26 August 2013

Lisa Goldman - the Open Zion's incoming senior editor. Congrats, Lisa!

Well, Open Zion is a step up from the fledgling +972, I think. And the initial broadside from Lisa in her new post was nothing if not auspicious.

When the children of south Tel Aviv head back to school on Tuesday, kindergarteners will attend facilities that are segregated by race. The children of asylum seekers from sub-Saharan Africa will go to their kindergartens and all the other kids will go to their own. As of this year, the municipality of Israel's most liberal city decided that separate-but-equal for three-to-six year olds was the way to go—in 2013.
Oh boy, oh boy: not a day on the job, and already such a juicy Zionist atrocity.

Only to be answered by a commenter JJ1987:
I think the main contention of the "racial segregation" argument runs into trouble here (in a paragraph conveniently buried 9 paragraphs in to a 12 paragraph article): "The non-Jewish children from other regions, like Southeast Asia and Europe, will continue to attend the "Jewish" municipal kindergartens. Presumably Ethiopian Jewish children have been attending the mixed schools all along, and will continue to do so."

If in most kindergartens the situation is that Jew, non-Jew, European, Asian and African all mix together (indeed, the author even refers to these kindergartens as "mixed schools"), then arguing that there is "racial segregation" in Tel Aviv kindergartens seems unnecessarily hysterical and actively misleading. There is, in fact, racial mixing in most kindergartens in Tel Aviv. At that point, there just isn't racial segregation - you can't call a racially mixed kindergarten "racially segregated", it's a contradiction in terms.

Indeed, the only distinction that does exist isn't based on race at all, it's based on whether the person is legally a citizen of the country or not. And whilst some people (and it's far from a majority) have an issue with making a distinction on that basis, distinguishing in provision of public services based on whether someone is in a country legally or not is something that basically every country on Earth does to a greater or lesser degree. Tel Aviv, and Israel, are not at all out of the ordinary in that regard. But I suppose a headline saying, "Tel Aviv/Israel does what basically every city/country does", doesn't make much of an impact.
Nothing to add (and the emphasis mine).

Aside of expressing my confusion on one account: being a relatively newly minted anti-Zionist, Lisa is bent on presenting the Zionist Entity in the worst possible light. Being a reporter, she is time after time unable to avoid putting into a generally anti-Zionist article a passage or two that completely destroy the whole edifice. Like in the case described above, or this other recent case. Why is that?

But in the Open Zion she will be tutored by the best, I am sure, so the awkward cases like these will disappear eventually.

Update: and another comment (by Bar) to the same article, a real doozy that must be read in its entirety:
The article from which Goldman sourced this piece includes the following paragraph (translation via Google Translate):
"Yael Gewirtz, who founded the Association Elifelet - Citizens for refugee children, which helps kindergartens, welcomes the initiative of the municipality: "As someone who knows the needs in the field, I think it's a great idea if you really invest the necessary resources to meet the needs of these children and prepare them to their encounter in class a [First grade] with Israeli children are coming into a place of equal opportunities and capabilities."


Obviously, Goldman saw this but instead of respecting the opinion of the local expert whose life revolves around helping these foreign children, she buries it and molests the sentiment by claiming that this woman is somewhat "dubious" about the entire project.

So another way of having reported this piece would have been something along the lines of, "Israel's Most Liberal City Introduces a Program to Help New Asylum Seekers" and its content would elaborate on questions of special language and cultural needs, in light of the significant discrepancies these new arrivals face in coming to Israel and how Tel Aviv, cognizant of these concerns, is creating a program to alleviate the problems and hopefully ease their transition to school and Israeli society.

Don't you worry, dear Open Zion editors, about your professional credibility or is being anti-Israel so "in" these days that it doesn't matter how the truth is twisted as long as the attacked party is Israel?

10 comments:

SnoopyTheGoon said...

So they're separated by citizenship which, in some cases, includes race, and therefore... Lisa really is a flamer, isn't she?

SnoopyTheGoon said...

And this is the best way to get on Prof Beinart's good side. And get the job.

SnoopyTheGoon said...

If it were about anything other than Jews, the shoddy journalism Beinart now presides over editorially would seriously damage his career. In a journalistic universe containg the Guardian, BBC, Reuters, and more, however, it sadly won't make a difference.

SnoopyTheGoon said...

I used to have some respect for Beinart, not to mention for Lisa, who used to display some sterling reporter's qualities at the time. Pity, what mess she got herself into. Too bad, what can I say.

SnoopyTheGoon said...

Sorry Snoopy but let me disagree. Lisele has the IQ of a mentally challenged amoeba. Open Zion is doomed...

SnoopyTheGoon said...

Well, lets' agree to disagree on this specific point, but the fate of Open Zion and, indeed, the whole The Daily Beast is an interesting question now that they got a new owner.

SnoopyTheGoon said...

I participated in the comments in the thread you link to, snoop. I have concluded that Open Zion is about as wholesome as Mondoweiss: it attracts all the scum and villains that populate that Mos Eisley dump and I openly wondered if Beinart is vying for a place next to Philip Weiss on Measheimer's and Walt's list of "Righteous Jews".


How can Beinart and now Goldman be so utterly stupid? It's as if they have come under some evil spell, I swear; what other explanation can there be for such frenzied madness? Have they not one iota of shame?

SnoopyTheGoon said...

The Daily Beast is the failed Newsweak in disguise. So Lisele would have to toe the Lefty line to get a job with any of their offspring. Gotta make the rent, babee.

SnoopyTheGoon said...

Yep, I have seen your comments. Indeed, the scum is over there in full volume. As for Beinart and Goldman's approach: beats me. Cannot figure out what they think to gain with clumsy half-lying that crumbles before it is published.

SnoopyTheGoon said...

That they do, quite faithfully.