break
Golan ,   Modiin   (12.19.10)
inviting them insulted them, not inviting them insulted them, giving them an award insulted them, not giving them an award insulted them. smiling insulted them, not smiling insulted them... I have family like that. I stopped visiting them because they were insulted that I came, now they are insulted that I won't come. Its called drama queens.
16. SHAME ON YOU ISRAEL !
Gregg ,   Haifa, IL   (12.19.10)
17. Shame
Abu Yussef al Yahudi ,   Bue.Aires_Argentina   (12.19.10)
Most of the posts here from Israeli people contains deep hatred to the Palis. In my humble opinion, this fact doesn´t aid in the pursue of peace between the Jews and their Arabs neighbors. As a Jew living in the Galuth, and viewing impartially the facts from the other side of the world, my feeling regarding the facts written above, is of deep shame. AM ISRAEL CHAI
18. pal firefighters earned honor
moron ,   galut   (12.19.10)
the event should simply have been postponed for a week due to red tape--not unknown in israel
19. And the coverup of the arsons by Arabs???
m   (12.19.10)
20. To the Palestinians who were insulted . . .
noa ,   israel   (12.19.10)
Please accept a heartfelt thanks from one Israeli citizen. Please don't let our bureaucracy insult you. It is infamous for insulting it's own citizens. Also please accept our sincerest apologies. We really are grateful.
21. Um, Did he notice our Arab "friends" insult us all the time?
Brian Cohen ,   Judean Peoples Front   (12.19.10)
The Arabs, especially those in the west bank and Gaza, are experts at insulting Israel constantly and with great vitriol (nastiness) on a regular basis. I guess Lenchner doesn't care about the Palestinians saying the Jews don't have a "homeland", and that the holiest site in Judiasm - the ancient temple - doesn't exist, or that any civilians they murder are "legitimate targets", and how we poison their kids bubble gum, massacre them by the millions, etc etc etc ad nauseam. When a building collapsed in Ramallah several years ago, Israeli firefighters and the IDF responded to help in the rescue effort. Did the Palestinians hold a thank you ceremony? No. As Lenchner would have it, despite the efforts of Israelis who put their lives on the line, we are all still zionist imperialist occupiers who have to be sent back to Poland and Germany, abandon our holy sites (which they claim don't exist), and leave our homeland. Arabs have been insulting us for the past 100 years, and continue to do so today. That doesn't seem to bother Lenchner one bit.
22. Re #17: I did not hate the Palis untill I learned today...
E.   (12.19.10)
It was reported: 'The PA president said that the Palestinians need to "think of something that will put Israel in a corner.'" Now A7 reports the PA are burying bodies in area C in order to create facts on the ground, and prevent the Israeli settlements from expanding, and Israel from annexing area C. It is disgusting that the Palis would desecrate human bodies like this, but adapting the Rabbinic ruling that bodies in the Jewish cemetery in Gaza could be reinterred, although this is unsavory, we might have to reinter Arab bodies in area C while retaining our full respect for them and bury them inward and away from Israel's current demographic "borders." This arguably is consonant with the Shulchan Aruch ruling that we must attack enemies [in this case dead enemies] who attack Israel's border towns, even to steal a piece of chaff. Jews are not obligated to hate their enemies. Until today, I did not hate the Palestinians. I did not realize such evil still existed in this world. Please tell us our Talkbacker Salma that human beings are made in the image of G-d and that you repudiate the conduct by the Palestinian Authority unequivocally and you respect any action Israel must do now to give them a respectful re-burial, conscious that you speak only for yourself and do not have any position of authority in the Palestinian Authority.
23. shameful indeed
yael ,   israel   (12.19.10)
i was so ashamed and i just cant figure out the logic.
24. Not at all
Wael ,   Gaza,Palestine   (12.19.10)
I am a Palestinian who live in Gaza , Althought you will think that I feeled insulted by what happened , I am not . I excepted such things to happen when people like the ones who said "the Palestinian firefighters were a cover up !" The Palestinian firefighters were doing there duty which is saving lives , that lives is not obligated to be Palestinian ones only because all lives are LIVES , I hope people in both sides of the Wall start realizing this fact . We will do it again any time without any hesitation ,and we always will expect the good people from everywhere to do the same with us. Salam Shalom Peace
25. Some birocratic fail. Not the first, not the last.
Omri ,   Israel   (12.19.10)
26. We are dumb and mean
Yossef   (12.19.10)
We must organize another special ceremony for these palestinian firefighters. It is a question of honor (Independently of what think the palestinians). And the question of Gilad Shalit is absolutely not linked. I have no words for that, it is so low...
27. #24..Palestinians threw 'PEARLS BEFORE SWINE!
Edithann ,   USA   (12.20.10)
Right on the money ...you said it all..and still they never learn... But always keep in mind, they will never help anyone...and yes, it was no surprise... . TATA
28. This has turned into a crusade against Israel.
E.   (12.20.10)
I am sorry I posted in #22 to be associated with the other Talkbacks. We are at war. If the fire-fighters went beyond the call of duty, help them leave the morally corrosive environment of the PA by facilitating their emigration to a Western country.
29. firemen did not kidnap gilad
roxanne ,   HAIFA, ISRAEL   (12.20.10)
making equations of everything is stupid.
30. Risked their lives?
Shai ,   IL   (12.20.10)
Where'd they fight the fire? I heard they simply stood in for firefighters that would ordinarily have been available to fight fires within Arab cities within Israel, FAR away from the Carmel fire. Spelling it out, they didn't come to fight the Carmel fire and risk their lives, they came as ambassadors to Israel's Arab cities. I haven't been able to confirm this story - but it's one that I read on the internet from a news source not less reliable than Ynet. I think it'd change the whole tone of these commentaries if the story's true.
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