Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Paris and London: A Tale of Two Cities

The front page of Haaretz this morning carried these two stories: In France, Israel is becoming trendy, especially Israeli literature and arts, but this is happening in a generally positive light. Meanwhile, at the other end of the Chunnel, in London Israel is regarded more and more as the most evil country on earth, and it has become bon-ton to talk about dismantling it and replacing it with something else.

The French turnabout is surprising and needs to be explained. The British story is what you'd expect of a country where respectable newspapers consistently lie (see previous post). Then again, to be fair, it's worth pointing out that many of the instigators of the anti-Israeli actions in the UK are... Israelis. They belong to the farthest fringe of Israeli loonies, but in London they're popular and eagerly sought guests.

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