What Do Israelis Think About Americans? Start With Disdain.

[Purveyor]

By Naomi Zeveloff
Published March 08, 2015, issue of March 13, 2015.

Jerusalem — Though Israel is a famously fractious society, Israelis tend to agree on one thing: Their strongest supporters are an inherently dupable people.

“Most Israelis think Americans are pro-Israel and we can sell them anything, especially mud from the Dead Sea,” said David Lifshitz, the lead writer for the Israeli comedy show “Eretz Nehederet,” or “Wonderful Land.”

“Or — just regular mud with a ‘Dead Sea’ sticker on it.”

But it’s not just American tourists whom many Israelis see as guileless. American foreign policy is held up to similar scrutiny here, even as Israel receives billions of dollars in foreign aid from the United States each year.

“Americans are perceived to be naive, especially when it comes to the Middle East,” said Uri Dromi, who served as a spokesman for the Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres governments. “It is a bad neighborhood and it seems like they just don’t realize it.”

The naivete Israelis perceive in Americans is not just something they believe only Israel’s adversaries exploit; Israelis believe they can do so, too — and do. In a secretly recorded video of a 2001 discussion with a group of terror victims in the Ofra settlement in the Israeli occupied West Bank, now-Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu laid out this widely held perception.

“I know what America is,” Netanyahu, told the settlers. “America is a thing that can be easily moved, moved in the right direction.”

Read more: http://forward.com/articles/216074/what-do-israelis-think-about-americans-start-with/?p=all#ixzz3UCWzjdbw

[leveymg]

1. "I will not bite the hand that feeds me Butterfingers"

[phantom power]

2. We haven't given them any reason to think otherwise. Maybe we should reconsider.

[obxhead]

4. Yep.

[geek tragedy]

3. Why should they respect us? We haven't earned it by

treating them as an equal, instead we bow and scrape before this tiny country across the world.

[erronis]

7. Oh come on now. Haven't we paid enough for their respect?

I bet we send many billions of our tax $s to somebody over there every year.

And I bet we don't have to really account for it because we have this "special relationship" and they are the perennially "persecuted" ones.

And I bet that many millions of those $s come back to line the pockets of the lobbyists and spouting necks. And I bet those millions aren't reported so our tax burden is somewhat reduced.

It's not just the Zionists that are laughing at us; it's every lobbying/military/corporate thief around the world and beltway that thinks the Americans are a bunch of dupes.

Yup.

[abelenkpe]

5. Maybe not always so

if these articles are correct

http://www.salon.com/2014/08/01/millennials_are_so_over_israel_a_new_generation_is_outraged_over_gaza_demands_change/

http://thehill.com/policy/international/214756-are-us-millenials-turning-away-from-israel

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/08/01/1318456/-Millennial-Support-for-Israel-Plummets#

[mwrguy]

6. They think we are sheep to be fleeced

[paleotn]

8. Oh, so that's how those in the .....

only democratic postage stamp in the middle east really feel about us. When it comes to trouble and consternation per square hectare, Israel beats all of our supposed allies. We should have cut them lose and let them stand or fall on their own decades ago.

[bravenak]

9. I wish America would listen to millenials.

We know this and have no illusions about Israel. The older we get the less support Israel will recieve. Our future leaders will not be attending speeches in congress aginst our own democratic presidents. We do not support funding Israel militarily. We will not magically start supporting them because pur parents did. Israel should reflect on the support that is bleeding from them and try to reach out and come up with a plan for letting go of Palestine. We grew up watching ISRAEL bomb GAZA and oppress Palestinians. Not the other way around. We know who is being victimized in that region. The children of Gaza suffer. We see it. No amount of exolaining or calling us antisemite will change the fact the we see children living in garbage and rubble in Gaza City while we see Nightclubs and Shops in Tel Aviv. And I won't even mention the land thefts. The internet has exposed Israel for what it is. I know they find us distainful. All you hav to do is read the comments section of any Israeli publication and you will see the depths of their dislike for America and the left. Especially the left.

[roguevalley]

10. personally, if they want to think so, I laugh.

the americans they think are so dumb are only helping them to bring about the apocalypse. if they don't convert, they will be killed. Who is the stupid one now? right? Right?

Both sides are. Sigh.

[Martin Eden]

11. We are Israel's cash cow, no matter what

And Netanyahu also wants us to fight wars for them.