Posted on 12/25/2011 7:02:33 AM PST by SJackson
After a lifetime of studying the left, I have concluded that leftism is a form of moral poison. It causes otherwise decent and kind people who take it into their systems to say and/or do cruel and sometimes evil things.
While not specifically about the left, a major new scholarly book, "Pathological Altruism" (Oxford University Press), explores this phenomenon of people wanting to do good things yet ending up doing bad. It applies to The New York Times foreign affairs columnist Thomas L. Friedman, who has a deep altruistic urge to bring peace to the Middle East. But because he sees the world through the liberal/left prism, he says morally reprehensible things -- statements that individuals associated with hate-filled, non-altruistic groups and ideologies would make.
In his Dec. 13 column, yet another of his attacks on Israel and its supporters, Friedman wrote: "The standing ovation (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu) got in Congress this year was ... bought and paid for by the Israel lobby."
If a non-Jew had written this, he would have been severely condemned for writing something outright anti-Semitic. The notion that Jews manipulate the levers of power in Western societies for their own nefarious ends is probably the most enduring of all the West's Jew-hating myths. It was a staple of Nazi anti-Semitism and is the single most repeated charge of those in the Arab and larger Muslim worlds who seek to annihilate Israel, since its purpose is to convince people that non-Jews who support Israel have been paid off by Jews.
But Friedman, who is a Jew and a liberal, can get away with it -- even though it is so morally repulsive that Jew-haters can now assert they are merely quoting a well-known Jew. Who's going to call him on it? The New York Times?
To his credit, one congressman did condemn Friedman. Rep. Steven R. Rothman (D-N.J.) released this statement: "Thomas Friedman's defamation against the vast majority of Americans who support the Jewish State of Israel, in his New York Times opinion piece today, is scurrilous, destructive and harmful to Israel and her advocates in the U.S. Mr. Friedman is not only wrong, but he's aiding and abetting a dangerous narrative about the U.S.-Israel relationship and its American supporters.
"I gave Prime Minister Netanyahu a standing ovation, not because of any nefarious lobby, but because it is in America's vital national security interests to support the Jewish State of Israel, and it is right for Congress to give a warm welcome to the leader of such a dear and essential ally. Mr. Friedman owes us all an apology."
Friedman's charge, as Rothman points out, is not only "scurrilous, destructive and harmful" to Israel, but it is also a lie. The Congress of the United States -- including Republicans who have virtually no Jews in their district or state -- supports Israel for the same reasons Harry Truman recognized Israel against the advice of the U.S. State Department, Richard Nixon saved Israel during the 1973 War despite his anger at Jewish liberals, and Dick Cheney vigorously supported Israel despite Wyoming's having almost no Jewish population. They all believed that Israel shares America's moral values, while Israel's enemies (who happen to hate America as well as Israel) do not.
So how does Mr. Friedman, whom I assume is an honorable man and well-intentioned seeker of peace in the Middle East, write something that is equally mendacious and hateful, that abets anti-Semitism and that labels every pro-Israel congressman and senator a political whore?
Because he is a man of the left.
When good people adopt the leftist worldview, they eventually support ideas and say things that are cruel. Thomas Friedman did not write this anti-Semitic libel because he is an anti-Semite. Of course he is not an anti-Semite. He wrote it because he is a leftist.
Leftism poisons everything it influences -- from journalism to the arts to universities to religion to government to male-female relations. And ultimately leftism poisons character. This does not mean that everyone with left-wing views becomes a bad person, and it doesn't mean that everyone with conservative views is a good person. Both judgments are untrue and foolish.
But it does mean that leftism leads to pathologic altruism, i.e., bad things done by people with pure intentions. Just as Mahatma Gandhi's hatred of violence led him to tell the Jews of Europe not to resist Hitler, so too has leftism led decent people who would weep at Israel's destruction to mouth the very same lies about Israel as those who seek its annihilation.
Aren’t the present day Arabs descended (pun intended) from Canaanites?
So they like to say, when they're not claiming Adam, Noah and Abraham were Muslims, making them the true Abrahamic people. Tough to reconcile those things.
Is this that NYTs writer who’s another leftist gigolo, married to an heiress and living off her money?
Yes, Rothman deserves some credit, since it is somewhat surprising that a Democrat congressman would sharply criticize a well-known New York Times writer on any subject in the Age of Obama.
It should be noted that Rothman himself is in a competitive district and could not help but take notice of the upset victory by a Republican over a Jewish Democrat in NY-9 last September in a district with a large number of Jewish and pro-Israel voters. I'll commend him for his on-target denunciation of Friedman, with the caveat that it could be at least partly be politically calculated.
You might recall when Rothman hesitated at first about following the 'Rat party line on Obamacare, but then acquiesced to Pelosi's command, claiming that his rabbi convinced him to vote for it. Really?
Since I bring up Kerry, saw his sailboat a while ago. Nice blue sailboat, goes well with the Cayman Islands flag at the stern. Cheap bas*ard. And no, there's not an American flag to be seen anywhere.
Truth! Friedman should takea long walk off a short pier
Yes.
Friedman is an arrogant ass - his arrogance fueled by two Pulitzers awarded for spouting the party line - who would rather we lived under a Red-Chinese-style dictatorship (benevolent of course!) than our representative republic system. His anti-Semitism flows from his all-knowing wisdom.
Friedman is an arrogant ass - his arrogance fueled by two Pulitzers awarded for spouting the party line - who would rather we lived under a Red-Chinese-style dictatorship (benevolent of course!) than our representative republic system. His anti-Semitism flows from his all-knowing wisdom.
Friedman is an arrogant ass - his arrogance fueled by two Pulitzers awarded for spouting the party line - who would rather we lived under a Red-Chinese-style dictatorship (benevolent of course!) than our representative republic system. His anti-Semitism flows from his all-knowing wisdom.
Friedman is an arrogant ass - his arrogance fueled by two Pulitzers awarded for spouting the party line - who would rather we lived under a Red-Chinese-style dictatorship (benevolent of course!) than our representative republic system. His anti-Semitism flows from his all-knowing wisdom.
Yep, that's him!
Yep, that's him!
“2) to evict the West Bank Palestinians through ethnic cleansing and put Israel on the road to the International Criminal Court in the Hague;”
The Palisimians are just Jordanians who got squirrely on the King of Jordan because they got some AK-47’s. End result was the King called on his Arab buds who rode in and helped in the “eviction”.
Funny thing - that King didn’t get dragged into the “International Court in the Hague”. Neither will the Israelis.
To paraphrase a certain American of times past, “How many troops does the “International Court in the Hague” command?”
Was not a certain american. Was a certain european, referring to the pope.
Yes.
Friedman does not hate Israel, or Jews, or even Netanyahu.
Friedman hates Conservatives.
Leftist Jews do to a large extent dominate our US media and Hollywood...especially the latter
They do work in collusion to promote leftism and the dismantling of traditional culture which they view as a crime...they are acting out a resentment....some over religion...some not
So claiming they promote Jewish cause is not very true really
However were every Jew in the media and Hollywood Southern Baptist or Pentecostal instead I bet our culture would be under less attack from the Freidmans and Krugmans of the world
What would Mamet do?
They feel a connection when it suits them to claim that identity...like marrying a goy....then it becomes an issue trust me
“Aren’t the present day Arabs descended (pun intended) from Canaanites?”
Maybe. Arabs consider themselves descendants of Ishmael.
The so-called palestinians are at least partially arab, but also are Berber, and other surrounding peoples.
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