The Guardian’s Anti-Semitic Explanation For Shalit Deal
October 24, 2011 14:49 by Simon Plosker
Over the years, we’ve covered some vicious and despicable pieces in the media, many of them published in The Guardian. But amongst the many commentaries and analyses of the Gilad Shalit prisoner deal, one by Deborah Orr in The Guardian’s print edition really plumbs the depths.
Orr writes:
All this, I fear, is simply an indication of how inured the world has become to the obscene idea that Israeli lives are more important than Palestinian lives. Netanyahu argues that he acted because he values Shalit’s life so greatly.
Yet who is surprised really, to learn that Netanyahu sees one Israeli’s freedom as a fair exchange for the freedom of so many Palestinians? Likewise, Hamas wished to use their human bargaining chip to gain release for as many Palestinians as they could. They don’t have much to bargain with.
Is Orr really suggesting that Israel’s desire to get back one of its soldiers at such a high price is driven by some racist sense of valuing Israeli or Jewish life above all others? Apparently so:
At the same time, however, there is something abject in their eagerness to accept a transfer that tacitly acknowledges what so many Zionists believe – that the lives of the chosen are of hugely greater consequence than those of their unfortunate neighbours.
The abuse of the concept of the “chosen people” refers specifically to Jews and is commonly employed by anti-Semites to falsely assert that Jews claim to be superior to non-Jews not only in a theological sense but also in a racial one.
As Joseph Telushkin asks:
Does Judaism believe that chosenness endows Jews with special rights in the way racist ideologies endow those born into the “right race”? Not at all. The most famous verse in the Bible on the subject of chosenness says the precise opposite: “You alone have I singled out of all the families of the earth. That is why I call you to account for all your iniquities” (Amos 3:2). Chosenness is so unconnected to any notion of race that Jews believe that the Messiah himself will descend from Ruth, a non-Jewish woman who converted to Judaism.
The fact that Israel values the life of a solitary individual so much that it is prepared to release hundreds of Palestinians responsible for some of the most appalling terrorist outrages instead tells us how much Israel values human life. This overwhelming desire to return one of its own people is a value to be proud of.
Deborah Orr
Orr appears to be distressed at the implication of a deal that sees one Jew as the equivalent of 1000 Arabs. If this is the case, then Orr would be better directing her ire at Hamas for demanding and setting such an unbalanced equivalance.
That Deborah Orr is prepared to descend to the depths of anti-Semitism to claim that Israel is motivated by racism says much about her own warped values. That The Guardian was prepared to publish such an obscene commentary merely confirms the publication’s vicious anti-Israel bent.
Send your considered comments to The Guardian -letters@guardian.co.uk
UPDATE
Jonathan Freedland
Writing in a Guardian commentary in the October 26 print edition, it is clear at whom Jonathan Freedland is aiming this paragraph:
It should go without saying that Israelis would have preferred a one-to-one exchange, releasing a single Palestinian prisoner, rather than more than a thousand – many of them guilty of horrendous acts of violence – in return for Shalit. But, contrary to what some have suggested, it was Hamas, not Israel, that set that 1:1000 exchange rate; it was Hamas, not Israel, who decided that the freedom of a single Israeli was worth the freedom of a thousand Palestinians.
Still no sign, however, of The Guardian publishing any proper rebuttals of Deborah Orr, either in its opinion section or on the letters page.
UPDATE 2 – DEBORAH ORR RESPONDS
The intense criticism and the deluge of emails from HonestReporting subscribers and other concerned parties to The Guardian has had some effect. The October 27 print edition contains a response from none other than Deborah Orr herself.
See our Special Update – Deborah Orr’s Disgusting Excuse For an Apology
Jerry
11:23 pm
Oct 25, 2011
The Guardian, has in the past, targeted Jews and Israel. One has to assume that for the Guardian, this is the garbage that sells for them. it would stretch reality, to ever think that this newspaper, and i use the word veru loosely, would ever change its philosphy about Jews and israel. As with many other so-called information machines, anti-semitism is the catalyst that sells .
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Reece Godwin
7:24 am
Oct 26, 2011
Deborah Orr writes from the angle that pleases her bosses nothing else she has sold herself along time ago, if she really wanted to print the truth it would meen for her to lose her status among her peers and definatley her precious job, Amazing how many people will sell themselves for a few crumbs to keep their status with a company of villians, they are only really fooling the sheeple, she is just another hack
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Bryan
8:40 am
Oct 26, 2011
Truly disgusting stuff. I sent the Guardian this response:
If Deborah Orr had submitted her comment to a ‘Comment is Free’ article in your online edition, the moderators would have rejected it. They would have seen it for the ignorant and anti-Semitic rubbish that it is. This is a real low point for the Guardian.
Last night, however, a guy named Jonathan Freedland wrote an article in ‘Comment is Free’ in which he mentioned, and rejected, Orr’s rant:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/oct/25/israel-palestinian-peace-plan
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Joseph
5:40 pm
Oct 26, 2011
Deborah Orr should not give up her night job.
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Ruthie of America
7:19 pm
Oct 26, 2011
Israel had a limited area for negotiation. There was only ONE Israeli prisoner.
It’s not just the number of prisoners Hamas demanded to make the exchange. It’s also that the Palestinians have been quite content to complain about their people being in jail but not do anything which might actually get them released.
Now that they have agreed to a release, it’s a cruel revelation of Western accusations about the “inhumane Israeli treatment” to see them laughing and jumping in great shape and with college degrees and suntanned skin.
One of the current Palestinian prisoners’ complaints is losing their television watching privileges. Not exactly “The Man in the Iron Mask” or “Cool Hand Luke”!
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Dave
1:39 am
Oct 27, 2011
To read Orr’s article one would think that having been offered a 1:1 exchange for Schalit by Hamas, Israel demurred, insisting that it give 1000+ terrorist in exchange for him because anything less would undermine the honor of superior Jews. It just goes to show how far the looney liberals will go to invert logic and reality in order to villify Israel and to sanitize the Arabs.
Israel of course would have loved a deal in which it only gave up 1 terrorist for Schalit if they could get it but they were willing to pay the gut wrentching price to bring home one of their civilians. Hamas on the ohter hand did NOT care enough about its prisoners to bring home 500 or 600 or even 700 of them 5 years ago, because Israel would have no doubt agreed to this price tag long ago. No, for them its more important to show they held out for their original price of 1000. The symbolic victory was the most important goal and if their brethren had to sit in prison a few more years to get that victory, so be it. Any rational liberal minded human should admire Israel for its commitment to its citizens and decry Hamas for it cynical lack of caring for their own kind. It was Hamas who inadvertantly made one Israel the equal of over 1000 Arabs. But anti-semitic liberals will never let common sense or facts be a barrier to their poision. Orr is has been outed as a an anti-semite extraordinare.
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m
2:23 am
Oct 27, 2011
Unbelievable!! The left has gone so far that I can only shake my head.
Is orr that dense that she cannot grasp it was not Israel but hamASS that set the conditions?!!!!!
Does she think that nobody will notice that fact?
How low will the guardian trash go to suit their agenda of Israel denial and anti Jewish sentiment.
But there is a light side of this. The arabs are the ones that devalued their own evil brethren and equated >1000 arabs to 1 Israeli boy. LOL. The arabs have insulted THEMSELVES and now the left will blame Israel for that?! What can possibly be more stupid than that …LOL, LOL.
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Bloodthirsty Liberal » More Media Antisemitism
4:07 am
Oct 27, 2011
[...] The Guardian plumbs the antisemitic depths of depravity [...]
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Deborah Orr’s Disgusting Excuse For an “Apology” | The Conservative Papers
8:53 am
Oct 27, 2011
[...] Deborah Orr’s obscene abuse of the concept of the “chosen people” in a Guardian commentary deriding Israel’s efforts to bring back Gilad Shalit as motivated by Jewish racism rightly upset many people. [...]
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carole weinstein
1:16 pm
Oct 27, 2011
Thank you for printing these excerpts from her appalling article. I will now be more vigilant about combing BBC for anti-Israel and anti-Semitic content.
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Henry Federman
1:47 pm
Oct 27, 2011
Deboran Orr :I am not an anti Semite I am anti Zionist.What is the difference?Duh!
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Sivvy
3:59 pm
Oct 28, 2011
“Anti-Semite” includes our cousins, the Arabs. “Zionists” are Jews who support the Jewish state. So if your quote is accurate, Ms. Or was being quite specific about hating Jews and no one else. Despite her mastery of language, her thinking is consistently very muddy.
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Moshe
10:33 pm
Oct 29, 2011
Sorry but “antisemite” includes only and exclusively only the Jews! It has nothing to do with other semitic people. Just like today, the more “sophisticated” Jew-haters call themselves antiZionists rather than antisemites, back in the 19th century, they thought that “antisemite” sounds more palatable than plain Jew-hater. That’s the true background of this notion of “antisemitism”: a false disguise to hating the Jew.
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Yair
9:44 am
Oct 31, 2011
Sorry, clicked the wrong Reply button, that was addressed to Sivvy.
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Yair
9:40 am
Oct 31, 2011
A word’s etymology is not always the same as its meaning.
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Peter Knopfler
2:05 pm
Oct 27, 2011
YES ONE JEW WORTH 1000+ PLO PALESTINIAN CRIMINALS, WE ARE ALL BORN EQUAL NOT KNOWING IS OUR COMMON DENOMINATOR, HOWEVER HUMAN BRAIN DEVELOPS FROM ENVIRONMENT THEREFORE NOT ALL EQUAL:
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Vivek Golikeri
4:28 pm
Oct 27, 2011
Nothing at all racist in it. Every nation or army has every right to treat one of their own lives a thousand times more valuable than the enemy’s life. War is not a soccer game where opponents shake hands and share coffee after the game is over. However, while I feel sorry for Shalit and his family, I question the wisdom of the swap. It may only encourage terrorists to kidnap more Israelis for future exchanges.
A more sensible handling might have been to hold a vicarious funeral for Gilad Shalit, and then bomb as many terrorist bases as Israel can. I was angry with Israel in 2006 when we saw them bombing civilian infrastructure. But terrorist camps are more than fair game.
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Larry
7:43 pm
Oct 27, 2011
Ms. Orr thinks she knows what is in the heart of all Jews, but she doesn’t have a clue. Yes, Israelis do value the life of a single Jew held for five years by a known terrorist organization–Hamas. But it is not because they feel superior to others or because they feel that they are “the chosen”, it is because they believe that life–all life–is sacred.
It is that mindset that causes Israelis to allow prisoners the “right” to further their education in prison, to enjoy the many rights in prison that Gilad Schalit never received at the hands of his captors. That same mindset is apparent when Israel drops fliers into Gaza, warning the populace to vacate missile staging areas and bomb making factories that Israel intends to strike, even though those same fliers help the terrorists to flee before the missiles are fired. What other military in the world behaves in such an “irrational” way?
But none of this will stop the Jew haters from writing and speaking their propaganda–nothing will. It has been so for thousands of years, and it will continue as long as Jews live. The only thing Jews can do is to continue to behave morally, to act like what they are, compassionate human beings who value the sanctity of life, and to set examples of decency to the rest of the world. Even when many in the world media condemn them for it.
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Barbara Berg
4:48 pm
Oct 28, 2011
If Deborah Orr could negotiate 1 for 1, please do so! I’m sure Israel would have loved to keep 999 Palestinian terrorists in Israeli jails and still gotten Gilad Shalit back home. This is probably the most distorted view of a negotiation I have ever seen!
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reiska
10:52 am
Oct 30, 2011
Well Barbara, at least Israel will not have the expence of feeding and clothing these people 24/7 365 days of the year any more.
It’s strange that Israel is consistently held to a higher moral standard than any other state – not only that – but Israel somehow manages to maintains its high standards in the most difficult of circumstances.
As gentile, I admire that.
And is it not wonderful that this young man has finally been released.
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judy abeles eliasov
8:25 am
Oct 29, 2011
The Hamas deal for the release of Shalit ie 1001 Palestinians for 1 Israeli certainly is an insult to the Palestinian people. One skinny Jewish soldier for one thousand and one strong, hefty Muslim Freedom fighters. The Hamas actually wanted even more prisoners(those who were held for many concurrent life sentences for the killing of innocent and unarmed Israelies-men women and children) and Israel refused(perhaps because they wanted to lessen the insult to the Palestinians) Every prisoner exchange in the past has been the same….few Israelies for many Palestinians. Strange and non-comprehensible things happen in this part of the world. Could be that the Middle Eastern culture has different understanding of things than the enlightened West?
Never mind, next time it will be 1 for 1. In this way the Palestinian’s pride will be restored and the deal will be fair.
(Perhaps Ms Orr should check out her facts before writing such a deriding article)
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Lurker
12:42 am
Oct 30, 2011
There’s no need to look to a British newspaper to find this kind of bizarre antisemitic garbage. This exact same thing was done even better in the world’s most antisemitic newspaper of all — Haaretz:
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/shalit-deal-reveals-israel-s-superiority-complex-1.392401
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Fortunee Lynette Lewis
12:48 pm
Oct 31, 2011
Does Ms Deborah Orr realise that that she has the name of a a famous Jewess Judge? In fact I would go so far as to say that her surname was a shortened form of a jewish name originally. Just what is it about the Jews that creates the ultimate hatred in fellow humans, Yet they do not bat an eyelid at the genocides carried out in third world countries, the inhumane treatment and slaughter of all animals worldwide. Jews were given the tiniest little bit of land that they offered to share with the ‘occupying’ refugees at the time when the world decided maybe they should settle the ‘unwanted’ Jews in a barren desert. The probable goal of this generosity was that the surrounding Arabs who did not want their fellow Arabs nor the Jews anywhere near their countries would immediately declare war (having told the Arab population firstly to leave their homes so they could once and for all annihilate defenceless and weakened holocaust survivors. Six countries decended on a people who said NO MORE. Which part of NO MORE is not being understood. NO MORE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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isausa
5:52 pm
Oct 31, 2011
YES!!!YES!!! :1 == (at least) 1000–ARABS
This is a dramatic illustration of the actual value of a member of a productive society which also contributes to the development & benefit of the entire world, in contrast to thousands, members of a degenerate society which exalts terrorism and destruction while living off the charity of certain (equally destructive) world power groups!
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P. scg.,
8:13 pm
Nov 06, 2011
D. Orr follows the Guardian consistent line: Israel, bad, Palestinians, Good. I guess she should reread Orwell’s Animal Farm. There are some lessons to be learned there D. Orr. Shame on you!
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