Where the heart is

Marc Goldberg’s article of March 29th struck a particular chord for me because, as regular readers already know, I too am returning home to Israel after a three and a half year absence. Like Marc, I am happily trading a higher income and standard of living in Britain for a quality of life that only Israel can provide. Of course it will be a relief to return to an environment free of antisemitism and the underlying sense of threat which Marc describes, but there’s actually more to it than that. Put simply, the freedom of not having to apologise for who you are is beyond all financial considerations.

Comment of the thread (and possibly the month) had to be this one:

harvey21

29 Mar 2010, 4:40PM

Marc

Don’t be shy mate. Just cut to the chase.

The fact is the women are simply mind blowingly hot. especially in uniform. They dont fall over pissed out of their heads on any night of the week and dont tend to tow around half a dozen kids by 5 different fathers.

Other commentators demonstrated less humour and the response to the fact that Marc Goldberg has served in the Israeli Defence Forces was predictably venomous, reminding me of some of the reactions my children encountered in British universities.

SAEED28

29 Mar 2010, 10:10AM

you served in the IDF?

Served in the occupied west bank?

If you did then you are a disgrace and a war criminal…

xxyx

29 Mar 2010, 10:25AM

Sorry if I am being thick here, but could someone explain how/why Marc served in the IDF if he is actually British? What am I missing?

Your missing the fact that it is OK for Jewish Britons to spend a few years persecuting Palestinians to get their jollies but muslim Britons are suspected of terrorism for even supporting charities that feed their victims. Which goes to prove how anti-Semitic and pro- Palestinian the UK is…

Gareth100

29 Mar 2010, 10:51AM

Presumably having previously served in the IDF, Marc fancies a bit more dressing up in military uniform with a nice big gun whilst lording it over the indigenous population. You’ll be welcomed back should you change your mind.

haikara

29 Mar 2010, 1:58PM

Anyway.

Isn’t the whole idea of moving to Israel a flaw, if you intend to move to Palestine and live on stolen land?

How about that, Mr Goldberg? Explain how good you’d feel walking around as an occupier and a complicit, and indeed a member of, the brutal IDF. You will have an arsenal of different weapon to your disposal any time of day. You will be able to, even encouraged to, bully and harass the civilians in occupied territory, either when you serve in the army or as a settler. How’s that for hostility?

Antigones

29 Mar 2010, 11:18AM

More bleating of being the “victim”?

People like myself become exasperated with Jews, who can argue from any angle of politics and society, against educated majorities which, see a picture clearly–only to be told, in any case concerning Israeli intransigence or obduracy, it is never so.

Israel is an occupying country, which uses repressive–even persecution methods daily, to achieve its ends–whilst bleating that, it is the “victim” of bad press, Arab aggression, misunderstanding and maligned or distorted history.

When you fought for the IDF, were you a British citizen or an Israeli–this goes to the crux of who you are and who you serve.

In fact this article generated so many comments, ranging from accusations of dual loyalty, ethnic cleansing, equating Zionism with racism and/or colonialism, promotion of the BDS campaign and so on that they cannot all be reproduced here, but one which particularly caught my eye was this next one.

NikosRetsos

29 Mar 2010, 2:04PM

With a big construction boom that has been going on in Israel since Ariel Sharon was Minister of Infrastructure, why not move to Israel, Marc. Free real estate property, free medical care, total social service pampering, and dirt cheap Asian maids, plus the spiritual feeling of being there. Hey, it is a Jewish paradise. And with $4.5 billion U.S. aid flowing in annually, even Jonathan Pollard, the jailed in the U.S. Jewish spy since 1987, has been getting $ 5.000 monthly from that U.S. aid deposited in a special account for him to access upon his release. Pollard has received by now $ 1.380.000 from the American taxpayers for spying against them. And that money has grown with interest by now to around $ 2.000.000. And when Pollard is released and return to Israel a day, he will be multimillionaire, and a national hero, too. Jewish patriotism is rewarded in Israel, and that is why Jews return to Israel. They get it all – free of charge!

The Russians too went to Israel with nothing more that a coat on their back, and received housing allowances, jobs, free schools for their children, and free medical care. And the Ethiopian Falashas Jews didn’t even bother to travel to Israel. Israel sent dozens of aircraft to pick them up in Ethiopia in 1984 and 1991 and brought them to Israel where they were provide everything for free – courtesy of the U.S. $ billions that have financed everything. Even the Israeli desert has been turned green with kibbutz financed with American “green.” Israel, therefore, is not like a ghetto where the plumbing doesn’t work, the unemployment lines stretch for a mile, and housing is too expensive and out of reach.

And that is what fuels anti-Semitism – in addition to the Palestinian question. And that is why Louis Farrakhan, the black leader of the Nation of Islam, called Judism once “A gutter religion.” He was angry that all those $ U.S. billions went to Israel annually, while black neighborhoods fell in disrepair. And at a recent meeting of American black leaders, they even accused their own black, Barack Obama, of not doing enough for blacks.

But there won’t be any cutback on the U.S. aid to Israel to re-allocate portion of it to blacks. That will require congressional approval, and Israel has been using part of its $ 4.5 U.S. aid to siphon a hefty chunk of it back to the U.S. Congress as “political contributions” through the American Israeli Political Action Committee (AIPAC). And that symbiosis is destined to last, because the U.S. Congress will not touch the U.S. aid to Israel that stuff fully their coffers with regurgitated by Israel $$$.

Israel, therefore, is the promised land for Jews, courtesy of the USA flood of funding everything Israeli – from free military hardware to new construction. Ponce De Leon vainly searched for “the fountain of youth” in the U.S. some 500 years ago, but Israel has found “the fountain of eternal funding” in the U.S. that keeps the flow of funds to all Jewish emigres steady and secured. There has been a lot of desperation among poor Americans during the current economic slump. But videos from Israel show Israelis scrolling happily in shopping centers by day, and dancing in public squares at dusk time! It is really the Promised Land! Nikos Retsos, retired professor

Of course anyone can sign themselves ‘retired professor’, but there were so many downright vicious lies in this post that Nikos Retsos seemed to merit further investigation. Born in Greece and a resident of Chicago Illinois, Retsos is a prolific poster on a wide variety of internet forums, almost inevitably signing his posts as ‘retired professor’, sometimes of Political Science and sometimes of History and Government. He is very much opposed to his adoptive country of 40 years’ standing’s involvement in military action abroad and has some ‘interesting’ views on the Middle East and other subjects, as seen for example here.

“But the Arabs and the Muslims have been trampled by U.S. and its ally Israel for 60 years in Middle East, and they are trampled right now in Afghanistan and Pakistan And U.S. actions in both Middle East and Central Asia speak louder that the Obama forthcoming words in Cairo about peace, democracy, and Muslim terrorism as defined by the U.S. and Israel.”

Here

“Obama’s video message to Iran was good for political consumption here at home, but the message was not worth anything to Iranians. The Jewish construction in East Jerusalem proves that Israel calls the shots in Middle East, while the Jewish lobby in Washington pulls the U.S. by the nose! Will Iran accept the U.S. offer to become second fiddle to Israel, and have Israel spit on their face -as they did to Joe Biden- for a void U.S. friendship? Not a chance!”

Here

“But the lawlessness in Somalia is the result of the U.S. foreign policy to disband any government controlled by Muslims – regardless if it is Iran, Somalia, or from taking over in Afghanistan.”

Here

“However, there is another issue about Emanuel now that transcends the Blagojevich corruption scandal. The all out Israeli assault on Gaza and the mounting casualties. And since Emmanuel is Jewish and has served as a reservist in the Israeli army in the past, how much trust the Arabs
will have on Obama’s Middle East policy with Emmanuel as Chief of Staff.

Surely, the Chief of Staff doesn’t make foreign policy, the Secretary of State does as the chief foreign policy advisor for the president. But Hillary Clinton, the incoming secretary of State, has been a New York senator with full Jewish support. And with the top of Obama’s oncoming administration squarely on Israeli side, and with Obama an avid supporter of Israel, Rohm Emmanuel’s contact with Blagojevich is a trivial matter with which Blagojevich’s lawyer Ed Genson tries to create a circus atmosphere for his client and ridicule the corruption charges.”

Here

“But we can learn something from this disproportionate tragedy, and that is: Offending and pushing people of other cultures and other faiths to the edge, is not only socially offensive and dangerous, but it can also be tragic. And I don’t have the slightest doubt in my mind that the events in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the plight of Palestinians have most Muslims on the edge. And when a Muslim psychiatrist like Hasan snaps and begin shooting, that definitely tells us that there is something terribly wrong with our policy toward Muslims. It is easy for us to call them “terrorists” and “camel jockeys,” as it is easy to see the war against them as our deliverance. And as we have cornered them, they seek their own deliverance!”

And here

“Surely, there is no love lost between Iran and Israel, and unloading all blame on Iran is not fair. There is a global consensus that the Palestinian question -and bloodshed- is the source of all hatred in the Middle East. And hearing all those verbal attacks between the two nations, I really miss the years of the late leaders Anwar Sadat and Monachem Begin.
I suggest that “Bibi” accept the two-state solution, accept Hamas as a negotiating partner, and then offer to meet Mr. Ahmadinejad in Cyprus to discuss a wider Middle East peace framework – and probably to be present at any two-state peace agreement signing. I bet Ahmadinejad will accept – if he sees a Palestinian statehood to be in the offing.
This is the only option for everlasting peace in Middle East, and the best option for avoiding more catastrophic wars. Inflated egos, hostile demagoguery, and war saber rattling can only make a bad situation worse -not better. Is anybody listening?”

So now that we are a little more familiar with Professor Retsos’ agenda, it comes as no surprise that on the pages of CiF he is peddling the lie that Jewish Israelis get free housing, medical care, social care, education, and even ‘dirt cheap Asian maids’ and air travel from Ethiopia all at the expense of the US tax payer. That Retsos’ views are somewhat unhinged and that his post amounts to nothing more than the fantasy bumbling of an obvious bigot is more than apparent. What is not clear, however, is why any CiF moderator worth his salt should allow such blatantly obvious untruths to stand unchallenged. Any bets on how long it will be before we see some other btl poster quoting the above ‘academic’ source in order to ‘prove’ a point?

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