Israelis feel like nobody understands them

[Liberal_in_LA]

http://amanpour.blogs.cnn.com/2014/07/31/in-israel-many-people-just-feel-like-nobody-understands-them/?hpt=hp_bn9

Mick Krever, CNN

Growing international condemnation of Israel’s conduct in its offensive against Hamas in Gaza seems to have totally backfired in Israel, The New York Times’ Jerusalem Bureau Chief, Jodi Rudoren, told CNN’s Hala Gorani, in for Christiane Amanpour, on Wednesday.

“Many people just feel like nobody understands them,” Rudoren said.

Indeed, the Israeli public is overwhelmingly supportive of the operation in Gaza – 95% according to a recent poll by the Israel Democracy Institute. (Rudoren said the numbers she had seen were somewhat lower.)

In her two years covering Israel, Rudoren said she has been examining what effect, if any, the criticism writ large of Israel – from European countries, among others – would have on public opinion.

“I think we've really seen that it's just reinforced this notion that nobody outside of Israel really understands what they're going through, that they're surrounded by enemies, and that they have no choice but to defend themselves”

The astronomical support for the Gaza operation can be attributed, she told Gorani, to several factors.

[enid602]

1. controversial

It must be getting pretty bad for Israel when even CNN admits that their treatment of Palestinians is controversial.

[Larkspur]

2. Looks like Frank Luntz's propaganda tactics are working well among the Israeli population

but are not having that effect upon Western Europe.

Gee, if only Hamas's ineffective rockets could kill as many Israeli citizens as Israel does Palestinians, then maybe world opinion would change in favor of Israel and then the world would see the Palestinians the way many Israelis do today.

[seveneyes]

3. Why Hamas stores its weapons inside hospitals, mosques and schools

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/07/31/why-hamas-stores-its-weapons-inside-hospitals-mosques-and-schools/

“The many mosques in the Gaza Strip serve not only religious functions, but are also put to military use by Hamas and other terrorist organizations,” the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center said at the time. “They are used to hide terrorist operatives, store weapons, as sites from which rockets and mortar shells are launched.”

[el_bryanto]

4. Just to be safe we should strip Palestinians of Hospitals Mosques and Schools

Then where will they put those weapons? We'll take those buildings away from the Palestinians too.

Hell it might be safer all around if the Palestinians just slept outside - it's pretty warm in that part of the world, that could work.

Bryant

[Trillo]

5. "surrounded by enemies"

That sounds strangely like some kind of psychological disorder. I'm not qualified to say what disorder, but I'm sure I've read that individuals who feel that way are considered mentally ill. Perhaps this is related:

Paranoid personality disorder (PPD) is a mental disorder characterized by paranoia and a pervasive, long-standing suspiciousness and generalized mistrust of others. Individuals with this personality disorder may be hypersensitive, easily feel slighted, and habitually relate to the world by vigilant scanning of the environment for clues or suggestions that may validate their fears or biases. Paranoid individuals are eager observers. They think they are in danger and look for signs and threats of that danger, potentially not appreciating other evidence.[1]

They tend to be guarded and suspicious and have quite constricted emotional lives. Their reduced capacity for meaningful emotional involvement and the general pattern of isolated withdrawal often lend a quality of schizoid isolation to their life experience.[2][verification needed] People with this particular disorder may or may not have a tendency to bear grudges, suspiciousness, tendency to interpret others' actions as hostile, persistent tendency to self-reference, or a tenacious sense of personal right.[3] Patients with this disorder can also have significant comorbidity with other personality disorders.

[dsc]

7. really

is there any other country on earth that has had as many wars started by their neighbors as Israel? The one and only reason those neighbors haven't attacked since the 70's is because Israel has such a formidable military.

[magical thyme]

9. unlike the Palestinians,

stripped of their land which was given to *their* enemy, and locked in an open air prison.

When is *Israel* going to understand that if you rob people of their land and lock them in an open air prison, those people may not like you very much?

When are they going to understand that when Auschwitz survivors compare their behavior to that of the Nazis that maybe *they're* the ones at fault?

Maybe if Israeli's didn't behave so hatefully, they wouldn't attract so much hatred and condemnation.

[Dreamer Tatum]

12. So their neighbor's leadership lists in its CHARTER that it wants them destroyed

and the funding source for, oh, ROCKETS that are lobbed randomly is a country that has
repeatedly stated its goal is to destroy them...and Israel has a paranoid disorder?

Maybe it's all just a misunderstanding. Maybe it's just a long, long, long series of mistranslations...maybe.

[jwirr]

14. surrounded by enemies - that unfortunately is true. For thousands of years Arabs and Jews have

been fighting. And the Jews who asked to be placed in present day Israel knew this. IMO it is why that was the last place on earth they should have been resettled. As to some type of mental disorder - fact or no this kind of fear can grow into a mental disorder.

As to no one understanding them. We all know what they went through in WWII. Most of us are sympathetic. But that is where our sympathy ends. What they are doing now is not going to make anything better. And if they keep the land they have taken it will look even worse. No we do not understand why a country would take action that is going to hurt them in the end - and yes I know the USA has done this.

[Dreamer Tatum]

16. So the Jews just sort of randomly picked where Israel would be.

I guess out of a choice between a slice of Utah, a corner of Greenland, a floating barge in the ocean, and THEIR HOMELAND FOR THOUSANDS OF YEARS, they chose...their ancestral homeland.

How WEIRD.

[jwirr]

19. Not weird. But they knew then that the whole area was populated by Arabs who have also been in

the area for as long as they have. The Old Testament is the story of their conflict. I am not blaming them for wanting what seemed familiar to them - just saying that the are surrounded by enemies and they have reasons to be fearful today.

[Dreamer Tatum]

20. "Seemed familiar."

Oh my god.

"Seemed familiar."

Like North America "seems familiar" to Native Americans.

[jwirr]

21. They had not lived in this area for many many years. If you want to argue find someone else.

[Dreamer Tatum]

22. Would suggest you learn some history of Palestine as it relates to WWI in particular. nt

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

6. Perhaps, but the world understands mass murder when it sees it.

[CBGLuthier]

8. I understand them completely. They don't give a shit about anyone else and like to prove it

every few years in the most horrific manner possible. What is not to understand? it is the way of the world. Eventually the oppressed become the oppressors. The future of their world is a boot on a neck.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

10. About those poll numbers --

I saw a report -- CNN I think -- where it was mentioned that the polls taken did not include a sampling of Arab Israelis, something like 20% of the population.

Ah, yes, I found a reference:

"Unsurprisingly, July's poll focused on the war in Gaza. It asked Jewish Israelis (Israeli Arabs were not polled), during both the air and ground phases of the campaign, whether they thought the Israeli operation was justified."

http://www.vox.com/2014/7/31/5955077/israeli-support-for-the-gaza-war-is-basically-unanimous

So, the proper headline read "Jewish Israelis" or they should just admit that they don't believe Arabs are truly Israelis.

[TeeYiYi]

11. If the United States...

...pulled the same stunt in Mexico, with the approval of 95% of its citizenry, we'd have world condemnation too.

The Israelis sound deluded by propaganda. Maybe they need to get out more.

TYY

[dwilso40641]

13. Whenever she (Clinton)

opens her mouth, she makes Warren look better.

[winter is coming]

15. Where is Clinton even mentioned in the OP?

[Comrade Grumpy]

17. Oh, we understand them, alright. n/t

[Marrah_G]

18. I will never understand support of the murder of almost 2000 people

I will never understand support of a massive bombing campaign that has killed almost 400 children.

I did not support what we did in Iraq and I don't support what Israel is doing in Gaza.

Soldiers bragging about killing children? People sitting on on the hills in couches having a picnic while watching people die? Members of Knesset calling for ridding the land of Palestinians? Shooting people fleeing from bombing? Bombing UN shelters, Hospitals, Mosques and Universities? No, I will never understand that.

The murder of 3 teens in the West Bank was used as an excuse to start the bombing of Gaza. 150 people were slaughtered during the search for a soldier they already knew was dead.

I will never understand how humans can be so inhumane.

[MisterP]

23. the Boers also went through concentration camps, fought with neighbors hundreds of miles away,

constantly yelled about its spotless morality while committing some of the most heinous acts conceivable, and enacted Apartheid

differences are Israel has nukes, Hebrews are a far bigger share of the population than ZA Whites and are settling the Bantustans shortly after they establish them, a single state might not be in the cards after all, and the Israelis have more socialist heritage but no strong voice for peace like the Progressives

[4now]

24. People don't understand why Israel murders its neighbors childreden

Killing children is a strange way to fight a war.