Posted on 12/17/2001 6:01:47 AM PST by veronica
Edited on 09/03/2002 4:49:48 AM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
-SNIP-Ominously, the Abu Dhabi series reflects the mainstreaming of anti-Semitism across the Arab world. Saudi Arabian and Egyptian TV are debating whether to air a 30-part miniseries, "Horseman Without a Horse," which is based on the debunked canard "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion," an early 20th century hoax by the Russian czar's secret police that purported to reveal a Jewish plan to dominate the world. The book, a virtual prescription for genocide, has been invoked by every Jew hater from Adolf Hitler to Louis Farrakhan. THE REST HERE ...
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Heck tex-oma, let me see if I get this. To say that The Protocols of the [Learned] Elders of Zion, which is the subject of this thread, is anti-semitic is to use the term indiscriminately? If that book is not anti-semitic, what the devil IS anti-semitic? Or are you saying that there is no such thing as anti-semitism, and the millions of Jews who were killed in the Holocost are still alive, and hiding somewhere. It is my understanding that Holocost denial is a very very major no-no in these parts.
As the premiere definition queen regarding all things Jewish, perhaps you could tell us why the terms Zionist/Anti-Zionist are so carefully avoided on these threads, and how these two terms (anti-Jew and anti-Zionist) are intertwined?
The US pulled 'that fact' from medical journals? Got a link?
I heard of one article being dumped. Due to the fact that the 'scientist' was discovered to have an agenda, ergo his findings came under suspician. But the 'US' did not pull it.
I'm sorry Lumberjack, but I'm the only pedant they let hang around here, and I insist on keeping my franchise. Dictionary definitions are based on usage, not etymological derivation. There have been some references up above to descriptive vs. prescriptive meaning. The dictionary tells us what people in the general population consider that a word means. It does not say, well the origin of this word is from anti + semite, and semite means people of semitic ethnicity so anti semite means against people of semitic ethnicity. That would be a prescriptive meaning of the word. The dictionary gives a descriptive meaning of the word, how people use it. The only correct meaning of a word is a meaning which agrees with what people mean when they say the word.
An unabridged dictionary will give us information such as word origin, which is interesting, and can give us insights into how the word means what it does. But this has nothing directly to do with the meaning of the word.
It goes a step further than intolerance or hatred. The original Anti-Semite Party (late 1800s Germany) embraced the entire Jewish control of the media, banks, government myth, blaming them for Germanys economic woes. The solution, the expulsion of Jews initially from Germany, but eventually from Western Europe. My recollection is that Wilhelm Marr and his party werent electoraly successful, but his ideas remained. He was a spiritual predecessor to the Nazi Party.
To some its more acceptable to be an anti-semite than a Jew-Hater. Thats why the term was coined. Also, in my mind the term anti-semite goes beyond hatred and implies action. Id view anti-semitism as being somewhere between your term of Jew Hatred and genocide, far stronger that racism or intolerance.
It is my undertanding that NO two human beings are genetically identical - let alone two races - except identical twins.
Not that Mengele didn't try....
I'm not sure Ridin' but it may have something to do with the fact that there is not one single so called Anti-Zionist on the face of the earth who is not actually anti-semitic.
Hey LumberJack, this guy, not meaning to has summarized the situation precisely. There is no stardard meaning to words. They start out meaning one thing, and usage changes so that they mean something else entirely.
Back in the 1950's I attended a lecture on this topic and they gave an example using the word 'nice'. This word started out meaning 'precise', as in 'making a nice distinction. In those days, folks liked precision, so that to be 'nice' meant to have a quality which people liked. Then people started wanting to be cool, so nice started changing its meaning to be something which was sort of prissy.
In these days of computer morphing it might be better to say that words have a meaning at one time, but this meaning changes over time, as they 'morph' into other meanings.
Actually, Lucius, there are MANY such, who are merely CALLED anti-semitic because they reject the 'plan of the Zionists to oust Palestinians from their homeland and to colonize Jews there'. (definition of Zionist, from the American College Encyclopedic Dictionary, 1952).
The term anti-jewish was coined for the specific purpose of silencing people who disagree that the Jewish colonization of Palestine does justice to the native people.
Not in a dictionary definition perhaps (let's not get into that again), but in the world as it is it absolutely does. Can you think of an exception?
So how come there was a Hitler, before there was an Israel, and he had a Muslim division in the SS? There was no Israel then. What was the excuse then for Jew-hating, anti-Jewishness, anti-Semitism, take your pick?
Please give an example of a known anti-Zionist who is definitively known not to be anti-semitic.
Please see my FR homepage (click on my screen name).
Martin Luther King
From M.L. King Jr., "Letter to an Anti-Zionist Friend," Saturday Review XLVII (Aug. 1967)
". . . You declare, my friend, that you do not hate the Jews, you are merely 'anti-Zionist.' And I say, let the truth ring forth from the high mountain tops, let it echo through the valleys of God's green earth: When people criticize Zionism, they mean Jews -- this is God's own truth.
Anti-Semitism, the hatred of the Jewish people, has been and remains a blot on the soul of mankind. In this we are in full agreement. So know also this: anti-Zionist is inherently anti-Semitic, and ever will be so.
Why is this? You know that Zionism is nothing less than the dream and ideal of the Jewish people returning to live in their own land. The Jewish people, the Scriptures tell us, once enjoyed a flourishing Commonwealth in the Holy Land. From this they were expelled by the Roman tyrant, the same Romans who cruelly murdered Our Lord. Driven from their homeland, their nation in ashes, forced to wander the globe, the Jewish people time and again suffered the lash of whichever tyrant happened to rule over them.
The Negro people, my friend, know what it is to suffer the torment of tyranny under rulers not of our choosing. Our brothers in Africa have begged, pleaded, requested -- DEMANDED -- the recognition and realization of our inborn right to live in peace under our own sovereignty in our own country.
How easy it should be, for anyone who holds dear this inalienable right of all mankind, to understand and support the right of the Jewish People to live in their ancient Land of Israel. All men of good will exult in the fulfillment of God's promise, that his People should return in joy to rebuild their plundered land. This is Zionism, nothing more, nothing less.
And what is anti-Zionist? It is the denial to the Jewish people of a fundamental right that we justly claim for the people of Africa and freely accord all other nations of the Globe. It is discrimination against Jews, my friend, because they are Jews. In short, it is anti-Semitism.
The anti-Semite rejoices at any opportunity to vent his malice. The times have made it unpopular, in the West, to proclaim openly a hatred of the Jews. This being the case, the anti-Semite must constantly seek new forms and forums for his poison. How he must revel in the new masquerade! He does not hate the Jews, he is just 'anti-Zionist'!
My friend, I do not accuse you of deliberate anti-Semitism. I know you feel, as I do, a deep love of truth and justice and a revulsion for racism, prejudice, and discrimination. But I know you have been misled -- as others have been -- into thinking you can be 'anti-Zionist' and yet remain true to these heartfelt principles that you and I share. Let my words echo in the depths of your soul: When people criticize Zionism, they mean Jews -- make no mistake about it."
Hey LumberJack, this guy, not meaning to has summarized the situation precisely. There is no stardard meaning to words. They start out meaning one thing, and usage changes so that they mean something else entirely. Back in the 1950's I attended a lecture on this topic and they gave an example using the word 'nice'. This word started out meaning 'precise', as in 'making a nice distinction. In those days, folks liked precision, so that to be 'nice' meant to have a quality which people liked. Then people started wanting to be cool, so nice started changing its meaning to be something which was sort of prissy. In these days of computer morphing it might be better to say that words have a meaning at one time, but this meaning changes over time, as they 'morph' into other meanings.
I guess that depends on what the meaning of the word "is" is, right?
Its a living, breathing document, right?
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