Foreign Affairs

Last edited Fri Nov 15, 2024, 01:10 PM - Edit history (2)

actions other than the English clubs etc. I meant that the Israeli clubs have acted this way towards the the other clubs in Israel and the West Bank. I remember reports of fires set at club facilities etc. According to one report I read the other day it is still only a smattering of players who are Israeli citizens of Arab descent who feel safe being known to play for clubs in the PFA. There is one famous Israeli club, Beitar Jerusalem, that up until a new owner bought it in 2020 was famous for loudly proclaiming pride in refusing to have any Arab players. I don't know how much progress they have made. They were the darling of the radical right in Israel.

Obviously a big question about the Amsterdam situation is how and why did this story get presented initially as so one-sided and for so many days? I would imagine a question that will never get much print is the role of organized propaganda efforts, their funding/extent of operations etc. We know that it exists and likely much of the funding is from "charitable" organizations. It is similar to the silence about these same kinds of organizations fund-raising to send American citizens for "vacations/trips" to Israel to have them provide administrative support/non-combat support at IDF bases in Israel.

That kind of thing is dubious at best and it points to the larger question of why the tax exempt donations are allowed to be used to provide support services to a military engaged in active conflict. One of the things we found during Iran-Contra was how a tangled, unaccountable mess could quickly evolve when a mish-mash of players are out telling lies in order to get donations and then cooking up their own intelligence/covert actions, making weapons deals etc.

Here is a link about Beitar Jerusalem and an example of 2 organizations with that support I referenced. There are more if one keeps exploring and the point being that the American public at large just has no idea the level of support and the extent of IDF leaders setting these groups in motion here and helping to oversee their growth. We at least have awareness and a debate? Right now if you ask Americans what our support to Israel is for the Gaza action they would nearly universally say "we're just providing weapons" when in fact it is far more than that. Our military people have been there from before the invasion and still are providing planning and logistics. Here also are links about that. The point being that the lack of awareness to the reality ends up with a population focused on only a selective part of the picture.

But it is an example, even among the more progressive sites in this country, of how narratives are shaped and distort reality. For example, nearly without exception the Western media does not source or quote Arab media for anything in the Middle East not just Israel but for anything. Their usual "justification" if they even give one is that Arab media isn't "objective" and "has an agenda". But they routinely embrace the Jerusalem Post, Times of Israel, Haaretz and others and somehow want to declare them bastions of "objectivity" and lacking an "agenda"? Good grief. But the big Western media somehow believes that if I want to read about the progress of a Saudi commercial development, for example, the only place I should go to is an Israeli or Western publication? Unbelievable but it is the situation we have now in media and I point all of this lengthy post as part of the answer, I guess to my own question, as to how the Amsterdam story got so misrepresented for so many days.

https://apnews.com/general-news-3173303b3ce7ced6f71cd8955f24af63

https://www.sar-el.org/

https://www.fidf.org/how-we-help/

https://www.israelhayom.com/2023/12/13/meet-the-american-volunteer-providing-top-of-range-equipment-to-idf-soldiers/

https://www.israelhayom.com/2023/10/24/pentagon-rushes-defenses-advisers-to-israel-as-gaza-ground-offensive-nears/#:~:text=The%20Pentagon%20has%20sent%20military%20advisors%2C%20including%20a,anticipated%20ground%20assault%20into%20the%20Hamas-controlled%20Gaza%20Strip.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/us-sends-senior-army-officers-to-israel-to-advise-idf-on-gaza-ground-operation-plans/

https://www.stripes.com/theaters/middle_east/2024-11-04/house-lawmakers-troops-middle-east-constitution-15735905.html