Narrative challenged
Re: "Thailand's delicate stance with Israel", (Opinion, Dec 9). As a Jew living in Thailand for over 20 years, I must admit I was not happy with what I read. Indeed, found a number of statements to be offensive: The second paragraph implies that Israel's response to the terrorist attack on Oct 7, 2023, was "genocide" -- a term coined in 1944 to describe Hitler's campaign to exterminate all European Jews, and defined as "the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group".
Certainly, Israel's attempt to root out Hamas terrorists hiding in mosques, hospitals, and schools, while simultaneously warning citizens of impending military confrontations via cell messages and pamphlets, and enabling evacuations, humanitarian aid and safe transit corridors, refutes the genocide argument. Hitler offered no quarter to Jews.
The third paragraph whitewashes the Hamas attack on southern Israel, laments the unfortunate death of 48 Thai citizens, but never mentions that Hamas is a terrorist organisation, and it butchered over 1,200 Israelis in horrific fashion and took over 250 hostages back to Gaza.
Imagine a scenario where gangs from a neighbouring country crossed into Thailand and raped and murdered the equivalent of 8,000 men, women, and children, took 1,800 hostages, and then fled back across the border to hide in schools, hospitals, and monasteries.
How would Thailand respond? How would any country respond to such an atrocity?
The columnist thought it was important to consider "the human dimension of Thai-Israeli relations" by highlighting the number of (legal) Thai workers in Israel, as if this was the most important labour blemish on Thailand's international reputation.
He doesn't mention that Thais see it as a financial opportunity to work there, and many more apply than are accepted.
In Paragraph 11, the columnist is conflating the Hamas terror group with Palestine and the Palestinian cause. It is a Hamas-Israeli conflict.
In terms of local tourism, I also wondered why he singled out Israeli tourists for their rude behaviour, without mentioning there are many complaints about other nationalities as well, documented in this newspaper and on social media, eg misbehaving Chinese tourists, and the Russian mafia in Pattaya.
The author concludes with a plea for Bangkok to have "vision and realism in navigating ties with Israel". With all due respect, may I suggest that he could also benefit from such wisdom.
