Posted on 04/02/2015 5:50:47 PM PDT by SJackson
If the steady, but manageable flow of ignorant commentary on Israel of late has turned into a flood, its because of a particular tactic of the left employed in abundance since the Israeli elections. A surefire way to misunderstand Israeli politics is to view it through the stable lens of Americas two-party system. And one meme that has gained traction on the left during Benjamin Netanyahus premiership is the lazy, obtuse narrative that he acts as some sort of representative of the Republican Party rather than his own party and country. Such self-refuting nonsense doesnt generally need to be dignified with attention. But the latest version represents a despicable smear that demands a response.
Juan Williamss column in The Hill changes the attack in two ways. The first is that he joins some of his more doltish peers in the new belief that congressional Republicans are now responsible for Netanyahus words and actions. This is merely an escalation of the Democrats recent campaign to turn Israel into a partisan issue and demand the left break with Israel to show appropriate loyalty to Barack Obama. In doing so Williams and others are now pawning Israel off on the Republicans: they dont even want to deal with the Jewish state except to periodically upbraid it.
This is toxic, but it pales in comparison to Williamss next trick. Once hes assigned Republicans blame for Bibi, he then transfers the lefts racial grievances to Netanyahu as well. And he thereby threatens not only to rewrite recent Israeli history but to do so in a way that attacks the history of black-Jewish relations in the U.S. and agitates for the crumbling of African-American support for Israel in the future, all in a deeply dishonest way.
It should be noted that while reasonable people can disagree about Netanyahus Facebook comments about Arabs voting in droves, its perfectly understandable to object to them. In truth, the comments, while inartful, were aimed more at the fact that foreign groups, including American-funded anti-Bibi efforts, were busing leftist voters in to improve turnout, thus raising the vote count a party like Likud would need in order to keep pace with its share of the overall vote.
That was lost on many, and thats not a surprise. But Williams goes completely off the rails:
Obamas spokesman condemned the use of such noxious rhetoric as a cynical tactic. But there has been no comment from Boehner or other top Republicans.
There is a terrible history of race-based political appeals in the United States. As a civil rights historian, I know the sharp edges of racial politics as revealed in coded campaign language, gerrymandering, voter suppression and even todays strong black-white split when it comes to views of how police deal with poor black communities.
But both major American political parties reject having their candidates directly and openly play on racial tensions for short-term political gain.
It is dangerous politics, at odds with maintaining a socially and economically stable nation of many different races, as well as a rising number of immigrants. It is also not in keeping with Americas democratic values, specifically the Declaration of Independences promise that All men are created equal.
To overlook Netanyahus racial politics is to send a troubling message to Americans at a time when blacks and Hispanics are overwhelmingly Democrats and the Republican Party is almost all white.
And thus does Juan Williams, in a fit of rancid political sour grapes, connect Benjamin Netanyahu with Americas civil-rights era racial politics and voter suppression. When you are a liberal hammer, every problem is a nail with Bull Connors face on it.
First, some facts. There was no voter suppression of Arabs in Israels election. The joint Arab list won the third-most seats in the Knesset, behind the two major parties. Arab turnout was the highest its been since at least 1999, and among the highest its been in decades. Bibi did nothing to derail Arab voting, nor was he even trying to scare voters to the polls in a traditional sense. He wanted Israelis who were already planning on voting and who supported Israels right wing to vote Likud instead of a minor party further to the right, because the increased turnout on the left meant the right needed a stronger anchor party to be able to build a coalition around.
Additionally, as Evelyn Gordon wrote in the March issue of COMMENTARY, Israel doesnt have a law banning minarets, as Switzerland does, or a law barring civil servants from wearing headscarves, as France does; nor does it deny citizenship to Arabs just because they cant speak the majoritys language, as Latvia does to some 300,000 ethnic Russians born and bred there. But over the past two decades, successive Israeli governments have invested heavily in trying to create de facto as well as de jure equality.
Statistics on Arab education have improved dramatically. Employment in the high-tech sector almost sextupled from 2009 to 2014and who was prime minister during that time? Arab consumption patterns are improving, integration is on the rise, and all without increasing anti-Arab prejudice, despite what some in the media would like to believe.
Thats not to solely credit Bibi or any one single politician, but Netanyahus time in office has undoubtedly been good for Israels Arabs. Even if you choose to believe the worst interpretation of Netanyahus Facebook comment (for which he apologized), the picture Williams paints of Likuds relationship with Israeli Arabs is so distorted as to be unrecognizable as the reality of modern Israel.
But Williams has another purpose: not only to falsely explain the present and the past but also the future. The tension between the Jewish and black communities is a source of great tsuris to the Jews, who felt called by God to stand with African-Americans in their times of trouble and to march with them to assert their inalienable rights which were denied for so long. But too many influential black leadersthink Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton (who was at the forefront of the closest thing America ever had to a pogrom), and even Jeremiah Wright, whose church guided our current president for so longhave sought to discourage such solidarity, and resorted to anti-Semitism to do so.
I imagine this greatly pains Williams. He spends some time in his column recounting the lack of support for Israel among Americas minorities, principally African-Americans and Hispanics, and he seems fairly unhappy about it. But he notes, correctly, that the Democratic drift away from Israel threatens to be even more profound among these minority communities. And so he blames Bibi:
This disagreement among American racial groups is reflected in the split between Republicans and Democrats over Israel.
These divisions are likely even deeper now, after Netanyahus racial political appeal.
Going forward, it will now be gentler on the consciences of Democrats like Williams if support for Israel deteriorates among minority communities. From here on out, theyll say it was inevitable after this election. Thats much simpler than taking on the Sharptons and the Jacksons and the Wrights, and the president whose ear they have had.
And its much simpler than swimming against the tide of leftist hostility to Israel. Its the easy way out, and theres nothing principled or noble about it.
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The race thing poisons America; they would like it to poison the world. Race hustlers — whether little or big — should be scorned and spat upon. Under American law, all races are equal. Only hate-filled trouble-makers want to see things through the lens of race. For decent people, all people should be held to one standard, and their abilities or failures should be judged with eyes that do not see color.
Netanyahu did not issue a “racial appeal”. He issued an appeal for Jewish voters and talked about religious/ethnic/cultural voters that the Left/Democrats and Islamists were going after.
Race never was a factor as Arabs and Moslems are not a “race” anymore than “Israelis” are a race (though it is an old term of description).
The left wants to disarm people. This is the second leg of holocaust denial, the first being antisemitism.
In other words, jews supported blacks because not doing so was akin to holocaust denial. However, the left turned it into another plantation deal of peace and disarmament precondition.
Now that jews have been disarmed of rhetoric, the blacks are having their free for all antisemitic Obamanoid streak of Black Entertainment TV snobery rising to Hitlerian fever.
Any government formation is requiring armament. Globalism with nuclear disarmament, lack of norders and UN arms treaties is a pipe dream. It is a very dangerous and utopian transition that smug snobish corporatists and leftists push for. It is rife with instability.
Hooey. Liberal Jews and Blacks felt called by Voltaire and Comte to secularize the country and point it in a radical direction which has led to where we are today. The civil rights "ministers" were all heterodox higher critics whose only use for religion was as Aesop's fables to inspire a purely secular, rationalist morality. This applies most of all to Martin Luther King Jr., the Unitarian posing as a Baptist (though most Black Baptist ministers seem to be doing the exact same thing these days).
The sorry treatment of Black chrstians by white chrstians (a defect of chrstianity stemming from its incarnationism) was treated as an inherent crime of religious belief. Segregationist whites were labeled religious fanatics and Blacks were treated as secular humanist intellectuals who were being victimized by neanderthals who still believed in G-d (so G-d had to go).
Blacks or any "minorities" who want to support Israel should do so because the Jews are the Chosen People and out of a love and support of HaShem and the Jewish People who live in 'Eretz HaQodesh. Eighteenth century European "enlightenment" deism is no reason to support Israel and everyone needs to stop it now.
Actually, the Left turning against Israel has been inevitable from the beginning and should be embraced, not combated. Israel needs no such "friends."
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