Assisting Lisa Goldman in her balancing act

In her +972 resume Lisa Goldman proudly states: "I am the director of the Israel-Palestine Initiative at the New America Foundation NYC." That New America Foundation thing is a bit of a dark horse. Unless, of course, you know how to decipher "dedicated to big ideas and lively conversation", coupled with such an impressive list of sponsors.

Whatever (NAF) New America Foundation stands for, aside of big ideas and lively conversation, you must agree that "Israel-Palestine Initiative" sounds good. Israel and Palestine or Palestine and Israel, whatever, it sounds as a declaration of New America's vision: truth serving, objective and - beyond all - balanced approach to Israel and Palestine (or Palestine and Israel). Unfortunately, the NAF site doesn't contain any articles by Lisa, aside of a few references to some outside publications and hints of some events she is either participating in or organizing. So that fair and balanced approach could be still glimpsed only in her +972 articles, like this one:

Investigation of Abu Khdeir murder tainted by racism, police incompetence

Let's first dispose of that "racism" sticker. Lisa, like many a progressive debater in a hurry, seems to misuse this term quite freely - even speaking about people of same race, like Jews and Arabs. Funnily, the picture she used to illustrate her article is telling:

I bet that 90% of world population that don't know (or care) about our local peculiarities and local languages will have a hard time distinguishing between the Arab and Jew in this picture, even when one of the two is equipped with yarmulke and the picture of the second is adorned with an Arabic caption. So here I helped Lisa a bit with finding some balance already, but wait, it's only a beginning.

Now to police incompetence. Not that it is secret that our cops are as much of a Keystone ones as anywhere else. But again - that's all about balance, isn't it. So let's take a look at an affair mentioned by Lisa: "the murders of three Jewish boys abducted by Hebron-area men who were linked to Hamas". Mentioned, I have to add, without any links, when the rest of the article is literally peppered with links to all and sundry. But no matter, it is easy to find some links. And you know what, in this case we have a glaring issue of police incompetence as well:

The handling of the call represented a severe failure “that ran along the entire chain of command at the center, crossing a series of police, officers and commanders,” police said on Monday.

Should we cry "racism"? After all there are some Arab, Druze and other police officers in Israel, so possibly... nah, let's leave it at that and proceed with the balancing act. Meanwhile, we already can amend the headline:

Investigation of Abu Khdeir, Naftali Fraenkel, Gilad Shaer and Eyal Yifrah murders tainted by police incompetence


Now to the next sentence that requires some balance:

The abduction and immolation of Mohammed Abu Khdeir shocked Israelis and was the catalyst for violent demonstrations in East Jerusalem.

Hm... difficult: there practically wasn't any violent response by Jews after the murder of Naftali Fraenkel, Gilad Shaer and Eyal Yifrah, at any rate not even remotely resembling the rioting following the grisly murder of Mohammed Abu Khdeir. Still, for the sake of symmetry:

Hamas released a statement saying that "Our people will not let this crime pass.... You will pay the price for these crimes."

And:

Rachel Fraenkel, mother of 16 year-old Naftali, when she heard that a Palestinian teenager had been murdered in apparent revenge for her son, condemned it immediately. She broke into her own period of mourning to issue a statement: "There is no difference between blood and blood. Murder is murder. There is no justification and no atonement for murder."

As for the next surprising statement on Lisa's agenda:

Riot police responded by invading East Jerusalem and using crowd control methods ranging from tear gas and rubber bullets to severe beatings and mass arrests.

Here, I am at a loss. On one hand we have what Lisa calls "violent demonstrations". On the other, cruel and totally unexpected "crowd control methods" by police. I bet in the universe Lisa and her friends from +972 inhabit, police meets "violent demonstrations" by flowers and welcoming speeches. So I can't find any symmetry in this instance, I confess.

And now, instead of being critical, I shall search for a perfectly balanced sentence by Lisa herself. And here it comes:

Lone Palestinians have carried out stabbings and deliberate hit-and-runs against Jewish civilians, while paramilitary police have responded with increasing violence.

Now we have it and can relax.

And finish the whole with a typical example of Palestinian Authority propaganda "symmetry" Lisa should use as a beacon:

That's the ticket, Lisa, but I'm sure you will get there eventually by yourself.