Sunday, July 8, 2012

Geraldo at Large: In Israel

Nadene Goldfoot
Fox News presented an hour long program with Geraldo Rivera broadcasting from Israel tonight that was very interesting.  He's been there for the past week getting ready for it.  I was able to see it at 7pm, which means it will be 10pm on the East Coast.

The first half hour was spent on the Israeli side of the issues with Geraldo interviewing key people.  What surprised him was headlines about Arafat and the charge coming from Palestinians of being poisoned by Israel.  The Israeli ambassador interviewed mentioned that though they didn't like him, they had lots of opportunities earlier to kill him and chose not to.  He felt that if Arafat was poisoned, it more likely would have been some Palestinian faction that did him in.  Geraldo couldn't get the Israelis to bite at the question of American politics and about Obama.  The Ambassador said that they see the president as an American only, not a Republican or Democrat.

Another item that surprised Geraldo was the demonstrations wanting the ultra orthodox community to also serve in the National Service and be drafted.  They were having demonstrations for an equal society, because up till now they didn't have to serve as the secular civilians do.  Israeli Arabs do not have to serve, either, so that makes a lot of the society who do not serve, however they are doing something and that included training for jobs, I believe.    Geraldo said that when he started going to Israel, only 3 to 4% were ultra orthodox and now it's up to 20%.

The 2nd half hour was spent interviewing by another gentleman on the Palestinian issues.  One Palestinian gentleman was managing a hotel and doing very well; a real businessman.  He sounded more like the type of person I would like to see as president.  So was another older businessman, who seemed to allude to me without coming out plainly that they would do better with other people at the head of their PA government and he is hoping the younger generation will be able to bring about peace.  They did mention that the poor image one gets of Gaza is actually coming out of the camps many have chosen to stay in, but even these are better these days. They complained about the many checkpoints they must go through, but they forget that over 1 million Israelis have been housebound by rockets, missiles and mortars coming from Gaza terrorists.  

A woman was interviewed who I have seen many times before, Dr. Hanan Ashrami, who, I just found out, is a Christian.  She is a very bitter woman, obdurate and is irascible.She went  on and on about how terrible the Israelis are, and yet she says she wants peace, but then rants on again about how Israel has stolen their land and how Jerusalem is Palestinian, so I was quite nauseated by her.  It was also brought out that the Palestinians are working for the PA, and the PA has gone through their money.  Many may now not get their paychecks.   She left Geraldo rather speechless, going on so much about how they suffer under "occupation," but the ambassador had a good retort to sum up Israel's position and mentioned lastly that when the Palestinians love their children more than they hate Israel, that is the time they will have a peaceful solution.  She certainly showed that he is right, because no one could possibly sit down and talk intelligently with this woman in my opinion.

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