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Debating with the mentally unhinged on Israel

Tom Winnifrith
Sunday 20 October 2013

I should not have risen to the bait and commented on the video which tried to smear the entire Israeli state and people as racist. I was goaded into it on twitter and responded with a detailed critique showing why and how the video was at best crap journalism and at worst crude propaganda.

The argument I outlined is full and detailed and can be found here.

What happened then? I have now received a stream of abuse and hostile comments on twitter. Not one of the folks care to answer questions about why Israel HAS to observe higher standards than the EU on illegal immigrants if it is not to be racist. Not one cares to comment on the Falashas. Not one cares to comment on the Israeli Supreme Court banning camps which are deemed kosher across the EU and in Australia. No one. There is not one answer on those matters.

Instead there are comments of two types.

There is abuse. One Russian Jew hater says I should compare the actions of the Israelis to Sudanese people with those of the Nazis to the Jews.  Anyone who makes that sort of comment is patently a Jew hating bigot beneath contempt. 

Others choose not to discuss the FACTS as outlined in full but just hit back with other questions.  Surely Israel is racist because it does not:

a) end the embargo on Gaza?  Israel is blocking Hamas bringing in weapons that is true. But it sends in 155,000 tonnes of aid each month itself. It will end the embargo on Gaza controlling its own imports when Hamas stops trying to import bombs and rockets so that it can kill pesky Jews

b) Return Golan. What the fuck has this got to do with racism? But at a practical level, Golan was captured in a war Israel did not start and is a strategic barrier. The only folks now living on Golan are a few Jews. So why should Israel hand it back to Syria and which side in Syria? The one that uses chemical weapons or the Islamofascist rebels who want to kill all the Jews?

etc, etc, etc. It just goes on.

There is no debate to be had with such people. In my article earlier I admitted some Israelis are racist but showed the mammoth flaws in the propaganda video by using HARD FACTS. 

So the only way the unhinged can respond is to ignore those facts and hurl fresh questions at me.

As such I really am not going to waste my time on a twitter debate with folks whose prejudices are so strong they cannot handle the truth. 

You have the facts fellows.  I am sure that on most issues you are reasonable guys but your response today shows that on the matter of the one liberal democracy in the Middle East one you are simply unhinged.

Shalom.

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About Tom Winnifrith
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Tom Winnifrith is the editor of TomWinnifrith.com. When he is not harvesting olives in Greece, he is (planning to) raise goats in Wales.
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