Posted on 02/24/2003 4:26:59 PM PST by SJackson
I’ve got a plan… and they aren’t going to like it.
Some people don’t like SUVs; others don’t like small cars. My father remembers a horrible car we owned when I was 8 years old and to this day, he reminds us how awful that car was. I’m not really an expert on cars, and often have trouble telling the difference between manufacturers and models, but there are two kinds of cars that I can’t stand, and I see them too often in Israel.
Generally, I’m a careful driver, but when I see these cars, I have an urge to cut in front of them or maneuver my car next to them and shake my hand in anger, give them a dirty look - do anything to convey my disgust.
The first type of car that upsets me comes in all shades and many models. The manufacturers vary and the locations change. But the large black letters that say “UN” infuriate me. Many of these cars belong to UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency. They are here to monitor the refugee situation, yet in the past two years, UNRWA has introduced 58 new textbooks, which ignore the State of Israel, rule out peace agreements, and actually glorify the hatred of Israel and Israelis.
In July, 2002, Nidal Nazal, an UNRWA ambulance driver, was arrested and admitted that his ambulance was used to ferry ammunition between terror cells. At least 57 Israelis have been murdered in the last few years by suicide bombers that came out of UN-sponsored refugee camps. When I see the “UN” on the car, I think of the hypocrisy of the organization that has put these people here.
The second kind of car infuriates me even more because their very existence is a contradiction to what the people who drive them claim they want to accomplish. Today, for the first time, I had the opportunity to address the occupants of such a vehicle and I asked politely if I might ask them a question. One of the men smiled and said, “Only one?”
I smiled back… and then asked, “Doesn’t it seem a little hypocritical for you to put the large “TV” on your car so that you don’t get stoned?”
He walked away without answering, while the second person looked curiously to the Heavens as if some divine intervention was about to occur. The third journalist looked at me and said, “Well, if you want to travel safely in the territories…”
And so I responded, “First of all, I travel safely in the territories all the time. I live there. Secondly, don’t you think it’s just wrong to say, ‘Hey, I’m the press so treat me differently than you would someone else. Don’t stone me, stone them?’”
In a last ditch effort to mollify me, the man offered this piece of advice before he too went off to join his friends, “Nothing is stopping you from putting ‘TV’ on your car.”
In a recent article, Channel Two’s Arab Affairs reporter, Yoram Binur, bemoaned the dangers faced by journalists attempting to report on Palestinian affairs. As quoted in Kol HaZman, Binur said, “The fact that Israeli journalists, along with academic researchers dealing with the Palestinian issue, are being threatened is very frightening…. it is a very serious situation that must not be tolerated…. They have shown us more than once just what they are capable of.”
Well, clearly, Binur is worried about the safety of the journalists, but shouldn’t violence be denounced regardless of who the intended target might be? Where is Binur’s outcry each time Palestinians attack Israeli cars that aren’t so carefully marked with the scarlet letters of cowardice?
Just as doctors are expected to hold themselves to a high standard of service, shouldn’t journalists also hold themselves to the highest standards in their quest for the truth? If these people want to monitor what it is really like to live in Israel during these days of random terror, I challenge them to travel among us bravely. Stop hiding behind the TV letters. Drive randomly on the road. You might be ambushed. You might be shot. You might be stoned or your car may drive over an explosive device. But it will be the truest form of journalism, because you might actually see, from the victim’s point of view, what it is like to experience indiscriminate terror when you are not hidden behind the protective shields of the “TV” marking.
As I drove back into the seemingly dangerous territories, to a city that has known no terror, has almost no crime and offers majestic mountain views that leave me in awe, I thought back to the words of the journalist, “Nothing is stopping you from putting ‘TV’ on your car.”
Part of me wanted to tell the TV man that I am not a coward and that I don´t believe in pointing to others and saying, "Don´t stone me, stone them." Another part of me thought of what an incredible irony it would be if tomorrow morning, every Israeli took some black tape and put the letters "TV" on their cars. Or, for that matter, perhaps we could divide ourselves up and let half the nation put "TV" on their cars and the other half put "UN."
So, that’s my plan. I call on all Israelis to cover their cars with the letters TV or UN. Put it on the windows and on the side doors. I doubt it will stop the Palestinians from stoning and shooting at our cars, but perhaps it will give the journalists a true glimpse of what it means to drive into the unknown, to be truly indistinguishable and therefore as much a target as the rest of us.
In 1963, John F. Kennedy Jr. traveled to Berlin to stand with the people of Germany against the Berlin Wall. He turned to the people of Germany and said, "All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin, and, therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words Ich bin ein Berliner." I am a Berliner, he said. What you suffer, I suffer. I stand among you, as one of you.
In 2003, the people of the United Nations and the media turn to the Palestinians and say, "Don´t stone me, stone them."
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Paula R. Stern is the Founder and Documentation Manager of WritePoint, a technical writing company.
Yes it is.
Thanks for the ping.
The hypocrisy of these people is beyond belief, but as long as they belong to the same political affiliation, violence is just fine… as long as it is applied to others of course.
........and to think that we haven't liberated Iraq yet, either.
Personally, I think that what we find is going to make people seriously rethink the UN, as well as our 'good friends' the Germans and particularly the French.
France's hands are filthy, and they are hiding something.
This is an egomaniacal little country who would support anybody if they felt it might be a thorn in the side of the United States....and that would include Saddam Hussein. Satan as well, I'm sure...........
...........well, we're going to find out shortly it appears.
They are hiding something. Things that are going to make Americans extremely angry.
The United Nations has been given another chance to prove its irrelevance, and they are coming through in that respect far more than you could ever hope for.
The leftists of the world will protest, let them....it plays right into our hands. Let the leftists of America be as vicious as they can be, I have the utmost faith in their ability to do that. It will be a good thing in the end.
When we go in, we are going to find the things we know are there.
We'll put on display the things that our M-16 bearing arms inspectors find; it will be more than Blix and company ever will.
Then we can point out for all to see what an impotent, dangerous group the UN is. They simply couldn't bring themselves to take down a threat that we will prove in spades Saddam Hussein to be. We will probably find that the UN has aided and abetted him in many cases. What do we need the UN for?.............you'll have a ready answer. We need to disassociate ourselves from them, and here is why. The pro-UN types are going to have their work cut out for them.
Weasel-like countries such as France and Germany being the powerbrokers in Europe? No, Mr Blair and our English friends will be vindicated. As well as the rest of the New Europe.
The left wing in America, the liberal press, the Democrats? Oh that's right, they were the guys who almost brought disaster upon us.
Just watch and see what happens, madfly.
I used to think it was a matter of "convincing" people who held "differing opinions" and were perhaps only "misinformed".
In the past year and a half I have come to realize that most of them have made a deliberate choice to live in error, and that the alternate reality they have consciously decided to adopt (or to consciously promote, as in the case of some sinister and cynical world "leaders") is more important to them than their lives. So how much less will they care about MY life?
The world has decided that WE are the problem, and about half of this country agrees with them. It's not looking good, people.
Yes, there are some who will not be, but I am not concerned about them.
The left is 'governed' by a cabal of propagandists whose favorite tool is to tell lies and distort the truth.
They know that in order to perpetuate their agenda, they need to control outlets of information. They campaign against those who they cannot control. Lately it's the radio networks. All we hear now is how radio is biased against the left, how they are being shut out, so on and so forth.
They have three networks, NPR (funded by you and me), and they still are having a difficult time.
Hellinahandcart, I agree that there are some who are simply such hardcore communists that nothing will sway them.
However, I believe that there is a large middle body of people who are being cynically manipulated; they get spoon fed propaganda, and for the longest time there really was no other viewpoint other than the agenda set forth by the politically correct news police.
That is changing, look at the success of conservative radio personalities, conservative commentators on Fox, etc.
The left can't help themselves; they are so bound by their ideology that they present us with opportunity after opportunity. They sound positively stupid at times, and not just to well informed people, such as those found here.
I don't know what your experience has been, but I am finding myself pleasantly surprised often in what people say when I'm out and about. I'm not proposing that they agree with anything and everything we believe in, but I will say that there are fissures developing in our once monolithic opponent. Look at the Democrat Party for example. How many candidates have declared that they are running at this point? They are going to have problems. There are those there who want to position themselves as the 'moderates' to America; they are going to have to deal with the Sharptons and such who are going to insist that their ideas be incorporated into a campaign platform.
If we were smart, we would make them talk about such issues. I don't think many of their ideas are going to leave a good taste in the mouth of middle America when brought front and center.
We're learning to play their game..........no more 'gentlemanly' tactics with a bunch of communist goons. Can't play that way with them. Hit them hard and often, and don't let up, don't give them time to regroup.
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