Hunker Down With History

Washington Post ^ | July 18, 2006 | Richard Cohen

[Alouette]

FRmail me to be added or removed from this Judaic/pro-Israel/Russian Jewry ping list.

Warning! This is a high-volume ping list.

[maine-iac7]

Hey, Cohen, I got a better idea.

Why doesn't Israel just drive the Pallies out all together - Surely with all that sand other Arab countries have, there's room to establish a separate land for them. And Israel will again encompass it's ancient borders - and Jerusalem will again be "Jerusalem"

[Zionist Conspirator]

The greatest mistake Israel could make at the moment is to forget that Israel itself is a mistake.

Not that long ago Jewish liberals were all loudly supporting Israel and condemning any religious conservative who did so. Like Pat Buchanan in reverse they opposed Arab Communist terrorists while supporting each and every one of their comrades elsewhere. But just look at them now!

Perhaps G-d's purpose in the current phase of this ongoing tragedy is to shake loose all the parasites who "support Israel" for reasons other than the sake of Heaven and to leave only those who love and fear HaShem. Perhaps with friends restricted to such as these Israel can be prevented from committing suicide.

[Zionist Conspirator]

This is the same POS who continues to attack pro-Israel Fundamentalist Protestants (as anti-Semites?) and apologize for moslems who turn themselves into living bombs in order to kill Jews. To compare him to a turkey buzzard is an insult to one of G-d's creatures.

[Zionist Conspirator]

More could done to eliminate terrorism if Jewish anti-semites were the targets of Islamofascist missles. Israel's greatest problem is not Hezbollah, but its internal Fifth Column of post-Zionists and Jewish anti-Semites within its chattering classes.

Just a few weeks ago we read the episode of the spies in Parashat Shelach-Lekha in the Torah.

Israel's last battle won't be with `Amaleq. It will be with the `Eirev Rav.

[Celtjew Libertarian]

Cohen is usually better than this... or, at least, he has the ability to astonish me with insight one week be astonish me with denseness the next.

In any case, I just e-mailed him the following:

The problem with "Hunker Down with History" is the assumption that Israel a "nation of European Jews." It's a nation of Jews from all over the world. About half the population is Sephardic and that half has a high birthrate than the Ashkenazim.

For that matter, Israel was not created in an area of Arab Muslims (and some Christians). It was created in an area that had, less than 40 years earlier, been part of the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman Empire had welcomed Jews at least since 1492, when they gladly took the lion's share of the Jews exiled from Spain. Even before then, there were Jews who had remained in the Holy Land, despite the Diaspora. There were many others who had returned between the Diaspora and 1492.

Many Jews in the Ottoman Empire had settled in what is now Israel, before the term Zionism was created. Many more didn't see the need to, settling in other parts of the Ottoman Empire, because they were able to visit the Holy Land when they wanted. Indeed, it was not uncommon for older Jews, nearing death, to make a final pilgrimage to Jerusalem.

Thing is, the Ottoman Jews were Sephardic. Europe and American Jews see Judaism through an Ashkenazim lens that often overlooks Sephardic history -- and that becomes the lens through which much of America and Europe sees Israel.

The big mistake, in my opinion, was the breakup of the Ottoman Empire, who had, for the most part, kept the peace between the Arab Muslim and Jewish populations in what is now Israel. The creation of Israel was not a mistake, but an attempt to rectify the earlier one, by creating separate nations for the two peoples in the same area.

The myth that the creation of Israel was the result of a sudden miraculous return of the Jews is just that: A myth. It was an inspirational one, when Israel was created. But it has distorted history and, thus, given false
justification for those nations who would see Israel destroyed.

[ex-Texan]

Hey, Mr. Cohen ! What about these Islamofascist militant terrorists and their supporters?

Or these Iranians:

Or maybe these members of Hamas:

Or perhaps these supporters of Syrian control of the nation of Lebanon:

Notice that these demonstrations are choreographed for foreign journalists? These are staged demonstrations or propaganda briefings by Islamofscists.

[unionblue83]

This despicable little Lefty is the exact personification of the treason monkeys we have in this country. Since he hates America so much, he should don his keffiya, hop a plane, and sign up at the local jihad recruiting office in the PA. Maybe he can go on to such fame as Rachel "Pancake" Corrie. Is that a diesel engine I hear......?

[onyx]

Thank you very much for your thoughtful post to me.
Much appreciated.

[af_vet_rr]

Cohen believes that Israel was created by a British mandate in 1948. Actually it was created much earlier and by a much more senior power.

Agreed - Israel was going to come into being again, with or without any mandates from human beings. Over the past few thousand years a lot of people have tried to keep the Jews down and out (including out of the region) and they might succeed for a few centuries, but pretty soon, the Jews would start to come back, until things started to really get going at the end of the 19th century and the first few decades of the 20th. The Holocaust kind of helped speed things up - even before WWII, there were already Jews working towards nationhood, and the Holocaust reinforced the need for a Jewish state.

Whether you subscribe to Revelations or not, I think the history of that region and of the Jewish people made it pretty clear that no matter what, eventually the Jews would succeed.

[RDTF]

Brit Hume lambasted this on his show just now. I am fuming mad that this ignorant p.o.s. gets paid to do this.

[Scarchin]

Maybe it's going to take a few days for the reaction to build up steam. Cohen needs to be stomped for this. It will also be interesting to see who agrees with him.

[NCSteve]

The US Marines should pick Cohen up and drop him off in Haifa so he can experience some firsthand "hunkering down." All these ivory tower appeasement liberals are the same and can be ignored with equal impunity.