During our family Shabbat dinner this past Friday night, there was an urgent knock at the door. I hoped it wasn't a medical related emergency, since we've had to many of those the past few weeks. Our neighbor looked very upset and he ran up to our dinner table.
"Is everything OK?" I asked?
He replied angrily, "
No, this is simply disgusting. You MUST put this on your blog!"
Relieved that this wasn't anything life-threatening, I asked him to explain.
"Today I went to a book store, "Tzomet HaSefarim" and there was someone there at the checkout line asking if I wanted to buy an Israeli Flag large magnet for my car...for only one Shekel.I asked what the catch is, and he said, "no catch"...and he showed me a shrink wrapped flag magnet, and on the magnetic side there was a dark blue piece of paper.Since its a great deal, and who wouldn't want a flag magnet for their car for this coming Yom HaShoah, Yom HaZikaron, Yom Ha'Atzmaut, I bought it. Before Shabbat, I opened up the shrink wrap to put the magnet on my fridge, and the dark blue piece of paper turned out to be a pamphlet.The pamphlet advertised itself as from the "Nationalistic Leftists" of Israel. Some of the quotes from it include:"The settlers are the lords of the land, hardly pioneers. They never planted a tree or built a house. It’s the Ahmeds that did all that for them. For years the settlers have been forcing us to build the future Palestinian land – at our expense." "The settlers operate on a different type of fuel, which is called messianism. Their god appeared at once and defeated their enemies. After his mishap during the Holocaust – he is back and mightier than ever. They graduated from yeshiva high schools and stormed Judea, Samaria and Gaza with unconquerable messianic passion. "No one realized that the 'new pioneers' were possessed by demons of messianic madness. Think about the brainwashed minds, hypnotized zombies, gangs of horny teenagers forcing themselves on the country. The young generation of settlers forgot what it's like to be a Zionist." "A rightist is conservative. A yapper. Polemicist. Resistor. Especially in the face of change. A leftist is a revolutionist. Practical. Leads the way, dares and is victorious. The Right believes that if we continue having the upper hand, we will be saved by the heavens. The Left believes that we must redeem ourselves, by ourselves. That is the reason that Zionism is leftist."My friend was livid. This is what I paid for? Its outright propaganda -- had I known this is what my shekel was going for, I never would have paid it, even for the magnet. And its being sold as a simple "flag magnet." This must either be clearly advertised as a leftist campaign, or not sold at all at the bookstore."
My friend wasn't the only one offended, as hundreds of angry consumers contacted the "Tzomet Hasefarim" bookstore expressing their outrage at being duped into buying this. One person said it was like paying for a flag magnet, and getting Jews for Jesus propaganda along with it.
Responding to consumer outrage, the Tzomet HaSefarim bookstore, stopped the sale of this magnet/pamphlet package, and prevented the "Nationalist Leftist" activists from selling their wares.
The bookstore chain's spokesperson said, "Tzomet Sfarim is a chain for all of the people of Israel and has no political affiliation. It is never responsible for the content of the books that are distributed in its stores. Because we received many complaints that the book hurts the feelings of some of our customers, we decided to stop selling it." (
ynet)
In response, Shulamit Aloni slammed the "settlers" for destroying democracy in preventing the sale of this pamphlet. Of course, in her world, it could only be "settlers" who complained...not a regular right wing person who doesn't live "over the green line".
In an interview with
ynet, Aloni said;
"The settlers rule the land. The government supports them so much; it's a disgrace," Aloni told Ynet Sunday night. Tzomet Sfarim succumbed to the pressure because everyone is afraid of the settlers. They are savages, racists and hate all those who do not support them. "This country is not democratic anymore. The fact that there are political parties and elections – there are political parties and elections in Iran also. There are zealots in Iran and there are crazy zealots here. The police must deal with the settler threats. We cannot surrender to them," she said.
However, ynet sanitized the English edition. The
Hebrew version of the story adds quite a bit more, and quotes Aloni as follows:
אין לי אף מילה טובה. מה שאני שומעת מעורר בי חלחלה. זה יום השואה היום, ומה עשו בשואה? הרסו בתים ושרפו ספרים. הם לא אהבו יהודים, והמתנחלים לא אוהבים את מי שחושב אחרת.
"I don't have a good word [to say about the settlers]. What I hear makes me nauseous. Today is Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day. And what did they do in the Holocaust? They destroyed homes. They burned books. They didn't like Jews, and the settlers don't like those who think differently than they do."
Thank you Shulamit Aloni for letting us know what you really think...it's just a shame that your words didn't appear in print in English for the rest of the world to hear your enlightened venom this Yom HaShoah.
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