Krembos & Ketyushas

Consider this story, recently carried as "Odd news" by Reuters:

Marshmallow treats stopped from leaving Gaza
Mon Nov 21, 2005 10:39 AM ET

The Chief Rabbinate, which ensures anything labeled as kosher complies with the Jewish dietary law, said the boxes of "krembos" were sent back because they had forged kosher seals.

A spokeswoman for the Chief Rabbinate said Israel does not import any of its krembos. The round chocolate shells filled with flavored marshmallow cream on a biscuit are one of the country's most popular winter snack foods.

The Karni crossing from Gaza was reopened last week under a U.S.-brokered deal to ease restrictions on the 1.4 million Palestinians living in the impoverished territory following Israel's withdrawal in September.

Israel inspects all goods leaving Gaza closely, saying it must do so to prevent the smuggling of weapons or suicide bombers by militants waging an uprising.

Palestinian businesses complain that checks cause costly delays and sometimes mean perishable goods are ruined before they can be exported to Israel, the West Bank or beyond.

OK. not the most devastating thing in the universe. But consider the reverse: if an Israeli company shipped snacks containing pig fat to the PA. What would happen? Riots. World condemnation. UN resolutions. Accusations of aparthied, of racist Jews with no respect for innocent Muslims, et cetera, ad nauseum.

Meanwhile, the ketyushas and mortar shells fall on the northern settlements in the most serious and intensive attack on Israel by the Hizbullah in years. Oh, the deafening outcry from the world!


The Oh-so-neutral BBC, again

In brief, on Monday, 21 Nov, the Hizbollah launched a broad offensive in a number of places along Israel's border with Lebanon. Following a rocket and border barrage, terrorists crossed the border intending on kidnap Israeli soldiers. Far beyond a mere military attack, rockets and mortar shells were directed against civilian towns all along the northern border. The BBC, though, seemed to ignore much of this in its continuing atttempt at "neutrality":

HEADLINE: DEADLY CLASH ON LEBANESE BORDER

Israeli troops have killed three Hezbollah fighters during a guerrilla attack near the Lebanese border, which also left several Israelis wounded.

No civilian targets? Mass-terrorism becomes a "clash"? Terrorists are now "fighters", a nice, neutral term?

Please refer to the fine and in-depth analysis on this at Honest Reporting


Denial of Legitimacy

What's the connection? Very simple: when you allow your own legitamacy to be denied, then any attack, whether of fire or of food, becomes legitimate itself.

Non-observant Israelis, by marginalizing Kashrut concerns, give ex-post-facto approval to the foreign press to regard cultural terrorism to become "Odd News".

The issue isn't the krembos or the kashrut -- it's the marginalizing (thus, delegitimizing) of something that, had it been reversed, would have had the world up in arms.


Knee-jerks

Perhaps I'm just used to the press (both Israeli and world) and the State Prosecutor here having knee-jerk reactions over the reverse. People have been jailed for a couple of years or more for leaving a pig's head on the grave of the 1930's Palestinian terrorist Izz el-Deen al-Qassam, the inspiration for Hamas:

Attacks on mosques could lead to an Israeli Arab revolt, the Islamic Movement's northern branch leader, Sheikh Raed Salah, said on Friday during a rally at the Hassan Bek Mosque in southern Tel Aviv, one week after a pig's head was thrown into the mosque. Haaretz (reposted) Friday, Aug. 26, 2005 22:18

Then there's Tatiana Suskind, a Jewish girl living in Hevron, who planned to circulate a drawing of Muhhammed as a pig, and got prison time for that henious crime. Not circulated: planned to circulate.

Had someone had tossed the same head into a synagogue, they'd merely be fined for littering for their stupidity. Or less... as the case of the frat student, who, thinking he was posting his pig's head in front of a vegetarian restaurant, put it at a Kosher one instead. He got a mention in the news, had to apologize, and pay $50 to pick up the garbage.

The State Prosecutor's Office and Shabaq (Israeli secret police) are very straightforward why they're so hard on this: they fear that these actions will endanger the State, in their words.

Take for example, this gem:

JERUSALEM (JTA) (Friday April 2, 1999) -- Two Israeli extremists were convicted Tuesday on charges that included incitement, arson and sedition.

Avigdor Eskin and Damien Pakovitch were found guilty of placing a pig's head on the grave of Islamic leader Izz aDin al-Kassam, torching the Jerusalem offices of the Dor Shalom peace movement, and planning to put a pig's head on the Temple Mount.

The judge wrote in his verdict that if the Temple Mount plot had succeeded, it could have led to war with the Muslim world and perhaps even to the destruction of Israel.

Wow. He must think the State is really fragile, if a mere act of stupidity can bring about its destruction.


Intention

Some see this as a kind of 'intention' thing, too: if the intention of the piggers is to frighten or anger someone, then they see this as a big difference from someone falsely labeling something as kosher.


The real point

The labeling fraud had two purposes:

one, to make a quick buck, and

two, to step on the stupid Jews

A bona-fide kashrut seal does cost money, because the manufacturers have to pay for the time and effort -- and sometimes considerable expenses -- of expert kashrut inspectors, who trace the origin of all chemicals and ingredients that go into a manufactured food product.

But what is more to the point here is that Arabs who get away with that sort of thing can "count coup". Unfortunately, when they can get away a little thing, often it grows.

By getting the world press and public opinion used to making nothing of a direct attack against Judaism, they lay the groundwork for trivializing blatant and bloody attacks against unarmed non-combattants.