"What Do Israelis Think About Americans? Start With Disdain." The Forward

 
"Though Israel is a famously fractious society, Israelis tend to agree on one thing: Their strongest supporters are an inherently dupable people.

“Most Israelis think Americans are pro-Israel and we can sell them anything, especially mud from the Dead Sea,” said David Lifshitz, the lead writer for the Israeli comedy show “Eretz Nehederet,” or “Wonderful Land.”

“Or — just regular mud with a ‘Dead Sea’ sticker on it.”

But it’s not just American tourists whom many Israelis see as guileless. American foreign policy is held up to similar scrutiny here, even as Israel receives billions of dollars in foreign aid from the United States each year.

“Americans are perceived to be naive, especially when it comes to the Middle East,” said Uri Dromi, who served as a spokesman for the Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres governments. “It is a bad neighborhood and it seems like they just don’t realize it.”

The naivete Israelis perceive in Americans is not just something they believe only Israel’s adversaries exploit; Israelis believe they can do so, too — and do. In a secretly recorded video of a 2001 discussion with a group of terror victims in the Ofra settlement in the Israeli occupied West Bank, now-Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu laid out this widely held perception."  Forward

Read more: http://forward.com/articles/216074/what-do-israelis-think-about-americans-start-with/?p=all#ixzz3Tq1dbEV7

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"The Forward" is an old New York City Jewish nespaper originally published in Yiddish.

"The naivete Israelis perceive in Americans is not just something they believe only Israel’s adversaries exploit; Israelis believe they can do so, too — and do."

I'll let it go at that.  pl 

Comments

[MRW]

So Israelis think they are superior because they are slaves to their amygdalas (amygdalae)?

[Cee]

All,

47 AIPAC paid for also view US citizens and the president with Destin.They wrote a letter saying that any Iran deal won't be honored after Obama leaves office. Remember this on election day.
Now, who can we vote for that isn't beholding to Israel first?

[ex-PFC Chuck]

It's hard to argue the point when you consider the clown show the Congress put on last week when Netanyahoo came to screech.

[Babak Makkinejad]

The letter was addressed to Ayatollah Khamenei, instructing him in the finer points of US domestic politics.

[Swami Bhut Jolokia]

In fairness to Israelis (and others who view us with disdain) the behavior of our Congress only reinforces that opinion. They've allowed themselves to be duped many times, and played down the spy scandals and various military incidents. It's amazing what a powerful lobby can accomplish in the US.

[William R. Cumming]

IMO Israel people and leadership know how corrupt the USA leadership has been, is, and will be! The critical $25,000 gift[in cash?] to the Truman 1948 Presidential campaign by Truman's former business partner on the basis of recognition of Israel by the US continues to pay off.

[mbrenner]

At this point, it is entirely reasonable to say: "I don't give a damn what the Israelis think about Americans." The one thing that we do know is that were the United States to make it unmistakably clear that the days of blanket support for whatever they do are over, it would shake Israeli politics and policy to their foundations. This is an assessment made repeatedly by Uri Avnery - the most incisive, informed analyst of Israeli affairs.

Moreover, there is nothing that some madcap Israeli leader might do unilaterally that would seriously inconvenience the US were he so reckless as to try.

[The Beaver]

Cee

Those intellectuals are forgetting that the deal will be made not only between the US and Iran but the P5+1 and Iran.

In the next 2 yrs , should trade between Iran and the deal makers be in the up and up, do you think that France, UK and Germany will go along with the US Israel firsters.

[MRW]

I thought it was $2 million in a suitcase.

[Charles I]

There is a segment that would like nothing more than to end, or to be able to claim the end of at least, American support, so they could do whatever they wish without being grateful, having to lie, mouth platitudes or generally give a hoot.

Like now, only cheaper and less rude

[MRW]

"GOP Iran Letter Might Be Unconstitutional. Is It Also Criminal?"
http://opiniojuris.org/2015/03/09/gop-iran-letter-might-be-unconstitutional-is-it-also-criminal/

[different clue]

The Beaver,

Interesting point. What if the other negotiating governments decided that Iran has accepted a no A-bombs protocol which impresses them as workable if honored and enforced? What if the other P5+1ers decide to lift whatever sanctions they have in return for getting a deal signed off on between themselves and Iran?
If the US remained dissatisfied the US could keep its sanctions up but the others could all take their sanctions down. If America become the Lone Sanctioner, could de-sanctioned trade and finance with Europe be worth enough to Iran that Iran would consider that acceptable?

[different clue]

MRW,

If that were so, wouldn't Truman have been visibly rich after leaving office? $2 million was real money in those days.

[confusedponderer]

I just went through my latest CUFI newsletters, and can't help thinking that, as far as those folks are concerned, the Israelis are spot on with their assessment. They folks are just that gullible and then some.

Arbitrary excerpt from their spam:

"And He let none of his words fall to the ground. — Samuel 3:19

Prime Minister Netanyahu did his job. He came to Washington and delivered a powerful speech detailing how a nuclear Iran would threaten the existence of both Israel and the United States.

Now it's time for us to do our job. We must not let the Prime Minister's words fall to the ground unheeded!"

Except for the part that that 'nuclear Iran' that threatens Israel is a fiction. Worse than the b*llsh*tting is the implicit blasphemy.

He let none of his words fall to the ground? Bibis? Ah, no, the Lord's! And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee! Halelujah!

Do whatever Bibi wants, God wills it, or, well, He was kinda explicit when He turned Lot's wife into a pillar of salt. Need I be clearer? Do you want to be saved, or do you want to be left behind?

CUFI is exploiting these gullible suckers every bit as cynical as that. Dis-gus-ting.

[elkern]

IIRC, the US sanctions are written to punish anybody remotely connected to any trade with Iran. So all our normal allies and trading partners would face financial & trade sanctions if/when they chose to deal with Iran. And few (large) foreign corporations would scoff at the risk of getting sued in US Civil Courts for breaking US "laws" written to pertain worldwide.

And then there's the problem of the Neo-Cons nested in the Treasury Dept - where they make a huge priority out of hunting down people & companies who have any dealings with Iran and breaking them financially.

Those 47 foreign agents in the Senate who sent that letter to Khameini the other day may be techincally correct (not "right"): it will be very hard to change all this without changing Congress.

[William R. Cumming]

Actually I have now been informed it was $25,000! WOW!

[LeaNder]

not sure, dc, if that could work. There may be other treaties signed that could prevent the US from ever getting "Lone Sanctioner". Anythink in the Transpacific-Partnership, or the upcoming TTIP??? (Transatlantic-Trade Investment Partnership). Partnership needs a set of basic shared rules.

A couple of days ago this headline caught my attention in my father's daily:
http://www.unitedagainstnucleariran.com/company/commerzbank

Apparently the bank fired a couple of people by now.

[LeaNder]

good point,dc, I had the same idea. Maybe some report 1948 value versus its present equivalent purchasing power.

But then, what exactly was it? Money for the reelection campaign? I seem to remember that reelection mattered in that context.

[LeaNder]

"the lobby" no doubt matters. But I have to admit that in the wider realms of the American psyche the connection between the "good war" America fought and won and Israel matters just as much.* I am pretty sure, Netanyahu expertly connected the dots for his American Senate/House audience.

* Is there a poll concerning US perceptions of the Palestinians versus Israelis?

http://www.gallup.com/poll/181652/seven-americans-continue-view-israel-favorably.aspx

http://www.brookings.edu/research/reports/2014/12/05-american-opinion-poll-israeli-palestinian-conflict-telhami

[LeaNder]

"Need I be clearer?"

Yes, tell me where exactly the classic ban on looking back enters our present scene metaphorically? AND: Bibi = Yahweh? ;)

Besides I am no expert on these religious snake oil salesmen. But isn't there an expert on Iraq as the beast of Revelations?

Hmmm?

I see there are two of them, so no doubt it could be both Iraq and Iran.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_beast_%28Revelation%29

[Dubhaltach]

You plainly don't get it. What is required of you is Kadavergehorsamkeit and that is all that is required of you. Nothing else is acceptable. Whether it's Bibi in Gaza en route to Tehran or Victoria Neuland in Kiev en route to Moscow all that is required of you is immediate total and unquestioning obedience.

Got it now?

PS: for those wondering: http://www.dict.cc/german-english/Kadavergehorsamkeit.html

The term originated in the pre-WWI Imperial German Army and meant absolute unthinking military obedience.

[different clue]

elkern,

So it is not as easy as I hoped, or even possible. So it really does come down to the US.
Hopefully Obama and the other Government Negotiators will get a decent agreement agreed to.
Then hopefully Webb decides to run and gets nominated on the basis of ratifying the agreement and pushing for sanctions relief with the agreement's context, among other things.

[confusedponderer]

Ah, the mere 'Kadavergehorsam' suffices.

"der Gehorsam" is already a noun, and doesn't need to be 'nouned' with the -keit suffix - it is redundant.

[confusedponderer]

i.e. 'Kadavergehorsamkeit' would translate into something like 'Obediencery' ;)

[elkern]

Hmm, so it's quite possible that the US "legal" sanctions against Iran are already in violation of some pre-existing network of free-trade treaties! In which case, the US Treasury Dept witch-hunt against people & companies trading with Iran is illegal... and worthy of a legal challenge. All it would take to test this would be someone with a valid legal standing in the case, with very deep pockets and a thick hide (who doesn't care about being pilloried in the press).