CiFWatch produced an incisive commentary about the Guardian’s Israel correspondent Harriet Sherwood, and her striving to connect the dots of various aspects of Israeli political and social society. Thus she manages to combine in one article:
1. The recent anti-BDS bill which passed in the Knesset.
2. A proposal to give Israeli MKs some say in Israeli Supreme Court nominations.
3. Israeli nursery school students singing the national anthem.
The article is worth reading for its insights into Sherwood’s misrepresentation of Israel’s anti-boycott law as well as the proposed law to change the election process of Supreme Court judges.
However it is Sherwood’s final paragraph that rouses CiFW’s ire as well as my own.
Finally, her concluding paragraph contains information even more tangential to the story she’s ostensibly reporting.
“In a separate development, nursery schools in Israel are to be required to raise the Israeli flag and sing the national anthem at least once a week to strengthen children’s Zionist values.”
Unless Sherwood meant to say, “In a separate AND COMPLETELY UNRELATED development”, I honestly don’t know what ties in the last passage with rest of the report.
But, of course, I’m not being completely sincere, as I fully understand that she’s trying to characterize the new requirement by the education ministry as another sign of Israel’s lurch to the far right.
McDonald's late unlamented McFalafel
In a similar, and totally related, development, Harriet Sherwood reports on McDonald’s withdrawing its McFalafel from Israeli restaurants due to its unpopularity.
So far so tasty.
Then she scrambles her omelette by adding in this nasty little aside right at the end:
Falafel is thought to have originated in Egypt, although Israel now claims it as a national dish.
Oh! Those thieving Israelis! Not only content to steal other people’s land, now they go and steal other people’s foods! They can claim it as their national dish but we liberal-minded people know better.
Once again Sherwood betrays her bias by inserting an unrelated dig at Israel.
May she stew in her own falafel oil.
Anne's Opinions 
Umm..now let’s see: fish and chips, quintessentially British, no? Not according to history: fried fish, East European Jews, chips, the Irish. And beef was being roasted all over Europe, and it’s quite likely that something like Yorkshire Pudding (you’ll have to explain, anne, as I don’t eat beef) will be found all over Europe as well. And we could argue all night about dumplings v. Kneidlach.
What nonsense this woman writes: cultures everywhere borrow food that seems good. Do you think she’s even aware of the influence that the Indians, the Chinese and the dreaded French have had on British food? And as for the Italians and pizza and spaghetti…
It’s worse than nasty, it’s actually an antisemitic trope, even if she doesn’t intend it as such.
Heh. Good one Brian! (I’m not actually sure what Yorkshire Pud is made of… ).
Excellent point. As a friend of mine told me: “These insidious so British antisemitic comments really annoy me – The veneer of politeness overlaying downright bigotry.”
Yorkshire pudding is made of batter from flour and water (maybe milk, if one isn’t kosher) and baked in a tin with small compartments, up to 6 of them. It can be made in a large cake tin and divided up between all the diners. Mainly, it has no taste and needs gravy to give it “tum”.
Lemme ‘splain, Harriet. In 1948, Egypt had 75,000 Jews. Currently, it has less than a hundred. Most of those people headed to Israel, after state persecution and confiscation of their property. In 1956, the Minister of Religious affairs announced that ‘all Jews are Zionists and enemies of the state’, and promised to expel them. Almost no one managed to stay after the 1967 war.
In Israel, these fine people continued to make felafel, and along with other Jews from the region popularized it with the multicultural population of the new nation.
Now, of course, not only is their right of return to Egypt not a potent talking point with left-wing pundits, but even their right to make and eat felafel is apparently up for grabs.
Eejit.
Hi Balabusta in Blue Jeans, Welcome to my blog. (Love your nic, LOL!).
You raise excellent points in your comment. Of course Sherwood and her employers could find out these facts for themselves if they would only indulge in that basic journalistic exercise called “research”. Their prejudices are open for all to see.
(And thanks for the link on your blog 🙂 )
and as for anything”American”. Americans have “stolen” pizza as their national food ntoto mention practically every town in America is named after places all over the wold! Anybody mentioning stolen? As for nurseries sing the hatikva-whats wrong with it? In many countries schools are required to sing their national anthem. Its high time Israelis are given national pride education lessons after the left have made zionism a dirty word