Hysterical Haaretz Headline of the Day

Ha’aretz has long been little more than the Palestinian (and all other haters of Israel) Ministry of Propaganda. It competes with PressTV and Russia Today for the most inflammatory, anti-Israel “news” stories. And here’s a wonderful example from today:

Israel’s West Bank settlements grew by twice the size of New York’s Central Park in 2012

Twice the size of New York’s Central Park!!!! 7372 dunams!!! Why, thats….. let me see…… 1.3% of the total land in “Settler” hands! 0.12% of the total West Bank – excuse me, Judea Samaria! Oh the humanity!!!

Anyone who has been to New York can tell you that Central Park ain’t all that big. Its a small part of Manhattan, which itself ain’t all that big.

Here’s a map of the Central Park in New York (hint, its that little green part in the middle):

Central Park

Now here’s a map comparing the New York area with the West Bank Judea Samaria in the same scale

7000 Dunams

Of course, the Twitterverse laps this kind of thing up. Here’s a sample of the gleeful tweeting of damaging anti Israel propaganda that ensued.

Update: Our own Judge Dan just pointed out to me one of the side effects of “Israel Derangement Tweeting” (I might Trade Mark that) is the propensity to exaggerate. Here is the tweet by Jessica Montell, Executive Director of Betselem.

For those of you not good at math or at least unfamiliar with the metric system, Dan points out the error in the tweet, and Jessica is forced to correct herself:

 

30 thoughts on “Hysterical Haaretz Headline of the Day”

  1. Since I live in New York, I can fill you in on the scale. Central Park is a rectangle that stretches from 59th Street in the south to 110th Street in the north and from 5th to 8th Avenues east to west. Figure 20 street blocks to a mile and an avenue block being twice the distance of a street block. So the dimensions are around 2 1/2 miles by 1/4 mile, maybe slightly larger. Central Park isn’t even the largest park in New York City. Pelham Bay and Van Cortlandt Parks in the Bronx and Flushing Meadow Park in Queens are larger.

  2. Jim from Iowa

    Until they put up a pay wall, I was a regular, satisfied reader of Ha’aretz. I certainly don’t view this excellent newspaper in the same way as you. And another thing. If
    you really want to pursue peace with the Palestinians, it would be helpful to allow Judea and Samaria to slip into the mystic past, like the Holy Roman Empire, Camelot or Atlantis. I, like most everyone else in the world, call it the West Bank, and if they ever get their act together, the future home of Palestine at peace with Israel.

    1. Here’s the thing: “The West Bank” was a term used by Jordan when it was under their occupation. So why should I subscribe to that anachronism? Why not call it what my own government calls it in official documents? Isn’t that just as legitimate as the name used by a country that hasn’t occupied it in over 40 years?

      Maybe one day I’ll call it Palestine, but until then, you’ll excuse me if I don’t just go along with the rest of the world. If I did, I would have to call Jerusalem “Al Quds”, wouldn’t I?

      1. Jim from Iowa

        OK, I agree I would never call Jerusalem “Al Quds” or the Temple Mount the Noble Sanctuary, but notwithstanding its origins, the term “West Bank” is a generally-recognized geographic term that everyone in the world understands and is generally accepted as less politically-loaded than “Judea and Samaria.” Who other than Israelis use this terminology?

        1. Many Jews who do not live in Israel certainly do. References to Judea & Samaria fill the Torah. Cave of Machpelah is the world’s most ancient Jewish site and the second holiest place for the Jewish people, after Temple Mount in Jerusalem, in Hevron.

        2. Anyone who bothers to check on the history of the land, instead of relying on propaganda (like that in Ha’aretz), will not refer to that land as anything but Judea/Samaria. When the JORDANIANS captured that land in 1948 until the JORDANIANS lost that land in 1967, you will not find any reference mentioning the Palestinians at all.

        1. Jim from Iowa

          It displays for me. On my map the Bronx is up and the Battery’s down. New York, New York, it’s a hell of a town.

          1. For the record, the stage version of the song used the word “helluva” not “a hell of a” and in the film version, the word “helluva” was replaced altogether by the word “wonderful.” Just FYI.

            1. Jim from Iowa

              I love New York either way. At last another commenter with some interest in Broadway. That’s a helluva turn!

      2. I forgot to add that you will not find ANY reference to the “West Bank” prior to 1948. When Jordan was formed in 1923 out of 77% of the Palestine Mandate, it’s western border ended on the EAST BANK of the Jordan River! It was only for 19 years that JORDAN, not the Palestinians, had any claim to the land they occupied and called the “West Bank”! Also, why should it make a difference if most of the world uses historically incorrect terminology because they believe and have adopted Arab propaganda? It doesn’t say much for you that you are defending a point of view that you have not checked out for yourself.

    2. Sadly living side by side with Palestine at peace with Israel, is a pipe dream, as even any acts of “Normalisation” with Israel are currently punished severely. They don’t live by the dream of having their own state, they live by the hate of Jews and the desire to destroy the Jewish state, at all costs. Given this desire, let’s hope they don’t “Get their act together”.

      1. Jim from Iowa

        I agree the elements aren’t there yet. Abbas is not the guy to get it done. He is too invested in the idea that the Palestinians are victims of Israeli oppression. Normalization can only happen when the Palestinians, along with the other Arab states, accept Jews as a normal part of the Middle East. I believe that will eventually happen. Neither the Jews nor the Arabs are going anywhere.

        1. Currently the only 2 countries in ME with peace treaties with Israel don’t accept Israel as a normal part of the ME. The leader of one refers to Jews as apes and pigs, and the official press of the other walked out on masse when the Israeli journalists entered, just yesterday. Wishing for something does not make it so.

        2. Jim, you’re right about normalization. However, I don’t expect that to happen in my lifetime. Meanwhile the environment is changing, not just the military/security situation, but economically, Israel continues to grow stronger while their Arab neighbors are mired in futile resentments and internecine conflicts. There is only so much bailing out of the Palestinians the taxpayers will tolerate, especially when diplomats keep regurgitating their tired formulas with nothing to show for it.

        3. Starofdavidsxotland

          When u inculcate hatred of the Jew into every citizens explain to me Jim how normalisation is expect anytime this millennium

    3. Ha’aretz aka Ha’Hamas is host to two vile traitors – Gideon Levy and Amira Hass. Those two can walk around any two bit Gaza or west Bank village without a care in the world as nobody will harm them because they are the biggest Israel haters in the area. I expect Hass to one day pronounce the Shahada.

    4. Starofdavidsxotland

      Haaretz is a disgusting quizzlings enterprise but it proves one thing and one thing only. THE ONLY COUNTRY IN THE REGION WITH TRUE DEMOCRACY AND TRUE PRESS FREEDOM IS ISRAEL

      Hahahaahhahaharerz makes The Guardian look like Zionist Weekly

  3. Starofdavidsxotland

    Hey Jim

    And where in a Palestine map is the geographically recognised Jewish state of Israel?

    1. Jim from Iowa

      Well, Star, that is the problem, isn’t it? Do you think I’m a great defender of the Palestinians? I’m an American who knows who his real friends are. Israel is America’s friend, and the Palestinians? Forget about it. But I believe that it is in Israel’s long-term interest there be some kind of permanent separation of the Israelis and Palestinians, a two-state solution seems the most logical. Not some mixed up binational mess. Not some bloody military solution where one side wipes out the other. A lasting peace. That’s what I want for Israelis.

  4. Dear me. Reading down this thread is really depressing and makes me lose faith in humanity. How can people allow themselves to be brainwashed to such a degree? Walling HUMAN BEINGS off, denying them food, fuel, energy and free movement while arbitrarily massacring women and children (“collateral damage”, call if what you will – I call it cold blooded murder) – cannot not be defended by any creature with a conscience.

    Gideon Levy is one of many proud Israelis with the true moral courage to simply report on the truth of the non restraint of his government. People like him and Amira Haas are the true friends of the state – they are your living breathing conscience. The defender of such expansion and state brutality will ultimately pay the price of his soul.

    1. How can people allow themselves to be brainwashed to such a degree?

      I don’t know, myersmyers, how did you get to be so brainwashed that you could write, apparently with a straight face:

      Walling HUMAN BEINGS off, denying them food, fuel, energy and free movement while arbitrarily massacring women and children (“collateral damage”, call if what you will – I call it cold blooded murder)

      Is that supposed to bear any resemblance to the facts? Because it doesn’t, it is merely the product of the lurid imaginations of the Israel-haters.

  5. First of all, I am not an Israel hater. My Grandmother was Jewish, I grew up in a Jewish community, and I positively love Jewish culture, its warmth and its vibrancy.

    My issue is with the act of a right wing, expansionist occupying force in the government of a so called democracy. It is not with that country’s people.

    You can’t sit there with your head in the clouds blindly accusing everyone who criticises a lack of humanity by man to his fell0ow man as an anti-semite”. You can’t deny the truth of a situation because that truth is uncomfortable, or because of plain cultural bias. Before the Israeli government imposed a ban on journalists travelling to Gaza for “security reasons” a few years ago, all the stuff I mentioned above was happening in front of the worlds press. To deny it is frankly absurd. The facts are out there if you’d care to look. Any human being with a conscience owes it to himself to question the brutality of such a regime. Regardless of his race and background.

    “Whoever destroys a soul, it is considered as if he destroyed an entire world. And whoever saves a life, it is considered as if he saved an entire world.”

    – Mishnah Sanhedrin 4:9; Babylonian Talmud Tractate Sanhedrin 37a

  6. ” He is too invested in the idea that the Palestinians are victims of Israeli oppression.”

    er… They ARE?

    Homes bulldozed, illegal settlements, pregnant women dying at checkpoints. Somewhere around a third of the residents of Gaza are under 15. So guess who dies when the IDF employs phosphorous weapons and obliterates residential areas from the sky against a people with no true state independence and no true means to defend themselves?.

    Every conflict has two sides. But the situation is best summed up by Israeli historian Professor Avi Shlaim who described it thusly “An Eye For An Eyelash”.

    1. Oh please, regurgitate some more of that anti-Israel propaganda. More ignorant, one-sided slogans!!! Please, do go on, you’re almost convincing me! (that you are a vacuous cipher)

  7. Jono – rather than engaging in sapid, moronic, empty rhetoric, would you care to point out WHY my statements constitute propaganda or are factually incorrect?

    I can site examples. Documented by the world’s press.

    Or perhaps the world’s press are all involved in a clandestine plot to bomb civilians in Gaza and then film it and blame it on Israel?

    Let me ask you something. Read back your last statement carefully. Take off the blinders of cultural bias.

    1. Because I live here, have served in the IDF and actually know whats going on rather than relying on the lies that you are being fed by the anti-Israel media. Pull your head out of your ass kid. Not everything you see on TV or read on the Internet is real.

      And I’m not going to debate you any further on the matter. I can’t convince an anti-Semitic (despite your bogus claims you are a Jew – you’re not a real Jew), crypto Nazi asshole like yourself one way or another, so why should I bother. On any other site you would have been banned by now, but this thread is so old, it really doesn’t matter. This is my last post, and I won’t be reading any more of yours.

  8. PS… Jono, You’re right, I probably wouldn’t know a fact if it raped me. Especially it was behind me.

    To expound upon your analogy, you, however, are raping the facts from the front with your eyes wide open.

    You haven’t said one thing in this thread worthy of supporting a counter argument. You are a small minded individual who has been blinded and brainwashed by an oppressive regime. Whatever nasty, irrelevant little comeback you choose to post next, I suggest you make yourself comfortable with this fact.

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