3-18-11 (ISTANBUL) - Making rounds over the past few days is an item from the Business section of Israel’s Ynet news site, entitled “Israel fears sushi shortage after quake”.

The article begins by noting that, while Japan “has yet to recover from one of the greatest disasters in its history, Israelis fear a shortage in the ingredients of one of their favorite dishes: Sushi”.

In case readers are still unclear as to the identity of the real victims of the Japanese earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear radiation crisis, the second paragraph of the article underscores the frightening dilemma presently facing humanity:

"Many of sushi’s basic components come from Japan or are imported through the battered countries. Will Israelis soon suffer from a shortage of the beloved rolls’ necessary ingredients?"

That all is not lost is confirmed by the article’s subheading, however: “Rice shortage not expected”.

Sane observers appear to be confused as to whether the piece was intended for publication in The Onion, where it would certainly thrive thanks in large part to the article’s protagonist Dudi Afriat, sales manager of the Rakuto Kasei company that imports Kikkoman soy sauce and other sushi paraphernalia to Israel.

Among Afriat’s contributions are pronouncements about the role of Kikkoman in Israeli society:

"Israeli chefs feel very connected to this product. After the tsunami I received phone calls from hysterical people fearing a shortage of Kikkoman."

One thing The Onion editors might have done differently is to make Afriat less of a passive observer. His remark that damage to a Kikkoman factory in Japan has caused “delays in the supply” and fueled shortage fears, for example, might have been jazzed up with a suggestion that the Japanese technicians currently working round-the-clock and risking death to defuse the radiation crisis instead divide their time and energy between the Fukushima nuclear power plant and the Kikkoman factory.

Israel’s tendency to cast itself as uniquely entitled to victimhood is nothing new, of course, although it usually occurs at the expense of Arab and Muslim populations rather than Japanese. Given that the Israeli definition of victim extends even to IDF commandos who kill humanitarian activists in international waters, it is safe to assume that—if something even remotely as devastating as what has befallen Japan were to occur in Israel proper—the Israelis would not take kindly to articles in widely-read media outlets about fears of a decrease in production of Bamba snacks or the award-winning kosher pigs-in-a-blanket.

http://www.salem-news.com/articles/march182011/kosher-hotdogs-bf.php

Ynet defends its story:

Ynetnews clarification

While we understand the concerns voiced by some of our readers over the article, we believe the “global outrage” over it is largely disingenuous, taking one story out of context. Ynetnews has covered the Japan disaster in depth for days, with this being just one item from our Money section, giving one local angle to the bigger story. This is far from being the only concern of Israelis, or of Ynet, as some have tried to falsely argue.

Other global media outlets have also reported sushi shortage issues, including CBS in the San Francisco Bay Area. Unsurprisingly, this prompted no “outrage” or racist generalizations against all Americans. In the bottom line, we believe the reaction to this story highlights the double standard seen on many other fronts – holding Israelis to different standards than anyone else.

Ynetnews has no intention of playing along with such skewed, biased judgments.

Submitted by andie531 on Tue, 2011-03-22 16:50

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