New Israel Fund under fresh attack

Simon Rocker is either intentionally hiding from us relevant facts, or he is unaware of them (because maybe he doesn't read Hebrew?). That second possibility refers to an article in the Hebrew newspaper Maariv on this subject. (The article can be viewed at )

In the article dated 30/1/2010, headed "Our Contributions to the materials of which the Goldstone Report is Comprised", Ben Caspit informs us that 92% of the negative quotes in the Goldstone report came from 16 Israeli organizations, most of whom are supported very substantially by the NIF.
Caspit (lists all the 16 in his article, one or two are Arab, most of the rest are Israeli extreme-left.

As is Naomi Hazan, President of the NIF. She was in the past a member of Knesset in the extreme-left and extremely anti-religious party Meretz, which was brought down to its natural size by the general electorate. Haaretz (5/2/2010) reports her reply on this matter as saying she is proud of her "activities for democracy".

Mr Reiss, I wonder if you are as indignant about the foreign funders of the West Bank Israeli colonies, like Moskowitz and the swivel-eyed Christian "Zionists".

Mr Reiss, I wonder if you are as indignant about the foreign funders of the West Bank Israeli colonies, like Moskowitz and the swivel-eyed Christian "Zionists".

In the preceding article my url pointing to the Maariv article was deleted by the Blog software. Hebrew speakers can find it by Googling (as I did) on relevant keywords.

Reiss, spell my name correctly, it's easy to copy, I can say what I want. Israel is allegedly the state for all Jews (ain't that what your Bibi is demanding of the Palestinians?), not just those who agree to its drift to the far right and messianic swivel-eyed fundamentalism.

zafarti, you're not one of them, since you became a reject. And stop sending each message twice - the first time was too much already ....

Reis, I can't help the technical glitches, and you can't help being an anti-Zionist (one who is against Israel being a Jewish democracy).

zafarti, you ran away from (or were kicked out of) Israel, I live here, and I'M the "anti-Zionist"? very funny.

Yes, reiz, you are the anti-Zionist because you want an autocratic, fascistic state, not a Jewish democracy.

zafarti: where exactly did I write such words, reject?

Herr Reiz, your whole writing depicts yourself as an anti-Zionist who wants Israel to be an autocratic, exclusionist state only for those who agree with your extreme right wing views. That means the death of the Zionist dream of a democratic Jewish state and of Zionism. You be the reject. From Zionism.

Simon Rocker quoted the following headline from HaModia:

"CIF Funding the Battle Against Chareidi Jewry"

Is this a Freudian slip, or something else about which Jonathan Hoffman can get excited? Those Guardianistas are getting everywhere ...

What this case illistrates once again is that the state of Israel does not take kindly to any criticism of its policies. Its great when the 'only democracy' in the Middle East is arguing against a Jewish group for 'seeking to foster pluralism'.

and they say freedom of speech is alive and well, seemingly not if it includes any criticism, or your organisation will swiftly be denouced and de-legitimised regardless of whether its claims are true or not

ibrows:
You have greatly over-simplified things to attain your goal of criticism; Goldstone's blatant dishonesty is "freedom of speech"?

And since when was Judaism "pluralistic" in the way you mean?

And then again, after 2,000 years amongst goyim, "criticism" is the least of our problems ...

Ben Caspit's "article" in Maariv simply published the allegations against the New Israel Fund made by the extreme right-wing settler-supporting organization Im Tirzu, itself funded by an extreme US Christian group led by a self-styled antisemitic "pastor" named Hagee. NIF funding of those NGO's that submitted material to Goldstone comprises a fraction of the money it donates to all manner of groups in Israel for social and educational projects which benefit the entire population.

Meretz is a left of centre social democratic party which advocates a live-and- let-live policy with regard to religious observance. It can hardly be deemed anti-religious if, for a very brief period in the last Knesset, Tzvia Greenfeld, herself a Haredi, was one of its MK's! And there are others like her in the party, along with conservative and reform adherents, muslims, druze and atheists- in short, a fair cross section of the pluralist society of Israel.

The hypocrisy inherent in "Hamodia" in protesting private funding of secular humanist yeshivot will surprise no- one. Orthodox Yeshivot in Israel are funded in the main from the public purse and what is taught in them is at the end of the day, not traditional yiddishkeit but 'freeloading' at the expense of the working population. In this respect, Meretz is right in the middle of the mainstream of Israeli secular opinion.