(Hat tip to American Thinker and the OC Independent Task Force on Anti-Semitism)
The below essay by Cheryl Halpern in American Thinker is a powerful explanation on why the frontal attack on the State of Israel is part and parcel of the modern face of anti-Semitism. Ms Halpern expresses it much more eloquently than I ever could.
http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/05/waking_up_to_urbane_antisemiti.html
As Ms Halpern points out so well, this is not an anti-Semitism born of the "Christ-killer" charge. This is not an anti-Semitism fueled by drunken Nazis in beer halls. This is an anti-Semitism that is being supported by intellectual elites-principally in our universities- by those anxious to jump on the radical Islamist bandwagen.
If you are a student or otherwise affiliated with a university, try to look deeper when another Israel-bashing seminar is held at your school. Think about this when another Israel divestment measure is being considered on your campus. Consider this when left-wing professors join hands with the Muslim Student Associations and the various Middle Eastern Studies departments that engage in nothing more than bashing of Israel and the deligitimization of the Jewish state-the only democratic and truly developed nation in the region.
Then ask yourselves just what is the motivation behind this modern wave of Jew hatred-hatred of our fellow citizens.
How is it that in the Western world, having experienced the Holocaust, that hatred of our fellow Jewish citizens can once again be acceptable in circles of people that should know better? How is it that in the past several decades, when we have made so many advances in acceptance of minorities, gays, and women's rights, that we can so easily slip back into anti-Semitism?
Oh Gary you make me laugh soo much.
ReplyDeleteAn article on anti-semitism from an anti-Arab, anti-Islamic website.
Thanks for keeping me young.
Ok young man,
ReplyDeleteWhich is the anti-Arab, anti-Islamic website: is it fousesquawk, the OCITFAS or American Thinker?
If you are talking about fousesquawk or the OCTF, I can tell you that neither site is anti-Arab, anti-Islam. Fousesquawk is anti-radical Islam, anti-shariah
law in the west and against anti-Semitism. My site is not anti-Arab and it is not anti-
Don't you agree?
Let's be real: people engaged in current conflict, for whatever reason, reach for historical paradigms to give themselves a sense of self-justification. Jews do it, Christians do it, Muslims do it, Buddhists and Hindus do it. Most of it is pure poppycock. None of us would want our illustrious ancestors sitting in our nice clean modern living rooms.
ReplyDeleteThe so-called "leftists" you refer to obviously have no continuity with either the socialist or communist internationals, with the international working class movements, nor with contemporary working families. They just have a vague sense that if someone can be identified as "oppressive" and someone else as "oppressed" then the former must be bad, the latter good.
Most American-supported Arab governments are indeed oppressive. So are most Islamist governments. Israel has indeed oppressed some Arab civilian populations. Most Arab governments have tried to do the same to Israel. I can remember when Israel was the valiant underdog. Now, having won several wars in a row, they just don't command the same sympathy.
If you are talking to a self-styled leftist, ask them why Lenin endorsed the Balfour Declaration, ask them why the Soviet Union voted for partition, and ask them about Lenin's warning "Beware of a pan-Islamic movement masquerading as a national liberation front."
But this isn't about Jews, its about Israel. The speakers you refer to are clumsy oafs for not making the distinction. Ho Chi Minh never failed to distinguish between the American people and American government policy. I haven't noticed half a million people turning out in several major American cities on the same day to support what passes for a "Palestinian" cause.
"The so-called "leftists" you refer to obviously have no continuity with either the socialist or communist internationals, with the international working class movements, nor with contemporary working families."
ReplyDeleteSiarlys,
You shoud hear some of these university professors speak sometime. Where do you think all the US Communiststs went when the USSR collapsed? Did they wake up, smell the coffee and convert?
"Most American-supported Arab governments are indeed oppressive. So are most Islamist governments."
They are all oppressive. Israel is the freest country by far in the region-including for its Arab population.
"But this isn't about Jews, its about Israel. The speakers you refer to are clumsy oafs for not making the distinction. Ho Chi Minh never failed to distinguish between the American people and American government policy."
What if by some miracle, every Jew in Israel converted to Islam tomorrow? Would there still be a problem? This is not about land. This is about religion-Read the Hamas charter. They cannot allow the presence of a Jewish state in the ME.
Siarlys Jenkins, you make some good points but as Gary pointed out speakers like Malik Ali are upset Jews have the rights of self-determination and a homeland.
ReplyDeleteThe issue has become more and more about religion in recent years. The Hamas charter is clearly anti-Jewish.
I'd recommend listening to this lecture by Asher Susser. He points to Political Islam gaining ground and secular national groups like Fatah are losing ground. The lecture is a little over a year old so it is not completey up to date but you will get the point.
http://www.international.ucla.edu/israel/podcasts/article.asp?parentid=105321
= wejomerv
Most leftist professors, finding themselves in a world without either an international working class movement, or much of a working class per se in the United States at all, felt free to focus entirely on silly fetishes that never had much to do with either, and pat themselves on the back. We agree on the silly professors. We just don't agree that they are by any stretch of the imagination leftists. Lenin wouldn't have considered most of these cappuccino communists to even qualify as useful idiots.
ReplyDeleteToo bad for Malik Ali. If he wants domination by his rag-tag band of followers, he can't have it. We have no difference on that point.