From the people who mused skeptically about the “real connection” between Hamas and Iran, another a pitch-perfect example of an awful anti-Israel argument trotted out in a tone of obnoxious pseudo-sophistication. Apparently, judging by the tone of the piece, you’d have to be an idiot to disagree:
Israel’s Ban Of ‘Catastrophe’ To Describe Its Birth Ridiculed. Palestinians have for decades referred to the creation of Israel in 1948 as al Nakba, the “catastrophe” since it resulted in many Palestinians losing their land and villages and the creation of millions of refugees. Now the conservative-led Israeli government has decreed a ban of the term in official, government-sanctioned textbooks provided to Israeli schoolchildren. The Israeli government’s position is that the nation of the world tend not to refer to their founding as a “catastrophe.” It’s a point is well taken.
On the other hand, American textbooks, for instance, have in modern times noted that the settling of North America by Europeans had disastrous consequences for indigenous peoples. Indeed, the previous Israeli government approved a formulation in Israeli textbooks in which the Palestinian use of nakba was acknowledged while at the same time 1948 was also called the year of Israeli independence.
The obvious distinction being that Native Americans don’t regularly use depictions of those “disastrous consequences” as justifications for genocidal campaigns meant to eradicate European descendants who live in North America. Native American Congressmen don’t hold commemorative ceremonies around those “disastrous consequences” where they advocate the end of the United States. There are no Native American “Disastrous Consequences” Days where brainwashed children march through the streets screaming for war.
And those, as the academics say, are the kinds of distinction that makes a difference. Or at least academics would say that if this wasn’t a story about Israel.
At times like this I like to remember what Nancy Pelosi says: the government really needs to step in and regulate radio. There just aren’t enough liberal voices on the airwaves (h/t: BtB).
UPDATE: MR reader DD, who has something of a reputation for efficiently evaluating numbers, catches a blatant falsehood piled on top of the obnoxious faux sophistication. Of course the number of Arab refugees who made way for incoming Arab armies was significantly below “millions.” The standard number is usually around 600,000 give/take.
The only way it reaches “millions” is if you also count the refugees’ third, fourth, and fifth generation descendants. That would make the 1948 Arabs the only population in the history of the planet who claimed their great, great, great grandchildren as “refugees.” And no, “well the UN does it” is no excuse.
References:
* Iranian Mullahs Wringing Their Hands As IDF Dismantles Hamas’s Army (Plus: NPR Wonders About “Real Connection” Between Iran And Hamas) [MR]
* Israel’s Ban Of ‘Catastrophe’ To Decribe Its Birth Ridiculed [NPR]
* Israeli-Arab Fifth Column Watch – Israeli-Arab MK Mourns Creation Of Israel [MR]
* Palestine is ours, cry children on ‘Nakba Day’ [JPost]
* CNSNews.com Speaker Pelosi Backs Senate Amendment to Regulate Talk Radio [CNS]
Previously:
* CNN Spends Evening Searching For Democrat Who Can Explain Why Anti-Palin Smears Don’t Reek Of Sexism. Fails. (Plus: Guess When "Shrill" Used To Be Sexist)
* Smug Liberal Sophistication Undisturbed By Decades Of Disastrously Wrong Domestic And International Predictions
* NPR In Denial About Sexism On the Left, Gets MR Exactly Wrong On Jeri Thompson
