“I said Israel should be ashamed – now I am the one who is ashamed”

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Virtually the entire world condemned Israel for the Gaza protests. They were wrong. One man admitted it. Daniel Sugarman may be the only leftist Jewish writer in the world to admit he was wrong to condemn Israel after it came to light that the people killed at the Gaza border were not “innocent civilians,” but Hamas operatives. Sugarman is a good man to admit that he was wrong, but what about the UN? What about the international media? What about all the others who condemned Israel? Sugarman’s apology just illustrates how dishonest and antisemitic they are.

“I said Israel should be ashamed – now I am the one who is ashamed,” by Daniel Sugarman, The JC, May 18, 2018:

It’s never easy to say you’re sorry.

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To admit you’re wrong. To announce publicly, “I made a mistake”.

But to apologise when that apology comes bound up with what is, perhaps, the most intractable conflict on earth, makes it a thousand times harder.

But that is what I am. Sorry.

A few days ago I wrote a column about the latest round of violence on the border with Gaza.

It was a cry from the heart. I love Israel. I have always loved it, and cannot envision a time when I will not love it.

But in my office, I sit near a television set. And on Monday, I saw the following, side by side.

On the left, in Jerusalem, I saw happy faces. Self-congratulatory faces. I saw the Prime Minister of Israel talking about how the opening of the US embassy in Jerusalem was a big step towards peace.

And on the right, simultaneously, in Gaza, I saw tear gas, and smoke, and bullets.

And it was in this context that I wrote my piece, which was an extremely personal one. I wrote it in anguish. I wrote it making clear that I despised Hamas and all it stood for. But I also wrote the following:

“Every bullet Israel fires, every life Israel takes, makes this situation worse. There are ways to disperse crowds which do not include live fire. But the IDF has made an active choice to fire live rounds and kill scores of people. You cannot tell me that Israel, a land of technological miracles which have to be seen to be truly believed, is incapable of coming up with a way of incapacitating protestors that does not include gunning dozens of them down. But no. In front of the entire world, Israel keeps shooting, and protestors, including very young protestors, keep dying. You may tell me that Hamas wants these deaths, wants to create martyrs, wants to fill the hearts of the people of Gaza with rage against Israel because the alternative is for people to look at their lives in Gaza and rage against Hamas. But if you tell me that, why are you not asking yourselves why Israel is so willingly giving Hamas exactly what it wishes?”

I received a lot of praise for my piece, from people I admire greatly, as well as from a great many unexpected sources, including from within the Jewish community.

I also received a lot of criticism. I got called a traitor, and that most vile of all insults a Jew can bestow or receive, a “Kapo”.

People also wrote pieces in response. I was told that, as a Jew not currently living in Israel, my greatest worry was whether Starbucks would have almond-soya milk for my latte.

But the criticism I paid more attention to was from people who pointed out that it was absurd to deal in hypotheticals. I’d said that surely there must be a way the protestors could be stopped without shooting live ammunition at them – that Israel, with its incredible technological capabilities, must be capable of developing a way. That was a cry of anguish, but it was not an argument. If no such technology currently exists, then it was absurd of me to blame the IDF for not magically willing it into existence. The traditional crowd stopping technology would not have worked effectively. Rubber bullets are only short range. The same with water cannons. And with tens of thousands of people rushing the border, this would have been extremely unlikely to work effectively. The border would have been broken through. And then, without much of a doubt, a lot of people in Israel would have died. That was, after all, Hamas’s stated aim.

But what really affected me the most was yesterday, when a Hamas operative went on television and claimed that, of the 62 people killed in the last two days, fifty were Hamas operatives. Islamic Jihad claimed three more, meaning that over 80 percent of the people who were killed while trying to breach the border were members of terrorist organisations whose direct aim is to bring death and suffering into Israel.

And I opened my eyes and saw what I had done.

I had fallen into the trap I had always been convinced I would not fall into. I had condemned Israel for defending itself….

The Truth Must be Told

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SemurJengkolMaknyus
SemurJengkolMaknyus
5 years ago

do u think israel will still be on the world map in 100 years ??

UnderzogD
Underzog
5 years ago

Israel will still be on the map, but it might be surronded by an Islamic Europe and Asia.

TangoUniform2
TangoUniform2
5 years ago
Reply to  Underzog

It already is!

SemurJengkolMaknyus
SemurJengkolMaknyus
5 years ago
Reply to  Underzog

and will become an explicit apartheid state … as arab citizenz will become majority ..

UnderzogD
Underzog
5 years ago

Nah, a kahanist government will take over and we’ll ick the Arabs out! Israel should do it now and serve as a model for Europe.

SemurJengkolMaknyus
SemurJengkolMaknyus
5 years ago
Reply to  Underzog

yep … an explicit apartheid state … what else ??

SemurJengkolMaknyus
SemurJengkolMaknyus
5 years ago
Reply to  Underzog

yep ….

Israel has the special right to do anything vile , inhumane, etc …

IzlamDownpressesHumanity
IzlamDownpressesHumanity
5 years ago

LOL, a f’ing indonesian muslum chumpanzee complaining about an apartheid state. Remember E. Timor mulum chump?

SemurJengkolMaknyus
SemurJengkolMaknyus
5 years ago

indonesia did not steal even 1 millimeter square land of E. Timor …

when will Israhell stop stealing lands ????

OverIt
OverIt
5 years ago

Nah. If it ever has an Arab majority, there will be no minority.

Achmed Mohandjob
Achmed Mohandjob
5 years ago

Beyond a shadow of a doubt. Will moslem males still be performing sex acts on their own male offspring, such as you ADMITTED to doing?

Suresh
Suresh
5 years ago

Brainwashed individuals hate Israel support jihadis.

saudi/qatar/OIC own part of twitter, Fox Network, fund CNN, MSNBC , buy out politicians , bureaucrats in education dept to push islam in schools/ colleges. Easiest way to brainwash and takeover country and shutdown free speech !

After facebook, twitter , even Google joins lslamofascist gang to suppress conservative
free speech http://tinyurl.com/lgp28rs

WorkingClassPost
WorkingClassPost
5 years ago

There’s a real cognitive dissonance here in UK.

When this story is covered, even after they mention the Hamas operatives (if they do), they just carry on talking about innocent casualties without breaking stride.

And how is a “Day of Rage” described as a peaceful demonstration?

https://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/PLO-official-May-14-to-be-day-of-rage-554867

Weird

oceanfloor1
oceanfloor1
5 years ago

“And I opened my eyes and saw what I had done.”
Good. Now keep them open, and don’t do it again.

Michael Garfinkel
Michael Garfinkel
5 years ago
Reply to  oceanfloor1

Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.

lostlegends
lostlegends
5 years ago

Better late than never, I suppose. But what a dunce he is. There was nothing complicated about the situation. He’s a knee-jerk anti-Israel dupe.

Ron rockit
Ron rockit
5 years ago

Public condemnation and a private apology. Man is a moron.

Dennis
Dennis
5 years ago

Again we are allowing “opinion” to be deseminated to the public by people who do not fully understand what is happening in the Middle East, and their commentary, not only is fallacious, but it is without any merit and merely stokes the hatred and anti-Semitism that is the present expectation of the terrorists out there. What concerns me the most is that this fallacious opinion will have an immediate negative effect on those people out there who are not able to recognize the monumental errors in the opinion commentary. Just like the Washington Post which is now broadcasting that Trump is creating a “constitutional crisis” when he asks the DOJ to investigate whether the previous administration or the Justice department and FBI may have taken steps to potentially allow their political views to cause them to take steps of whatever character that were intended to frustrate Trump’s ability to get elected, that is likewise opinion which also is unmeritorious and should be seen as the media’s continuing attempt to besmirch Trump. The negativism in all this fallaciously based opinion is mind boggling, as well as dangerous. I can only hope that the right thinking public can see threw this scandalous attempt to maliciously influence the public and reject the media’s animosity towards our sitting President, as, it appears, that the media has patently and actively lost their way, allowing their ultra liberal political beliefs to adversely influence there ability to reason appropriately.

caliroxanne
caliroxanne
5 years ago
Reply to  Dennis

Not only does he not understand what is happening in the Middle East, his comment, “There are ways to disperse crowds which do not include live fire” also shows that he has no understanding how to handle a situation faced by the Israelis at the border. Tell us, genius, what are these alternative methods? Like here in the U.S., all these law enforcement “experts” in mom’s basement know that police overreact. It is impossible to accurately judge something like this without being there and faced with an armed mob throwing grenades at you. I’d love to put this guy at the scene and see how he’d react.

OverIt
OverIt
5 years ago
Reply to  caliroxanne

Hey, give him some credit. He at least now recognises that he was talking out of his arse.

Cai
Cai
5 years ago
Reply to  Dennis

Exactly! I read where democracy always has a life of about 200 years before collapsing. This collapse is apparently ALWAYS followed by TOTALITARIANISM – hello, isn’t that exactly what we are seeing take place right at this moment, the death throes of democracy.

Ignoble_dba_ vagabond_trader
Ignoble_dba_ vagabond_trader
5 years ago

Guarantee the remaining dead are also related to these Hamas bums in one way or another.

R. Arandas
R. Arandas
5 years ago

We should ALL be ashamed for doing so little against the rising threat of Islam against our peoples.

mike
mike
5 years ago
Reply to  R. Arandas

All the nations of the earth will be judged by the Creator on these standards:
1) rejection of Him and the Son He sent to provide salvation
2) failure to “be holy as I am holy”
3) failure to “love one another”
4) failure to “bless Israel and pray for the peace of Jerusalem”

The WRATH of God is right around the corner. The massive earthquake (Ezekiel 38:19-20) will confirm the timing.

Frank
Frank
5 years ago
Reply to  mike

You can only ‘love one another when they love you back’ Muslims want you dead.

Trekfan
Trekfan
5 years ago
Reply to  mike

According to Matthew 25, they will be judged on how they treated “the least of these my brethren” meaning Christians. Also it says that all nations will come against Israël one day and that is also the day they will be destroyed, at Armageddon. Did you know, by the way, that Nazareth overlooks that valley?

1PierreMontagne1D
1PierreMontagne1
5 years ago

Even the few Capos still alive in Israel today. sometimes admit they were wrong

Debra
Debra
5 years ago

The alacrity with which he did a 180 should raise eyebrows. I know a lot of people who hold similar views, many of them Jews, and they’re not coming around. Those of us who know Israel will be slandered by these cretins no matter what she does understand that the non-Jews are antisemites and the Jews are self-hating. Even before Trump they were drifting left as identity politics swept over the landscape. Suddenly, the worst thing ever is to be called an “Islamophobe” or “racist.” Then comes Trump, whom they loath and despise, and by association anything that smacks of him, i.e., supporting Israel. They refuse to read or watch anything that exculpates Israel. dismissing it as “fake news.” White is black and black is white in this crazed, upside-down world. Truly, it’s 1984.

Alleged-Comment
Alleged-Comment
5 years ago

Well guess what? You’re still a dangerous IDIOT to even believe the news and your already anti-Semite mind. For I didn’t even watch the news and already knew Israel does not shoot, gas, kill people unless their lives are in danger.

You should have known, already, which side was the one that provoked. And if you knew history you would know only one side behaves like an animal.

James Stamulis
James Stamulis
5 years ago

This is what Hamas and the Palestinians have been doing as long as i remember.

gilbert clement
gilbert clement
5 years ago

I never listen to the MSM as they are deceptive LIARS all of them and owned by one group, so it controls all the so called news media, Isreal continue to defend yourself as any other contry would do in similar circumstanses

LaddyboyD
Laddyboy
5 years ago

Where is the military’s electronic repulsing instruments that would FORCE the invaders or “protesters” to retreat due to the adverse reactions to the sound or ultrasonic projections? The Military in America have these pieces of equipment. Why does Israel not use them to their advantage?

Cai
Cai
5 years ago

‘it’s always the same crazy claims when the truth is exactly the opposite of the claims.’

That is a very important part of their strategy followed by blaming the other side for doing things when they are the ones actually doing whatever it is that they are blaming the other side for. The West has had it too good for too long, we have lost the art of, and skills for, survival.

Frank
Frank
5 years ago

Now if you can Michael Savage to admit he’s wrong too

ElmoGlick
ElmoGlick
5 years ago

Waiting for the New York Times pig Michelle Goldberg to apologize…She never will. Goldberg hates Jews, she hates Christians.

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