Remember Richard “I’m not white” Silverstein? Of course you do. One is not likely to forget him for long—I know he takes my mind off my writing at Kars for Kids—since he keeps reminding us of his most unfortunate (colored) existence. This time he uses his Twitter account, for which he misappropriates the term “Tikun Olam” (world repair), to once again cast the land of his birthright in a negative light.
Here Silverstein perpetuates one of his favorite myths: that Israel is filled with rootin’ tootin’ serial killer cowboys who love to shoot up the saloon, or in any event, a village filled with poor Palestinian women and children (A/K/A human shields).
It’s all nonsense, of course. Israel developed the superlative weapon, the Tavor, which takes the Israeli-made Uzi to the next level, for the same reason it develops all its other weaponry: to defend itself from the bloodthirsty enemy who lives alongside Israeli civilians, sharing its public transport, hospitals, and roads. Israel has had lots of practice making decent guns just to stay upright in the Middle East and rightly deserves some credit, this time from the NRA.
But in a hat tip to Victimology 101, Silverstein blames the victim for defending itself with guns that actually work. He would much prefer us to just lie down and die.
The funny thing about Israel-haters like Silverstein is the very shallowness of their claims. The truth would turn their claims on their heads, so they twist the truth into an unrecognizable pretzel and serve it up whole. The truth just wouldn’t do the trick: it wouldn’t make you hate Israel.
So what good is the truth to people like Richard Silverstein?
