Hamas Chief: Oy! Such Tsoris We Have — And Now This?
Okay, so I took some liberties with that title. Hamas chief Khaled Mashaal doesn’t really pepper his speech with Yiddishisms. I do think, however, that the title is a fair summation of the sentiment behind this funny phrasing (reported by the AP):
In an interview broadcast Wednesday on Hamas TV in Gaza, Khaled Mashaal, the Syria-based leader of the Islamic group, rejected an Abbas proposal to post an international peace force in Gaza. “It’s (bad) enough to have Zionist forces, for us to have international forces as well?” he said.
For some reason, it brought to mind a similarly amusing anti-Israel quote I saw awhile back in The New York Times (and reported here as well). Anwar Ibrahim, Malaysia’s ousted vice president, had accused his tormentors in Malaysia’s government of using tactics reminiscent of Gestapo or East German (it was reported differently in different places) and Israeli secret police methods. This was simply too much for Malaysia’s police inspector general, Abdul Rahim Noor:
”We can no longer tolerate it when he accuses us of being similar to Israel,” Abdul told local reporters. ”If he had accused us of being similar to pirates, then we could accept that. But not that he equates us with Israel, because Israel is a sensitive word in this country.”
It’s not bad enough that Hamas has a pathological hatred of Israel, that Malaysia should hate Israel, too, as if Israel ever did anything to them? Oy, such tsoris!
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30
