Posted on 12/29/2001 12:08:08 AM PST by H.R. Gross
December 28, 2001
As Israel prepares to expel its Arab helots from Palestine, its "amen corner" worldwide is also on the march, excoriating anyone who looks cross-eyed at Ariel Sharon as an "anti-Semite." The latest front in this campaign is England, where Barbara Amiel, wife of media magnate Conrad Black, went on a rampage in the Telegraph, claiming that, at a recent dinner party, the French ambassador referred to Israel as "that sh*tty little country," and wondered why the world had to be dragged to the edge of World War III on account of it. On the basis of evidence gleaned at ritzy cocktail parties, says Ms. Amiel, the world is experiencing a revival of anti-Semitism, which is now "respectable" again.
Oh, please! Does she really expect us to believe that Osama's infamous videos denouncing the "Jews and Crusaders" are the "in" thing with the hip cognoscenti? Lay off the crack pipe, lady, and get real: anti-Semitism is less respectable than pedophilia. After all, hordes of people aren't buying The Protocols of the Elder of Zion the way they're snatching up those Abercrombie & Fitch catalogs, now are they? Amiel's essay is just one breathtaking inversion of reality after another. Getta load-a this:
"For the past 25 years, I've watched sad-faced Israeli activists trudge around Western capitals with heavy hearts beating under ill-fitting suits. They carry folders of transcripts and videotapes to document the misrepresentations in the press and the moral hypocrisy of the world towards Israel. They want to win the war of ideas on its merits. Their attention to detail in translating the hate literature of the Middle East and the hate-filled speeches of its leaders is commendable."
One can only wonder what "Western capitals" she means: surely not Washington, D.C. Everyone acknowledges that the Israel lobby is among the most powerful in the Imperial City. How else have they managed to get their hands on a grand total of $90 billion-plus in American military and economic aid since Israel's inception?
Aside from US exporters, Israel is the single largest beneficiary of our "foreign aid" program: US tax dollars paid for a booby-trap bomb planted near an Arab elementary school, which blasted a group of Palestinian children – children! – to bits. American tax dollars also pay for Israeli "settlements" inhabited by violent, fanatical fundamentalists intent on provoking war no matter what. This image of sad bedraggled little underdogs making their rounds, desperately fighting an uphill battle against overwhelming odds, is nothing but a bad joke – either that, or it is meant to be ironic.
If the Israeli lobby is so powerless, then why this American largesse? We not only arm Israel, but we also prop up their sh*tty little socialist economy with constant infusions of cash. Whatever those Israeli "activists" are carrying around in their folders, whatever is on those videotapes, it must be some pretty powerful stuff. Given the Fox News revelations about the extent of Israeli spying in the US, I don't even want to hazard a guess as to what's in them.
They want to "win the war of ideas on its merits"? Tell that to Jean Ryan, former managing editor of the Oneida (NY) Daily Dispatch, and city editor Dale Seth (a 15-year veteran of the paper), who were both fired when a delegation of Israel Firsters approached the editor and then the owner demanding the paper retract an allegedly "anti-Semitic" post-9/11 editorial written by Seth. Seth's crime was to recall the terrorist origins of the Jewish state – as if no one had ever heard of the Irgun and the Stern Gang, both of which waged war on the Arab civilian population – and without which the state of Israel would never have come into existence. He also made the true but politically incorrect observation that the whole region is rife with religious fanaticism, and Israel is no exception to the rule:
"The United States, through its close association with Israel since its inception, has now been dragged kicking and screaming right into the middle of that centuries-old Middle Eastern conflict. From that position, it would behoove that party in the middle to consider the hearts of the warring parties. Neither can be simply beat into submission."
A local attorney, Randy Schaal, demanded a meeting with Ryan to protest the editorial: Ryan refused to meet with him, pointing out that that if the staff met with everyone who disagreed with an editorial, they would never get a paper out. She told him to write a letter to the editor, which he did. But Schaal also contacted local politicians, as well as the Anti-Defamation League, and it wasn't long before pressure was brought to bear on the paper's management, which then ordered its editors to come up with a "clarification." This was published alongside Schaal's letter, a letter from Rep. Sherwood Boehlert (R-NY), and a missive from the mayor of Oneida. Still, Schaal and his fellow Ameners weren't satisfied. They went to the President of the Journal Register Co., and demanded a retraction and an apology: it was unconditional surrender, or nothing.
After a series of meetings with various self-appointed representatives of the Jewish community, the owners of the Daily Dispatch caved and published a groveling mea culpa: "We understand many felt [the editorial] expressed anti-Semitic sentiments," it said. "We will not further offend our readers by attempting in any way to justify what was written; we can only assure readers that The Dispatch is not anti-Semitic and that we acknowledge the editorial should not have been published."
So much for the Israeli lobby winning the war of ideas on the "merits" of their case. Clearly, another strategy is at work here: not debating their opponents but silencing them.
The rest of Amiel's essay is really a kind of paean to the efficacy of brute force. While those poor bedraggled Israeli "activists" may have been fighting an uphill battle, according to Amiel, in the post-9/11 era the tide seems to be turning, and she can hardly keep herself from gloating that now the Arabs are really going to get it:
"Powerful as the truth may be, it needs a nudge from 16,000lb daisy cutter bombs once in a while. The Arab/Muslim world's intransigence comes into sharper focus when we see the Americans liberate Afghanistan from the Taliban in six weeks and a cornered Arafat unable to go to the bathroom without the risk of being blown into the next world."
Here is the kind of Zionist who clearly enjoys the brutality and indignity of the Israeli occupation. Such people now feel free to publicly exhibit and even flaunt their perversity, which seems like something straight out of Kraft-Ebbing. What else can one call Amiel's odd interest in controlling Arafat's bowel movements other than a sh*tty little perversion?
"Nothing succeeds like powerful bombs," exults this war goddess, "as bin Laden explained in his latest video release. 'When people see a strong horse and a weak horse, by nature they will like the strong horse,' he said." How natural for her to approvingly cite bin Laden on the terroristic imperative: but then that is what tribal warfare is all about, no matter which side one fights on.
Yes, it is force, not reason or negotiation, that is decisive, avers Ms. Amiel, who gleefully predicts that "All those people badmouthing the Jews and Israel will quieten down." Or else be quieted down, involuntarily, like Jean Ryan, Dale Seth, and now perhaps Carl Cameron, of Fox News. "You are looking," Amiel continues, "at the tail end of the train but the engine has already turned a corner and is going in the opposite direction" – and anyone who shows up at one of those ritzy parties she's always attending had better get on board, or else.
No one would think to label denunciations of, say, Robert Mugabe, as the equivalent of anti-black racism: but we are expected to just accept that virtually all criticism of Israel and Ariel Sharon is due to "anti-Semitism." Amiel's blatantly dishonest and self-serving jihad is naturally bound to cause resentment among all thinking people – an emotion that could, easily, turn into genuine anti-Semitism. But that, I believe, is the point: anti-Semitism serves the interests of the most extreme wing of the Zionist movement, and always has.
Founded as it is on the permanence of Jewish victimology, and the idea that anti-Semitism is inevitable, Zionism thrives when Jewish persecution grows. It is a natural tendency of Zionist propaganda to exaggerate hostility to Jews. The founder of Zionism, Theodore Herzl, was confirmed in his opinion that it was "futile" to combat anti-Semitism when the infamous Dreyfuss case was at the center of a storm of controversy. Today, however, with the rapid decline and marginalization of anti-Semitism everywhere but in the Middle East, the pressing need for a Jewish state requires more justification.
Anti-Semitism in the West, as "hate crime" statistics and other research has shown in recent years, is practically nonexistent. This good news was hailed by Jewish organizations in the US when it was first announced, but the extreme Zionists were no doubt made uneasy. For if anti-Jewish prejudice is distinctly beyond the pale, at least in the civilized world, i.e., the West, then what do we need a Jewish state for? This is a question many Jews, when faced with an appeal to emigrate to Israel, must ask themselves, and, at least up until Ms. Amiel's outburst, the Zionists have had no good answer. Now they appear to have solved the problem by simply redefining "anti-Semitism" to mean any criticism of Israel's expansionist policies and its current radical right-wing government.
Anti-Semitism used to mean legal and cultural proscriptions directed against Jews. In medieval Europe, Jews were forced into ghettos, in Nazi Germany they were branded with the yellow star and exterminated, and, in America and Europe, it used to be that some establishments, both high and low, would not do business with Jews. Certain hotels and men's clubs would not admit them, and anti-Semitism was especially rife in the universities where an unofficial Jewish quota kept their numbers and influence limited. This is real anti-Semitism, and, today, it is not only illegal but socially and politically unacceptable: anyone deemed an anti-Semite in this, the original sense, is in effect a pariah, and rightly so.
If your muse fails you and you are hardup for an idea, try this novel theme: 2002 and the Zionists.
If you've seen "Carlito's way", do you remember the lawyer character played by Sean Penn?
How about "Year of the Zionist"? I am sure you'll be flattered by the attention. Admit it, you enjoy all the attention you get in these threads. You are conditioned to expect anti-semitism and are seeking it out.
Eventually the bigotry comes to the surface...
27 December 2001
A member of the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, has likened Israeli army treatment of Palestinian civilians to Nazi treatment of Jews during the second world war.
Ahmed Teibi said he had obtained numerous testimonies from Palestinians testifying that they were humiliated in an "unspeakable manner" by Israeli occupation soldiers.
Teibi told reporters Wednesday that Israeli officers would often let Lebanese mercenaries from the defunct South Lebanon Army (SLA) do their dirty work while the officers watched from a distance.
Teibi cited a recent case which took place at the Surda Checkpoint, north of Ramallah, when Israeli soldiers forced at gunpoint Palestinians to stand in four rows: one for "beautiful" women, a second for the "ugly" ones, a third for men under 40 and the fourth for men over 40.
The Arab Knesset member pointed out that Israeli occupation troops spoke in obscene and abusive language to Christians who were on their way to Bethlehem for the traditional Christmas midnight mass.
Teibi said he didn't expect the Israeli Defense Minister to order an end to the vile practices.
"He knows what is going on, it is him who agreed to enlist those mercenaries in the ranks of the Israeli army."
Human rights groups have lambasted the Israeli government for allowing the occupation army to employ "barbaric humiliation tactics" against Palestinians.
Among the vile tactics sited is the so-called "stripping" whereby Israeli soldiers often force Palestinians men, including old men, to take off their clothes at gunpoint and stand naked for hours before they are asked to run to their homes and villages many kilometers away.
The Israeli army said the act was necessary for security.
Meanwhile the Israeli bar association today described the "assassinations" of Palestinian political activists and leaders in the West Bank and Gaza Strip as "war crimes" and "extra-judicial executions."
Following deliberations lasting for several days, the association said in a statement published Thursday that assassinations and other acts of premeditated murders were "war crimes unlawful under international law."
The statement warned Israeli soldiers and officers who are involved in these assassinations that they would be held responsible for their crimes and treated as "war criminals."
Advocate Yosef Arnon, head of the Law sub-committee in the association, urged "the men and women of law" in the Zionist state to take a leading role in combating the phenomenon of assassinations.
He added that these crimes would boomerang in the future and that Israelis could find themselves under arrest when they travel to European countries.
He said the fact that the soldiers were carrying out instructions was not an excuse.
"There is no excuse to carry out orders to murder."
With a very tiny exception of fanatic ultra orthodox Jews who believe the Land of Israel is so holy that no Jewish person is worthy of ruling, all Jews, all Jews, should I repeat, all Jews, who in any way take their Judaism seriously, are in one form or another, Zionists.
Those ultra fanatics are also "Zionists" in their way.
No matter what anyone tells you, you can not separate Judaism from the Land of Israel.
"Think of your reputation. They won't think you're tough if you won't back me up."
Works especially well, when Israel's and America's interests are merged in the mind of the "consumer" of that bullshit.
If someone sat you down and proved to you beyond any doubt that you don't have a vaguest idea of reality, are you open to changing your views?
Well, OK, let's agree to disagree. How useful is "information" that has to be pre-qualified with the modifier "suspected"? I've read all of Justin's recent columns and followed the links to Cameron. That stuff about Jewish art students invading federal buildings was straight out of Tinfoil Hat City. I have absolutely no reason to doubt the *other*, possible, "suspicion" -- to wit, some nameless spook used his federal cover for a bit of high-profile disinformation. And he "flatly refused to reveal" anything really useful, that would substantiate even one of the allegations.
Today's contribution to the advancement of humanity's collective wisdom,
"if anti-Semitism didn't exist...
(and it doesn't, anymore -- except in 'the Middle East'),
the Zionists would have had to have invented it
(which they continue to do)"
...somehow leaves me underwhelmed. If Justin won't take the word of Jesse Jackson or Al ("who's his hair-stylist?") Sharpton when it comes to 'blaming the victim', he ought to go read some of Tim Wise's stuff. I mean, I'm not trying to come out in favor of West Bank settlements or endorse the nastiness of Palestinian existence, behind a screen of IDF gun barrels, but the willingness and speed with which Justin skips and leaps to some of his conclusions really leaves me uh, concerned, about his possible agenda and pre-conceptions.
...I guess it comes down to how you read between the lines of a news story, and what sort of filter you use to sift through the available facts, as to what constitutes "information". I don't think there's any "there", there. It looks like smoke and mirrors to me, but then I have my pre-conceptions, too.
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