Posted on 03/21/2007 1:04:00 PM PDT by Alouette
Throughout the Diaspora there are alienated Jews on the fringe whose primary involvement in Jewish life is centered on undermining the Jewish state.
Now they are seeking to establish themselves as a respectable alternative Jewish voice. This is the price we are paying for having long buried our heads in the sand, failing to isolate from the mainstream Jews who dedicate themselves to delegitimizing and demonizing Israel.
The potential damage they are capable of inflicting upon us cannot be underestimated. Jews defaming their own people is hardly a new phenomenon. Their presence is evident throughout history from the age of antiquity on. In the Middle Ages, the most virulent promoters of anti-Semitism were Jewish converts. During the Emancipation period, Jews committed to universalism, socialism and other "isms" were inciting hatred against their kinsmen, as exemplified in the anti-Semitic outbursts of Karl Marx and the late 19th-century Russian Jewish social revolutionaries, who justified pogroms as a necessary lubricant to create a revolutionary climate.
Jewish self-haters were silent during the Holocaust era because the Nazis targeted all Jews. After the war, Jewish communists and their "progressive" fellow travelers reemerged as the most fervent apologists of Stalinist crimes. During the campaign to liberate Soviet Jewry, they denied Soviet anti-Semitism and defended - even applauded - state-sponsored anti-Semitic show-trials and executions of their kinsmen.
Like their contemporary successors, their effectiveness as spokesmen for our enemies was linked to the fact that they paraded their Jewish origins. However in contrast to today's Jews who demonize Zion, they were considered pariahs by mainstream Jews and clearly perceived by non-Jews as outcasts from their own people.
TODAY THOSE delegitimizing the Jewish state are frequently indulged in respectable Jewish circles. Some Jewish leaders have even suggested that a "pluralistic" community should not discriminate against anti-Israel "dissidents."
Much of the responsibility for misplaced tolerance of those promoting our destruction originates inside Israel. The vilest anti-Israeli propaganda has for years been emanating from tenured academics at Israeli universities.
Now the problem has begun mushrooming out of control. In view of the fact that demonstrating hatred of Israel has become a key prerequisite for eligibility to membership of the "progressive" camp, one finds Jews at the forefront of the vicious campaigns demonizing Israel in virtually every country.
Yet to accuse these renegades of indulging in self-hatred is considered as a cardinal sin in many circles. It is thus legitimate for Jews to defame Israel as an "apartheid state," accuse their kinsmen of behaving like Nazis, apply double-standards to Israeli behavior, accuse Israel of ethnic cleansing, war crimes, even genocide; it's even acceptable to call for dismantling Israel and replacing it with a binational state, or to support the "right of return" for Arab refugees - all in the name of communal tolerance.
Yet to stand up and brand such views as extremist is deemed an expression of "Zionist McCarthyism." IT IS A pathetic reflection of our times that people such as Tony Judt, Marc Ellis, Norman Finkelstein, Jacqueline Rose and Tony Kushner are considered martyrs, and tolerance of their malicious efforts to delegitimize the Jewish state has become confused with freedom of expression.
What a red herring. Insisting that Jewish demonizers of Israel comprise an extremist fringe and speak only for themselves does not represent suppression of free speech.
Our enemies allege that condemnation of those delegitimizing Israel is designed to cover up and deflect legitimate criticism. Never mind that genuine friends of Israel - indeed, Israelis themselves - are often vociferous critics of this or that Israeli policy. But there's a difference between being critical of a policy and delegitimizing the Jewish state.
Regrettably, efforts to obfuscate these polar opposites have increasingly been endorsed by much of the media.
When American academic Alvin Rosenfeld wrote an essay for the American Jewish Committee exposing the double standards and deviousness of Jews challenging Israel's right of existence, he unleashed a storm and was accused of playing foul for supposedly branding all criticism of Israel as anti-Semitic. That he deliberately avoided using expressions like anti-Semitism and self-hatred was ignored. Yet once so-called liberals misrepresented his views, even mainstream New York Jewish trendies began to join the pack attacking Rosenfeld.
At a time when Israel faces genuine existential threats, the audacity of the Jewish anti-Israeli camp has reached alarming levels. For example, a purportedly "Zionist" body demanded the right to introduce Israeli "refusenik" draftees to American campus students, describing their initiative as a "Zionist act of love," leaving mainstream Jewish campus groups divided whether to support such a bizarre proposal. Elsewhere a number of Jewish organizations which identify themselves as "pro-Israel" have been lobbying Congress to reject the community's mainstream positions, urging instead that Israel be pressured into pursuing policies contrary to its interests.
MEANWHILE, in London the head of the only Anglo Jewish think tank cannot comprehend why his publicly stated belief that the Jewish state was a mistake and should be transformed into a binational state makes him ineligible to hold such a position. And the chair of this institute, who is also chair of Anglo Jewry's most important newspaper, has accused those calling for his director's resignation of behaving like McCarthyites.
I recommend that our recently-appointed minister for Diaspora Affairs, Isaac Herzog, place the issue of legitimate versus illegitimate criticism of Israel high on his agenda, and convene a world conference of mainstream Jewish organizations who cherish the name of Israel and all it represents. They should adopt a united stand to expose as a sham the obscene pretensions of Jews who carry out diabolical campaigns to delegitimize Israel - and have the gall to claim that they do it out of a sense of Jewish values and justice!
The writer chairs the Diaspora-Israel Relations Committee of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs and is a veteran international Jewish leader.
Warning! This is a high-volume ping list.
This article is sadly true.
It is a world of madness that has embraced anti semitism in a manner rivaling Nazi Germany.
Jews against Jews?
There is reason to believe, and some of it is documented, that the Jewish ghettos had representatives that were conferring with the 'ethnic cleansers' of Nazi Germany, to remove and eliminate the less worthy of the Jews, that the preferred ones may be saved. Hitler, however, graciously accepted these lists, and saved them for the SECOND wave to be taken from the ghettos, after the first wave had been taken - those who had approached the Nazi officials with the lists of those to be removed.
Adolf Eichmann had informally contacted the British about swapping Jews that were held in concentration camps for trucks and fuel to be used against the Russians. However tempting that may have been, Churchill turned it down.
And if any non jew points out the evil of these liberal/reformist/self loathing/fake jews, they
are accused of anti-semitism. When religion has little to do with it, except as a allround shield to attack
those who point out the evil they do.
I can grasp why secular Jews might not feel a great passion for Israel. But I don't get why any of them seem to hate Israel.
I've always been fascinated by this point of view. I guess there are two sides to every story. Arguably, one coming from a position of strength, the other from weakness. But perhaps also coming from a position of long-term wisdom--some don't want to fight for their land FOREVER.
Unless there is some mass genocide of muslims, (and I don't think one can rule that out of the future, if they just keep trying to kill everyone) There will be no cessation of the hostilities.
Interesting, too that one of the first Zionist congresses voted to establish the new Israel in South America somewhere, as I recall.
http://www.freewebs.com/jewsagainstzionism/
Sigh. In retrospect, in our own nations history, it was good for the USA, (if not the Indians), that we done most of them in.
I think in the modern world mankind does not have the will to do this in order to fully take over a country. And make no mistake--the establishment of Israel did seek to take over a country, at least in the eyes of those who lived there. Very tough stuff.
Their methods and terminology and efforts are largely the same...in fact, they are probably part and parcel of the same camp.
Here in this country, the Anti-Defamation League has been active in efforts to remove the Jewish Decalogue (Ten Commandments) from courthouses and schools. Go figure – removing what was sacredly entrusted to their people because it is – what? – "too Christian" or "too Jewish."
Unfortunately for Jews and Protestant Christians, there is no central government such as Roman Catholics have to safeguard a canon and decide who or what is "in" and who or what is "out." There are high councils of various types, but none with the central organizing power of the Vatican.
I teach my students that global politics spins on an axis connected by two points:
anti israel on one end and anti americanism on the other.
Most public arguments in the international realm are rooted in a prejudice against one or both of these nations.
Israel is strange because it is so small.
There are dozens if not hundreds of ethnic landclaims that exceed those of the palestinians (if such a group event exists) all over the world. Nonetheless, such claims are easily ignored by all public institutions.
High volume. Articles on Israel can also be found by clicking on the Topic or Keyword Israel, WOT
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"Here in this country, the Anti-Defamation League has been active in efforts to remove the Jewish Decalogue (Ten Commandments) from courthouses and schools."
I don't know, but I strongly suspect that you are confusing the ACLU with the ADL. Both litigious and both generally assinine (and I say that as a former ADL contributor), but the ADL would not be in that business.
Bloviated objection to a nativity scene without a Menorah? Probably ADL.
Anti-Zionism is what you get when Reconstructionist (non-)Jews elevate leftism's goal of civilizational destruction over religion.
The Taliban, Al Qaeda and Leftists have the same goal: Western Suicide.
Read for yourself. I was astonished to learn of the ADL's involvement in the Roy Moore case in Alabama.
btt
Hmmm.... if a Jew turns his/her back to Israel then can't the case be made that they are NOT Jewish? They would still be "Jewish" by descent, but how can one keep the "Torah" and throw out Israel?
Well, you know, there is
Jesus. And there is also
the Holy Spirit.
Those two have some pull
in "safeguarding" the Gospel
and the work of God . . .
(In fact, they might be
even more capable than
those Vatican guys . . .)
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