Steinfeld Responds

In an earlier post I wrote about a left wing Jewish Voices function I attended. One of the Israeli guests I criticized from the night has responded in the comments section, saying that she stumbled upon this blog accidentally. Sure, if you can describe deliberately searching for your own name on Google at 00:45 am and then clicking on the results accidental. Here is her response, poor spelling and all.

I happen to stumble across this article accidentally and since I personally am discussed in it, I feel that I must respond. My own and Ayal Hareuveni's statements are blatently misquoted and distorted as is much of what is "reported" here. Obviousely this writer is not interested in actually reporting what was said but in simply insulting myself and Ayal and Jewish Voices. The writer apparently states that he was at this meeting and it was rather a small meeting but I have no recollection of him. PErhaps he sat sullenly in some corner or made some comment that was totally unmemmorable. We were certainly available for discussion, should he have been interested in one and a deeper understanding of our message. We were, in fact, quite in agreement with the "expert" who was there, who took the liberty to speak for a longer time. We were told that we have 20 minuets to present our views and so had to make do with a brief statement. In any case, I feel that all discussion is a good thing, especially within the Jewish community as the Jewish community is important to Israel. It seems the author concludes that withdrawl from the territories is a good thing, so oddly, we seem to be in agreement there as well. One of our main points is that the occupation of Palestinian territories is destructive to Israel. PErhaps the author was not listening. It seems that the main point of this article is simply to insult myself, Ayal and JEwish Voices. PErhaps he simply needs to vent his anger on somebody as I can't make out any real point in his statements here. As to the opposition to the separation wall. It is in fact a land grab and I don't see how the author can dispute that. It seems that his main objection is that Jewish Voices did something in cooperation with a pro-Palestinain group. In my opinion, cooperation is important and a step towards peace,which we so desperately need in our country. Nurit Steinfeld

Nurit’s response is really a gallery of empty denials and accusations. Most of her response just insults and so there isn't much for me to respond to. For an example of her hysterical and exaggerated take on things, see this petition which Nurit has penned her name to. The petition asserts that Israel may exploit the Iraq war to commit “full fledged ethnic cleansing.”

Nurit says her statements were distorted but she fails to detail which of her statements she refers to.

In refuting my account of the evening she reverts to the common practice of denial, questioning whether I actually attended the meeting. “The writer apparently states that he was at this meeting and it was rather a small meeting but I have no recollection of him.”

She doesn’t address my point about the deceptive nature of the evening – that we were supposed to debate the possibilities for peace after the Arafat era; rather she uses an excuse about only having 20 minutes to present her views. If 20 minutes was not enough time then she should have cut down on the general views she presented, concentrating on the topic at hand.

Some questions I have...
Nurit, why when asked if Israel had complied with the Israeli Supreme Court ruling on the security barrier did you and Ayal pretend that the question referred to the Hague ruling?

Why after I corrected you did you not admit that Israel had revised the route and complied with the ruling of the Supreme Court?

Why when further pressed on the issue did your friend Ayal only concede that the route had changed “a little…near Jerusalem”, when the new route shows otherwise?

UPDATE
A reader reminds me that I missed something. Nurit says "We were, in fact, quite in agreement with the "expert" who was there, who took the liberty to speak for a longer time."

Do I detect a certain unliberal form of hostility here as she euphemistically describes Benjamin taking the liberty of extending his time? And what's with the scare quotes around "expert"?

Comments

[Gaza-man]

I knew I had to swing by today for a sneak peek. Something in my well-worn-opium-smuggling boots said "Go check that supernatural webpage out"!

You're perfectly correct about her empty corrections. I was waiting for her to attack specific points and say things like "I didn't say 'bla bla bla', I said 'bla bla I hate Israel bla bla bla'" You know, stuff like that. Oh well!

[Steve]

Thanks

[Anti-UN]

She thinks Israel were going to ethnically cleanse (genocide) the Palistinians!

Head Heeb writes

"If the word "Zionism" has been defined to its extreme, then the term "genocide," in the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, has undergone exactly the opposite metamorphosis. The definition of genocide is well established in international law. Article 6 of the Rome Statute defines it as follows:

... any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:

(a) Killing members of the group;
(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

The key phrase is the one defining the mens rea - that, in order to constitute genocide, an act must be undertaken "with intent to destroy" a national, ethnic, racial or religious group. There is a notable lack of intent among Israelis to destroy the Palestinian ethnic/national group as such. Even the far-right Herut does not advocate the physical or cultural destruction of the Palestinians. Instead, Herut advocates mass deportation, which is arguably a crime against humanity but is not genocide. And the mainstream of Israeli politics, which rejects transfer and recognizes the inevitability of a Palestinian state, is devoid of any desire to destroy the Palestinian people.

The term "genocide" was never intended to encompass killings in battle or anti-terrorist curfews. It is possible to question the legality of such things, but calling them "genocide" is an unconscionable trivialization of the term. It is an insult to the 800,000 Tutsi killed in Rwanda, or the millions who now face starvation in Matabeleland as a result of the Zimbabwe government's food distribution policies."

[Gaza-man]

Commenting on your "Update", I think Steinfeld uses the "scare quotes" because "you" used the word "expert". I "think" that "maybe" there was nothing "melicious" about it, OR "perhaps" she may be disputing the word "expert", as if to say "Although YOU used the word expert which I will use here because YOU did, MANY OTHER people may dispute that fact". But that's just my opinion.

Don't fight too much, I'm going back to my olive tree vinyard to make me some explosives! See you guys in aa couple of weeks when I get past the security check points!

[Steve]

She is disputing my calling hm an expert. But Jewish Voices brought him to the meeting because he is acknowledged in SA as an expert on the M.E.

He is left wing when it comes to Israeli politics, that is the irony of it all.

[Nurit Steinfeld]

It's been a long time but a friend of mine mentioned that he read this and I looked it up to see what he was talking about.
You seem rather lame, getting all excited about my use of quotes, accusing me of saying that Israel is planning to commit genocide (I never said that), criticizing my spelling, getting excited about my imagination....perhaps you have nothing better to do...but this isn't a very interesting discussion there is just a lot of hartred and pettiness here.

[Nurit Steinfeld]

It's been a long time but a friend of mine mentioned that he read this and I looked it up to see what he was talking about.
You seem rather lame, getting all excited about my use of quotes, accusing me of saying that Israel is planning to commit genocide (I never said that), criticizing my spelling, getting excited about my imagination....perhaps you have nothing better to do...but this isn't a very interesting discussion there is just a lot of hate and pettiness here.

[Steve]

Nurit, I know you didnt say that Israel was planning to commit genocide.

But you did sign a petition that warned of Israel planning to commit full fledged ethnic cleansing.

Maybe if you in SA again some time in the future we can get together and discuss our dispute rationally and reasonably.